Mu Folding Type-C 20W PD Fast Charger

Product Information

I was at first encouraged by Apple’s 20w charger with some very elegantly folding pins. I thought “Surely Apple has used this design for all of their chargers!”. But no. That is the highest wattage charger they make in a folding design. Anything higher than that is a massive macbook charger, with or without bulky pins. What you do end up with is a device that looks good and will fit in your bag without digging into your other gadgets or getting tangled. Plus, it's something that looks cool and you'll be keen to show it off to any mates who are also impressed with innovative design. As soon as you see the Mu plug you can’t help but be wowed by the pure genius of its design. It only measures in at a slim 1cm and the design allows the two bottom live and neutral power pins to rotate by 90 degrees, thus halving the size of the plug’s body. News from Dezeen Events Guide, a listings guide covering the leading design-related events taking place around the world. Plus occasional updates. Dezeen Awards China As all other gadgets have become thinner and lighter over the years, designer Min-Kyu Choi has now made sure the Mu plug also follows suit. The Mu folding plug’s compact and simplistic design, makes it portable for those that travel a lot or simply want something on hand during the day.

I did finally stumble across Samsung’s 45w super fast charging™ charger, designed for their phones. It has the most basic, shitty-looking folding ground pin it has ever been my displeasure to come across. I remember seeing these kinds of folding pins on HTC chargers from half a decade ago, and they show up on this thing? I would have thought that Samsung would’ve put some more thought into this kind of thing, but I suppose I should give them credit where credit is due as the only manufacturer (that I could find) actually making anything in this category. Well, the only one that didn’t pull a USB-C style Bernie Madoff.

USB charger. Min-Kyu-Choi's first prototype of a folding BS 1363 mains plug, using the same principle as So yeah. More folding chargers please. And better ones. Thx. (Though I assume that nobody actually got this far in my rant.)

PVTis specific technology developed to allow a three-pin electrical plug to a pivot, enabling the live and neutral pins to rotate. By using PVTtechnology, the MU reduces the standard UK plug by over 70% in size, whilst still being operational in the open and folded positions. PVT, a technology that is central to the MU Duo Folding USB Mains Adapterand the MUrange of products, has taken years to develop and is protected by manyglobal patents.The pair met when the designer was completing a course iat the Royal College of Art, and Judkins, who had a history in startups, was looking for his next project. By that stage, the idea had taken shape in Choi's mind. "A beautiful sketch is one thing but it is not a business. It was just two dudes with an idea," says Judkins. Weekly updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. Plus occasional news. Dezeen Awards The Mu USB Adapters are startlingly compact and hotly tipped as the next big thing to hit the world of functional design, folding flat for storage, reducing the overall plug size by over 70%. The Mu, named by a crowd sourced campaign, is a Folder Plug. Following the original launch of the product, Made in Mind has developed further members of the Mu family based on the Min-Kyo Choi’s original folded plug concept. I have been looking at the Mu Duo which combines the Made in Mind’s innovative and patented PVT technology that allows a standard UK 3-pin plug to be reduced by over 70% in size, with a pair of USB 2.0 ports for attaching devices for charging purposes using the folded plug concept.

The commercial lead has an executive MBA from Imperial College, whilst the main designer of the plug holds an MA in Product Design from the RCA.Made in Mind was formed in 2009 to commercialise the award winning Folding Plug design now available commercially as the MuTM. Well, I recently became jealous of all of the Americans with their fancy folding chargers and set out on my own quest to find a 45w folding UK/Ireland charger. And what did I find? Nothing. Well, nearly nothing. It is frankly pathetic how few and far between folding chargers are for our plug. I will admit that the plug is not the easiest thing to make fold, but it has been done several times before with varying degrees of elegance. At the same time as grappling with the engineering questions of whether it could actually be made, the pair also considered whether they should make a plug that could fit on the end of any cable or make a charger, which could then be sold at a premium price and the design licensed out. They went down the charger route. "We have a business where we make and sell stuff and make a margin and we have a licensing business where we supply the solution for someone else to put with their product," says Judkins. Matthew Judkins, Choi's business partner, says: "The problem was then bloody obvious and you kind of go through a process saying how does one solve it. When you look at the plug, the problem is that you have got three pins and they are in a triangular formation and it is fairly obvious what to do then – you just make them flat and in a line and that gets rid of the bulk issue.". News about our Dezeen Awards China programme, including entry deadlines and announcements. Plus occasional updates.

Tl;dr: There aren’t enough folding UK/Ireland chargers, and the ones we have are crap. Manufacturers, please make more and better ones.

Thank you!

It is unlikely however that the foldable plug will be seen at the end of cable for a table lamp or on a toaster in the near future. There is no problem there to solve, it seems. "If you are never going to use it, like in the wall, then there is no reason to have a folding plug, only when you are lugging it around," he said. What makes it different The Folding Plug was a gold medal winner in the International Design excellence Awards in 2009, and was featured in numerous publications including Wallpaper and Wired. Min-Kyu Choi, designer of the plug, recently won Brit Design of the Year award, which resulted in substantial media coverage.