Hi,

In tearing apart a 40W USB charger, I discovered these unusual (to me) receptacles used to make electrical connection between the AC mains blade pins that plug into the wall and the PCB. The first attached image is top-down, showing one of the blades poking out of the PCB receptacle. The second is looking directly into the PCB receptacle. I tried Google image search and various Digikey and Mouser searches, but haven't yet been able to find anything like it. So, 2 questions for the forum:

1. Do you know what this receptacle connector is called?
2. Why does it have 2 slots for the blade to slide into? I have a hard time believing the assembly tolerance is so bad that they need 4-8 millimeters of variation.

Thanks,

Dale

 

number of slot does not sunrise me. there are many products on the market that may not be used to their full potential in particular application. maybe this was just used/abused for mains plug in this case...

i am more surprised that this is a 2pc assembly instead of being single piece soldered to the board.... what happens when one tries to unplug the charger from the outlet and blade(s) stay in the outlet? pull them out using fingers?

 

I didn't show it in the original images, but the blades are held in the plastic case by slots on the blade. In the attached image, I have turned the blade around so you can see the slots where the case is molded around the blade to hold it in place. Without that, yes it would definitely not hold together!

And, I am also surprised it is mounted as 2 separate pieces.

 

Different spacing of the pins for differently spaced sockets in other countries, maybe?

 

Different spacing of the pins for differently spaced sockets in other countries, maybe?

Hi, Sarah! I wondered the same thing. I have seen different shapes and positioning, but I don't recall seeing blade pins with only a slightly different spacing. But, there are a lot of countries out there!