Eaton Corporation

Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Steven Castelein

Brad Robert Leccia

Douglas Charles Marks

Ronald W Crookston

Richard E White

David Curtis Turner

Alfred E Maier

William E Beatty, Jr

Robert Yanniello

Francois Jean Marchand

Yun-Ko N Chien

Andrew James Male

John G Salvati

Johan De Jong

A guide assembly for a switchgear assembly is provided. The guide assembly includes an elongated support member and a passage. The support member is coupled to and extends from a housing assembly rear sidewall. The support member extends in the circuit breaker assembly direction of travel. The passage is disposed on the circuit breaker assembly base and also extends in the circuit breaker assembly direction of travel. The support member is substantially aligned with the passage. In this configuration, as the circuit breaker assembly moves between a withdrawn position and an installed position, the support member moves between a first position, wherein the support member is not disposed in the passage, and a second position, wherein the support member is partially disposed in the passage. When the support member is in the second position, the support member bears a portion of the weight of the circuit breaker assembly base.

Pole unit guide

A circuit interrupter includes, a first contact and a second contact, the second contact being moveable relative to the first contact, a drive assembly structured to move the second contact relative to the first contact, and an erosion monitoring device including a linear transducer coupled to a portion of the drive assembly. The liner transducer is structured to generate an output signal representative of an amount of linear displacement of the portion of the drive assembly, wherein the erosion monitoring device is structured to monitor a degree of erosion of at least one of the first contact and the second contact based on the output signal.

Circuit interrupter employing a linear transducer to monitor contact erosion

A molded case circuit breaker having current limiting capabilities optimized for relatively smaller frame sizes. More specifically, one aspect of the invention relates to a two-piece carrier assembly for carrying the main and arcing contact arms which allows the main and arcing contacts to be blown open during short circuit conditions. The two-piece carrier assembly includes an inner carrier and an outer carrier pivotally connected together. The contact arms are carried by the inner carrier. When sufficient magnetic repulsion forces are exerted on the contacts due to a short circuit condition, the inner carrier pivots relative to the outer carrier to allow the contact arms to blow open. In order to control the amount of force required for blow open, a compression spring loaded cam assembly is provided. Another important aspect of the invention relates to a contact spring housing which relocates the contact springs away from the separable contacts to protect the springs from damage, for example, from heat due to contact separation. In order to improve the interruption time of the circuit breaker for relatively large overcurrents, such as a short circuit, a reverse current loop is provided which generates sufficient magnetic repulsion forces to blow open the separable contacts in a relatively short period of time. Within the restraints of the physical dimension of a relatively smaller breaker frame size, additional features have also been incorporated. More specifically, an improved rating plug assembly is provided with a one-piece plunger, relatively easier to manufacture than known designs which utilize two-piece plungers. Another aspect of the invention relates to an auxiliary cam plate for controlling the motion of the crossbar at the remote end in a four pole circuit breaker. The cam plate compensates for bending of the crossbar to improve the contact force in the remote pole. Lastly, a molded interphase barrier forms a gas barrier within the circuit breaker and maintains its position during assembly relatively better than known interphase barriers.

Molded case current limiting circuit breaker

A positive off mechanism for a circuit breaker includes a pair of positive off levers slideable in slots in the side plates and extendable into the path of the operating handle to prevent movement of the handle to the off position when the contacts are welded closed. The positive off levers are actuated by positive off links pivotally mounted to the side plates and coupled to the positive off levers by 'dog bone' connections. The positive off links in turn are actuated by the toggle mechanism of the circuit breaker which collapses to open the contacts during normal circuit breaker operation, but which remains erect when the contacts are welded closed.

Circuit breaker with positive off protection

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Sewickley, PA, United States of America

Steven Castelein