Kontes Glass Company

Square D Company

Richard L Apothaker

Frederick B Wagner, Iii

Carmen L Croce

James Reed

An associative current interrupter system provides improved circuit protection and electrical safety. A test control unit (200) applies a regulated series of input voltage levels to the appliance (300) which is to be subsequently protected under a series of minimum and maximum load sequences. The resulting data series is logged and compressed into a format suitable for downloading into a programmable interrupter (100). A remote interface (217) is provided to allow device-specific data series to be input from alternative sources. When the appliance is connected in series with the interrupter (100), load current, line voltage, and time constraints are sampled and compared to the data series, thus providing a continuous solution to the determination of normal vs. abnormal currents. An output relay (103) provides a switching element and an internally accessible calibration port (111) allows monitoring combined non-linearities for correction during manufacture.

Load interrupter system

A capillary tube is shrunk around a wire heating element, fashioned into the desired configuration, and situated between the exterior surface of a cylindrical inner glass tube and the interior surface of a cylindrical outer glass tube, to form an assembly. The space between the adjacent tube surfaces is evacuated as a heat source is moved along the axis of the assembly to heat each longitudinal section of the assembly, in sequence. The element is thermally expanded as the outer tube surface collapses toward the inner tube surface, resulting in the fusion of the adjacent glass surfaces around the expanded element. In this manner, a channel is formed through the fused glass body which has the configuration and dimensions of the expanded element. During cooling, the element returns to its unexpanded condition. This results in a space between the channel walls and the element, permitting the element to expand, when electrically energized, without breaking the glass body.

Glass captivated heating unit for still or the like

A fiberoptic head includes, for each channel, two separate illuminating fiberoptic bundles and a light receiving fiberoptic bundle. Each illuminating fiberoptic bundle has its input end adjacent a light source. The light receiving fiberoptic bundle has its output end adjacent to a light detector. A block is provided with first, second and third passageways terminating at separate elongated apertures at the operative surface thereof. Each bundle extends through a different one of the passageways with the illuminating bundles terminating at apertures spaced from either side of the aperture for the light receiving bundle. The exterior apertures are located such that the projected illumination patterns overlap on the zone on the test surface from which the receiving bundle gathers light. The numerical aperture of the fibers in the light receivig bundle is selected to be less than the numerical aperture of the fiber in the illuminating bundle to increase the resolution and perceive only the center of the overlapping patterns of illumination.

Growing community of inventors

Northfield, NJ, United States of America

Richard L Apothaker