Flexible and cuttable plastic box extender with only two opposite flanges
AssigneeArlington Industries, Inc.
InventorThomas J. Gretz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A one-piece plastic part for use as an electrical box extender having a rectangular outer opening and an inner opening. The part has two narrow sides and two wide sides joined at their corners to define the outer and inner opening. Two flanges are coplanar with and extend from the two narrow sides. The extender can be inserted into an existing electrical box with the four sides capable of flexing to accommodate the box until the flanges are flush with a surface of newly installed sheet rock. The box extender can be ganged together when necessary. No flanges are used on the two wide sides of the part. One embodiment shows the use of two opposite inchoate flangeless sides.
Claims1
A one-piece plastic extender for securing to an electrical box comprising:
- a sleeve having an outer opening at an outer end and an inner opening at an inner end;
- said sleeve having four sides including a first pair of sides opposite one another and a second pair of sides opposite one another;
- four corners connecting said four sides;
- each of said sides having an outer surface, an outer edges and an inner edge;
- a flange extending sideways from each of said outer edges of said first pair of opposing sides;
- inchoately flangeless members extending sideways from said second pair of opposing sides, said inchoately flangeless members including a rear surface;
- a weakening line in said rear surface of each of said inchoately flangeless members;
- said weakening lines adjacent said outer surface of said sides, said weakening lines including a channel having a flat sidewall adjacent said outer surface of said second pair of opposing sides and an adjacent sidewall opposite said flat sidewall;
- said channel including said flat sidewall and said adjacent sidewall ensuring that said flangeless members when removed are flush with said outer surface of said sides;
- said flanges and said inchoately flangeless members being sufficiently thin to be recessed under a cover plate;
- said sides forming a generally tubular body sized to receive an electrical device;
- said sides being made of a flexible plastic;
- and
- said sides from about a quarter of an inch below said flanges and said member to said inner edges having a thickness of no greater than 0.06 inch, thereby allowing said tubular body to be received in a variety of electrical boxes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.