Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Electric switch details – Contact
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-26
2001-07-10
Friedhofer, Michael (Department: 2832)
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Electric switch details
Contact
C200S274000, C335S016000, C218S022000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06259048
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,198 entitled “Contact Arrangement for a Current Limiting Circuit Breaker” describes the early use of a first and second pair of circuit breaker contacts arranged in series to substantially reduce the amount of current let through upon the occurrence of an overcurrent condition.
When the contact pairs are arranged upon one movable contact arm such as described within U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,485 entitled “Multiple Circuit Breaker with Double Break Rotary Contact”, some means must be provided to insure that the opposing contact pairs exhibit the same contact pressure to reduce contact wear and erosion.
One arrangement for providing uniform contact wear is described within U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,247 entitled “Contact Assembly for Low-voltage Circuit Breakers with a Two-Arm Contact Lever”. This arrangement includes an elongate slot formed perpendicular to the contact travel to provide uniform contact closure force on both pairs of contacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,804 entitled “Contact Arrangement for Electrical Switching Devices” describes providing a pair of cylindrical plates on either side of the contact arms and forming elongated slots within each of the cylindrical plates.
Other examples of circuit breakers employing rotary contacts are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5, 281,776 entitled “Multipole Circuit Breaker with Single Pole Units; U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,971 entitled “Molded Case Circuit Breaker with Contact Bridge Slowed Down at the End of Repulsion Travel”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,066 entitled “Operating Mechanism for a Four-Pole Circuit Breaker”.
State of the art circuit breakers employing a rotary contact arrangement employ a rotor assembly and pair of powerful expansion springs to maintain contact between the rotor assembly and the rotary contact arm as well as to maintain good electrical connection between the contacts, per se. The added compression forces provided by the powerful expansion springs must be overcome when the contacts become separated by the contact “blow open” forces of magnetic repulsion that occur upon extreme overcurrent conditions within the protected circuit before the circuit breaker operating mechanism has time to respond.
Accordingly, it is believed advantageous to have a rotary contact arrangement with expansion springs arranged between the rotary assembly and the rotary contact arm that maintain good electrical connection between the contacts during quiescent operating current conditions while enhancing contact separation upon occurrence of extreme overcurrent conditions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A circuit breaker rotary contact assembly employs a common pivot between the rotor assembly and a two piece rotary contact arm assembly. A pair of off-center expansion springs directly engages the rotor at one end and engages the rotary contact arm assembly via a linkage arrangement at an opposite end thereof. The rotary contact arm assembly is slotted at a central portion for tolerance compensation between the rotary contact assembly components as well as to reduce contact wear and contact erosion.
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Castonguay Roger N.
Christensen Dave S.
Greenberg Randall L.
Robarge Dean A.
Cantor & Colburn LLP
Friedhofer Michael
General Electric Company
Horton Carl B.
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