On 1 Nov 2004 Marcus Foreman wrote:

"G&M" wrote:

"Autolycus" wrote:
Why do all electrical appliances sold with 13A plugtops have
plastic protectors on the pins?

Because all of the leads with it come from an enormous factory 4
hours north of Shanghai where somebody once complained of the brass
they were using was tarnishing before it got to the customer. This
was their solution.

I understood this was to overcome a design fault - whilst inserting
the plug it is possible to hold it in such a way that your fingers
will be touching the pins when the pins make contact with the metal
sockets inside.

Your talking at cross porpoises. Plugs often have the top part of the
live and neutral pins insulated for exactly the reason you state, but
that is entirely separate from the use of plastic protectors which
cover all the pins and have to be removed befor the plug can be used.
It seems rather over the top just to prevent tarnishing - surely a much
thinner peelable plastic coating would be a lot cheaper?

The continental sockets have the socket holes sunk into the body of
the socket assembly, so there is no way it is possible to have your
fingers anywhere near the pins as they get inserted into the holes.

Some are line that, but by no means all.

--
Richard Porter
Mail to username ricp at domain minijem.plus.com
"You can't have Windows without pains."