A typical household utilizes numerous appliances for functioning in everyday life, and many of these appliances require electricity to operate. Most electrical appliances come equipped with a power cord that is plugged into an outlet in order to receive the necessary power. Frequently, when an electrical appliance is not in use, the power cord is wrapped up (often in a rather haphazard fashion), and the appliance is put away into a storage area. However, this ordinary process has several disadvantages.
First, it is inconvenient to repeatedly remove an item from storage for use, to plug it in to an electrical outlet, and then to unplug and return it again. This is not to mention the difficulty of wrapping up and storing power cords, which are built rather inflexibly and often end up in only a tangled mess. Leaving all appliances out of storage and always available for use might be an option, but besides the lack of adequate space, there are often not enough outlets to accommodate powering multiple items simultaneously. Even when there are enough outlets, many power cords coming from multiple appliances can be a safety hazard and an eye-sore.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a quick and easy way to connect and disconnect an appliance to and from power without the use of a power cord. Furthermore, convenient storage and adequate space problems could be solved by a system that allowed a single mechanism to simultaneously supply electrical power and also support an electrical appliance, such as by suspending the appliance from a wall.
Some designs, such as powered rails, allow for simultaneous transfer of electrical power and structural support to appliances. However, these designs often leave the electrical conductors exposed, so that safety concerns may offset the advantages of speed and simplicity achieved through the lack of a power cord. Attempts to improve the safety of powered rails through the addition of insulative materials have complicated the connecting process. Using insulation often requires precise alignment of the electrical conductors of the powered rails with electrical conductors of the appliances, requiring more time and effort. Additionally, forming a connection between the two sets of conductors often requires greater force in order to move the electrical conductors of the appliance through the insulation to the electrical conductors of the powered rails. A similarly greater force is then required to disconnect the appliance from the powered rails. In such a case, a tradeoff is made sacrificing ease and simplicity for safety. Other connectors that provide both electrical power and structural support for appliances make similar tradeoffs.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing, what is needed is a mechanism that provides a quick and easy means for providing both electrical power and structural support to an appliance, but a means that is safe and that requires minimal physical force.