Eaton Corporation

Alan Kent Edmunds

James Jeffery Benke

Steven Zhenghong Chen

Ronald W Crookston

Daniel Evan Palmieri

Paul Bottegal

Paul T Bottegal

Truc Trantrung Nguyen

Daniel E Palmieri

A stored energy assembly is provided for an electrical switching apparatus, such as a circuit breaker. The stored energy assembly includes a mount removably coupled to the circuit breaker housing. A stored energy mechanism, such as a spring, is coupled to the mount and is movable among charged and discharged positions. An actuating element is cooperable with the gears of a gear assembly in order to move among first and second positions corresponding to the spring being disposed in the charged and discharged positions, respectively. A manual charging mechanism and an automatic charging mechanism are coupled to the gear assembly, and move the gears, in order to move the actuating element and charge the spring. The spring, the actuating element, the gear assembly, and the charging mechanisms are coupled to the mount, thereby forming a sub-assembly. The sub-assembly is removeably coupled to the circuit breaker housing.

Electrical switching apparatus and stored energy assembly therefor

A visible erosion indicator is provided to determine the condition of contacts inside a vacuum interrupter. The visual indicator is located on a portion of an extension of the moveable contact drive stem which is a threaded stud. The indicator is formed from a flexible member that is screwed onto the stud until a given extent of the flexible member protrudes beyond the bottom pan of the circuit breaker, that the moveable contact stem traverses during opening and closure of the internal contacts within the vacuum interrupter. The extension of the wear indicator is measured with the circuit breaker in the closed position to provide an accurate measure of contact wear. The flexible property of the wear indicator enables it to clear obstructions as the breaker drawer is moved within the breaker enclosure.

Circuit breaker contact wear indicator

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, PA, United States of America

Alan Kent Edmunds