British plugs and sockets are made to be safe as their primary goal. This British plug has received numerous awards for its design characteristics and some are extremely delicate, yet all of them perform essential functions. These are the five most important features.
- The longer earth pin. The British plug can be described as a 3-pin design featuring an earth neutral, live and earth. Both neutral and earth should be zero volts when compared with the live pin. It is important to note that the Earth pin is more long than the other twopins, it serves two reasons. One is that the first electrical signal an electronic device is connected to it is an Earth connection. All components that are not fully discharged or static within the system could be grounded prior to an active high voltage can be accessed. Another benefit of having the longer earth pin is that the traditional outlet layout in the UK will feature plastic shutters covering the neutral and live connections. When the earth connector is connected it reveals the two other connectors. If pulled out the shutters will automatically close to protect the plug from your (or your child) getting into the neutral or live connections using an object, such as a knife scissors.
- Partially coated with plastic live and neutral pins are coated with plastic. From the bottom to half-way down, the live and neutral pins on the plug are covered in plastic. When plugging in devices and an outlet connection is made and the plug is plugged in, there’s no visible metal portion of one of the pins that are dangerous. If you’re clumsy and you wrap your fingers around the plug before plugging it in or taking it out, you’ll not get an unpleasant shock. Also, when the device is connected or even part-time dropping a knife, or any other material that conducts electricity between the plug and socket is secure, since it will only come into touch with the socket.
- The fuse is built into the plug. Every British plugs feature an insulated fuse that can be removed from the plug. It is located in between the live connector and the cable . It will ensure that, if everything else fails due to an event of a short circuit it will shut off from power fast and securely.
- Cable grip and a longer Earth wire. In the British plug there are three cables. They’re always color coded, with Earth being yellow and green and neutral being blue and brown representing live. They connect to the pins in the plug and can be secured with some slack by using an instrument for gripping cables. Additionally is that the Earth wire is always going to have less slack than others. Therefore, if you push the cable with force enough to cause the pins to be separated, the live should be the first wire to go, then neutral then Earth.
- Earth on top, cables coming out of the bottom. The Earth cable always sits at the top of a plug, meaning that in the event of dropping something into a wall, and then slips between the socket and plug as well as the other feature described in (2) (2), the object that is slipping through should only be able to touch the top pin or at a minimum, the pin that is on the top first. The cables that run from the bottom are designed to prevent disconnecting the plug from pulling on the wire, even in the event of an accident, since this can cause damage to the cable.
In these circumstances, and many more to this, it is for all these and many more reasons that the UK plug, to my mind the most secure plug.
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