KNUST Students Design A Low-Cost ‘Timed’ Socket Adapter
Students from the Department of Physics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have designed a low-cost ‘TIME’ socket adapter to aid the pressing iron.
This timed adapter has the ability to turn off the pressing iron after a predetermined time set by the user elapses.
According to the inventors, Peter Azure and Kenneth Akanbodiipo, “this project was undertaken with the objective to save energy and to reduce the risk associated with leaving an electric pressing iron powered for extended periods from being a potential cause of domestic fire due to human negligence.”
The design uses a microcontroller, an AC-to-DC converter, and a rotary potentiometer that allows a user to set the desired ironing duration.
The adapter is programmed from 5 minutes to 1 hour.
The socket adapter provides power to the electric iron connected to it according to the selected duration.
After the selected time interval has elapsed, the socket automatically cuts power completely to the iron.
This reduces the risk of fire and injury associated with accidentally leaving the electric pressing iron unattended.
This invention comes to solve one of the problems with domestic electric pressing irons.
