ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Reverse Polarity in Europe

Hutch said:

Hutch, I ran across this little beauty on Clipsal's on-line catalog.

A couple of years I also bought two of them from Clipsal (expensive little suckers - cost me like US$5) because I was intrigued and wanted to see if they really were American configuration non-polarized plugs. Behold it was....

[img]http://alfred.clipsal.com/scripts/apeweb.dll?GetImage&CatNo=492Y&Large=1[/img]
[img]http://alfred.clipsal.com/scripts/apeweb.dll?GetImage&CatNo=492&Large=1[/img]

What would an Australian electrical system use this for?

There is also a mating socket. Looks just like an American socket (two flat parallel pins).

It's rated for 250 volts, 10 amps. The plug is Catalogue #492. Unpolarized. And it had the Australian certification marks on the bag it came in...

Something else to add to my electric plug collection. Not kidding. I collect the little suckers.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 05-23-2003).]

Lets not forget the \ / system is also used in China (Along with the UK system to a lesser extent (in Hong Kong)... possibily the worlds largest single electricity market (at least potentially). Fully polarised.

We have over here in NZ and Oz, the isolated type batten-holder there should be a picture of it below.
This type of batten-holder uses a system of spring operated base in the thing, so that you cannot contact live terminals at all.
The only time that the outside contacts are live, is when the lamp is fitted.



[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 05-24-2003).]

Those "safety" lampholders where the pins aren't energized until the bulb is locked in place are available in the U.K. as well, although not that common.

The Australian plugs are non-reversible, but I remember reading in Electronics Australia some years ago that originally there was no standard as to which pin was "active" (their terminology) and which neutral. The query had arisen when someone found an old 2-way adapter which had hot & neutral connected the opposite way round on each of its two receptacles. I have no idea when the positions were specified in a standard.

This does seem to match up with the fact that in some other places where the Aussie/Kiwi plug is used they have the pins the opposite way round to the current Australian standard (Argentina, if I recall correctly).

Sven,

I would hazard to guess that the plugs you pictured were not for the Australian market but maybe the Chinese market. As DJK points out the Chinese also use the Oz/NZ with inclined blades but only on grounded circuits. For inexplicable reasons, ungrounded two pin circuits use standard NEMA 1-15 making the two systems incompatible and completely missing the chance to polarize all of their systems. If anyone knows the history behind this I would be interested to know – didn’t we have a correspondent from Hong Kong some time ago?

All the Oz/NZ plugs in my travelling collection look like this:-



The top right one looks like the same manufacturer as yours Sven, and are a devil to wire and reassemble.



[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 05-25-2003).]

As far as I know the Oz/Nz style plugs are the new standard for all installations in china replacing the old ungrounded systems hence the incompatability. Similar to the transition from BS546 to 13 amp plugs in the UK

DJK,

The words "China" and "electrical standards" put together make me laugh out loud.

I wonder if the American style two-pin plug is now technically obsolete in China whether all Class II appliances will be fitted with three-pin Australian plugs with a dummy earth pin.

Of course this will lead to even more kludges and use of shoddy adapters as people buy new Class II devices like radios, TV sets, record players, etc.

Here is a picture of a combination socket that accepts either American or European style two-pin plugs and Australian-style earthed plugs:



I also have a light-duty two-pin plug from China whose prongs can be rotated in order to fit American or Australian sockets. It's designed to be used with things like lamps.

The pins are fitted on rotating blade-holders on the plug face that allow them to be pivoted to adapt the thing to the proper configuration. Of course they can rotate either way so the plug is not technically polarized. You can pivot it either
[| |] [/ \] or [\ /]


[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 05-29-2003).]

Sven,
the question is if it is the 10A or 15/16A version?

Sven, the great thing about keeping polarity on the Oz/NZ system is that it doesn't need a dummy earth on class II appliances. The phase and neutral can only mate one way round.

On you picture above, I see at least the grounded socket is the right way up!

That's because as far as Trumpy and his friends are concerned, we're all standing on our heads up here in the northern hemisphere!

I've seen travel adapters which have the rotating pins as well, although if I recall correctly the pins would only rotate from vertical in one direction, so they would be polarized on an Aussie/Kiwi outlet.