Worldwide mains plug compatibility

[blueskull]

I encountered some very similar, but different mains plugs from this document:

http://www.deltapsu.com/products/download/Datasheet/MDS-030AAC05

In that document, A-B (CN-US) plugs look almost identical, C-G-K (EU-KR-BR) plugs look similar, and E-J (AU-AR) plugs also look similar (despite reversed polarity, but for a 2-pin non-polarized power adapter, that won't matter).

If my understanding is correct, the only difference between Chinese plugs and non-polarized US plugs it that US plugs have a hole on each blade. The only differences between Korean, EU and Brazilian plug is the BR/KR ones are straight and the EU ones are slanted. The BR ones have thicker contact than the KR ones. The Argentina ones are visually identical to AU ones, with reversed polarity.

But I believe they all can plug into each other's sockets of the same group, and I've been mixing CN/US plugs for years without problems.

So my question is, will it be legal to distribute similar but not exact mains plugs with my product?

[Edison]

Attention to the two existing pin spacing  19 and 24 mm 

[Edison]

EU - WORLD and WORLD - EU

[Nusa]

I'd guess the answers are potentially different based on which governments you're dealing with, what the country of manufacture is, and where the point of sale is. And whether you are worried about your liability, the customers liability, or both?

[Ampera]

The regulations are likely on the books free for you to read. Each nation has it's own requirement for electronic devices to be sold.

[Bratster]

The simplest thing for you to do would probably just put an IEC socket on your piece of equipment, and have it rated to accept 100- 240 volts 50-60hz.

Then you can decide either Supply a power cord for whatever country you're sending it to or leave that up to the user to grab one.

Sent from my Moto x4 using Tapatalk

[Ampera]

The simplest thing for you to do would probably just put an IEC socket on your piece of equipment, and have it rated to accept 100- 240 volts 50-60hz.

Then you can decide either Supply a power cord for whatever country you're sending it to or leave that up to the user to grab one.

Sent from my Moto x4 using Tapatalk

Honestly, I believe this is how all appliances should come wired. Cheap and replaceable chords, global standard, and gives incentive to wire up homes with IEC style sockets.

[Ampera]

I mean most UK appliances used to come without wall plugs, you had to wire your own.

It's still not hard. You can likely find a compliant cable with good ratings quite fine. For a charger like this, it's a bit different, but if you wanted to get fancy, you could just have a straight national mains to IEC adaptor. That way someone can even use a power cable if they wanted to.

[vk6zgo]

I encountered some very similar, but different mains plugs from this document:

http://www.deltapsu.com/products/download/Datasheet/MDS-030AAC05

In that document, A-B (CN-US) plugs look almost identical, C-G-K (EU-KR-BR) plugs look similar, and E-J (AU-AR) plugs also look similar (despite reversed polarity, but for a 2-pin non-polarized power adapter, that won't matter).

If my understanding is correct, the only difference between Chinese plugs and non-polarized US plugs it that US plugs have a hole on each blade. The only differences between Korean, EU and Brazilian plug is the BR/KR ones are straight and the EU ones are slanted. The BR ones have thicker contact than the KR ones. The Argentina ones are visually identical to AU ones, with reversed polarity.

But I believe they all can plug into each other's sockets of the same group, and I've been mixing CN/US plugs for years without problems.

So my question is, will it be legal to distribute similar but not exact mains plugs with my product?

My understanding was that Chinese plugs were very similar to Australian ones, so maybe, anti-intuitively,
"CN" in that list means Canada, not China.
Of course, maybe there are several types in use in China, like some other countries.

Did you take notice of which plugs were most common when you were still in "the Old Country"?

[vk6zgo]

I just checked on the IEC website, & found out what you just told me----I didn't get back to edit my post in time, so I'll just have to look like a dummy in perpetuity!

[Towger]

Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia etc also use BS1363.
South Africa still uses the old 15 Amp BS546 plugs.

http://www.iec.ch/worldplugs/typeG.htm