EOS Quickfire 3D Print Challenge Entry - "Travel Tector"

grabcad

Most UK molded plugs that do not require an earth connection tend to have the earth pin molded in plastic as part of the main plug. When travelling, most of us will simply toss all our chargers etc in with our luggage and hope for the best, but that plastic earth pin is vulnerable to snapping off if not packed properly. And without it, you can't plug it in the wall socket because the earth pin is used to open up the live and neutral sockets in the wall. For laptop power adapters, like the Dell power supply shown, and similar devices where the plug pins are molded into the adapter itself, when that earth pin breaks off it can't be replaced easily. So to protect the earth pin while travelling, I thought something like the model submitted would be useful. The design is hollow to minimise material use while still providing strength and stiffness. There are two flexible spring levers in the neutral and live receptacles to hold the protector on the plug, which you can just make out in the transparent render as well as the side cutout render. Overall dimensions are approximately 40x40x25mm. Total material volume is approximately 16.5 cm3 I think it would be possible to reduce the material volume a lot more to minimise 3D printing cost, but this is just a conceptual design at this stage. Thanks for the fun challenge opportunity!