Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Rudolf Gebel

Gerhard Peche

Lothar Schmidt

Bernt Paul

Jurgen-Dietrich Welly

Heinrich Schindler

An electrical contact arrangement for use in a vacuum switch having two coaxially disposed contact as a contact disk which forms one of the contacts, a contact carrier having side walls forming a cylindrical chamber and having slots spiralling therein about a central axis forming a coil for generating a magnetic field, the walls also serving to support the contact disk so as to span the cylindrical chamber, and a profiled element of ferro-magnetic material contained in the chamber and having a face adjacent the contact disk with a cavity therein for evenly radially distributing the magnetic field substantially over the entire contact disk. The profiled element may have a spherical, conical, stepped or rectangular cavity therein, when seen in cross-section, and an additional supporting element of non-magnetic material may be provided within the cavity.

Contact arrangement for vacuum switches

A vacuum switch of the type having contact electrodes which are coaxially movable with respect to each other for interrupting large currents. In one embodiment where a substantially cylindrical housing is arranged around the contacts, a radially inward bulge of metallic material is arranged near a center plane intermediate of the contacts. Such a bulge may be formed by inserting a metallic, annular insert within the housing, or producing an annular bulge in the housing itself. The bulge produces an inclination which is selected so that a plasma which flows from the arc which is produced upon interruption of the current is deflected in the axial direction. Such deflection reduces the stress on the vapor shield and is particularly advantageous with single-pulse switches which experience relatively long arcing times.

Vacuum switch

A contact arrangement for vacuum switches with coaxially arranged cup contacts, the slotted contact carrier of which is provided with a contact ring, in which, the exposed surface of the contact ring is provided with bevels extending radially inward and outward and the contact ring and/or the contact carrier contain an annular zone with an electric conductivity which is substantially reduced in comparison with the material of the contact carrier.

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Erlangen, Germany

Rudolf Gebel