I-t-e Imperial Corporation

Electric Power Research Institute Incorporated

Gould Inc.

Brown Boveri Electric Inc.

Donald E Weston

Gerald A Votta

Lorne D McConnell

An arc spinner interrupter is provided with a chamber above the coil which contains a piston of ferromagnetic material. The chamber communicates, through a channel through the center of the coil, with an arc extinguishing region. The arc extinguishing region contains the movable contact and cooperating arc runner disk of the arc interrupter. During arc interruption, the magnetic field produced by the coil causes the arc between the movable contact and arc runner to circulate in the usual manner in a relatively static gas-filled arc extinguishing volume. The magnetic field of the coil also produces an attractive force on the ferromagnetic puffer piston and causes compression of the gas-filled volume above the coil and causes the movement of cool gas through the channel into the arcing region. The movement of cool gas into the arcing region increases the density of the gas in the arcing region and cools the gas in the arcing region, thereby decreasing the possibility of a restrike and increasing the interrupting capacity of the device.

Arc spinner with magnetically driven puffer

A single arcing ring of a chromium copper alloy is used for an arc spinner type of circuit interrupter.

Arc spinner interrupter with chromium copper arcing contact

A contact construction is disclosed for a circuit interrupter of the type in which an arc drawn between cooperating arcing contacts is caused to circulate around an axis and through a dielectric gas in order to extinguish the arc. The movable contact is so constructed that the current path is directed radially relative to the contact axis so that a magnetic force is applied radially inward to the arc which roots on the movable contact. This magnetic force tends to move the arc root on the movable contact to the innermost radial position on the movable contact. The arc is also forced in a direction away from exteriorly positioned main contact components.

Moving contact for radial blow-in effect for arc spinner interrupter

A hybrid circuit breaker consists of a series-connected vacuum interrupter and sulfur hexafluoride interrupter wherein the contacts of each are simultaneously operated. The sulfur hexafluoride interrupter is of the type in which an arc is rapidly rotated through a relatively static volume of sulfur hexafluoride. In one embodiment of the invention, the vacuum interrupter is replaced by a second sulfur hexafluoride interrupter in which the arc gap between the electrodes receiving the final arc to be interrupted is relatively smaller than the corresponding arc gap in the other sulfur hexafluoride interrupter.

Hybrid power circuit breaker

A single pressure sulfur hexafluoride circuit interrupter is contained in a bottle or elongated, cylindrical housing filled with gas under moderate pressure. The bottle contains arcing and main contacts arranged generally along the axis of the bottle and arranged to separate from one another in the vicinity of a pair of spaced conductive rings fixed relative to one another, and which serve as arc runners. Each of the rings is connected in series with a respective coil which is wound on the axis of its respective ring and which encircles the cooperating contact and conductors therefor. The coils and the conductive rings create a magnetic field which spins an arc drawn between the spaced short-circuited rings through the sulfur hexafluoride gas, thereby to extinguish the arc. Each short-circuited ring and its respective coil are fixed relative to one another and are contained within a common insulation body in order to withstand the high electrodynamic forces created between the rings and coils during high current interruption.A small, low capacity puffer cylinder is connected to one of the moving contacts in order to produce at least a limited amount of gas motion through the arc space between the open contacts and the fixed rings when the contacts separate. The arcing contacts are arranged to have a blow-off path directed to cause an arc drawn between the contacts to transfer to the spaced conductive rings. In one embodiment of the invention, only a single coil is used to produce a magnetic field for spinning the arc between the spaced rings. The interrupter structure is useful in connection with a vacuum dielectric medium.

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Lansdale, PA, United States of America

Donald E Weston