Sf 6 puffer for arc spinner

Abstract

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.