Eaton Corporation

David C Funyak

Mark O Zindler

David Edward Little

Roger William Helms

Craig Joseph Puhalla

Joseph Bell Humbert

Teresa I Hood

Jonathan Moore Peifer

A circuit interrupter including a housing, separable main contacts disposed in the housing, and an operating mechanism disposed in the housing and interconnected with the contacts. A trip mechanism is disposed in the housing and has an automatic trip assembly that generates a tripping operation. The automatic trip assembly includes a magnetic yoke, an armature, and a plurality of abutment members. The magnetic yoke has pivot supports providing for a rotatable disposition of a head portion of the armature. The assembly also includes a biasing member having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion abutted against a selected one of the plurality of abutment members, the second portion abutted against the armature and applying a force to the armature in a direction to normally rotationally displace a bottom portion of the armature away from the magnetic yoke, wherein selecting a different one of the plurality of abutment members to be the selected one causes the force to vary.

Circuit interrupter with a magnetically-induced automatic trip assembly having adjustable armature biasing

A circuit interrupter including a housing, separable main contacts disposed in the housing, and an operating mechanism disposed in the housing and interconnected with the contacts. The housing has a cover securable to a base, with the cover including a downwardly-facing abutment portion. An electrical terminal is releasably disposed within the base and has a tab that abuttingly engages the abutment portion of the cover when the cover is secured to the base. The base also includes channels formed in the sides of the base, and the electrical terminal includes sides that insert into the channels and that include rib portions that frictionally engage the channels upon insertion. The base also includes tapered sides, with the electrical terminal sides being tapered in order to follow or mirror the tapered sides of the base.

Circuit interrupter providing improved securement of an electrical terminal within the housing

A gas deflector for a line-in connector of a circuit breaker. The gas deflector is coupled to a collar with a top and a cavity, a threaded opening through the top, a screw threaded in the threaded opening. The collar is attached to the line-in for the circuit breaker. The gas deflector is an L-shaped shield with an integral screw sleeve and a slot sized to allow a terminal strap to pass therethrough. The terminal strap is connected to the collar. The shield device covers the collar top and the cavity and is held in place by the screw passing through the sleeve and by the terminal strap passing through the slot. The shield substantially reduces the amount of ionized gas infiltrating into the collar.

Ionized gas deflector for a molded case circuit breaker

A circuit interrupter including separable main contacts, an operating mechanism interconnected with the contacts, and a housing in which the contacts and the operating mechanism are disposed. The housing includes a base and a cover. Also provided is an attaching device that secures the cover to the base. The attaching device includes a main member having a head connected to a body, with the body separated into a non-gripping portion adjacent the head and a gripping portion away from the head. The gripping portion attaches to the base, and the non-gripping portion extends through the cover with the head providing a stop for limiting the separation between the base and the cover. The attaching device further includes a compressible member that is positioned between the head and the cover.

Circuit interrupter with base/cover attachment enabling venting

A terminal connection for a flat stab of an electrical terminal includes a spring clip which retains a nut in alignment with an aperture in the flat stab. The spring clip is fabricated from a strip of resilient electrically conductive material and has a top wall with a central aperture, side walls extending downward from the top wall and having slots therein, and outwardly projecting flanges on the bottom edge of each of the side walls. A square nut is retained in the spring clip by lateral projections on the nut engaged in the slots in the side walls with the tapped hole in the nut aligned with the aperture in the top wall of the clip. The fastener assembly clips onto the end of the flat stab which is in a recess in the electrical terminal, with the stab between the nut and the top wall of the spring clip. The outer edges of the flanges on the spring clip frictionally engage against the opposite sides of the recess in the terminal to retain the spring clip and nut in the terminal until a screw is passed through the apertures in the top wall and the flat stab engages the nut to secure a conductor to the stab. The slots in the side walls of the clip prevent rotation of the nut and provide positive stops which resist loss of the nut through application of excessive axial force to the screw.

Growing community of inventors

Irwin, PA, United States of America

David C Funyak