Push button-actuated overload protective circuit breaker

Abstract

A push button-actuated overload protective circuit breaker with bimetal cutout comprises a housing between the sidewalls of which two contact segments are held in position, and a push button and a pressure spring associated therewith are guided for longitudinal displacement therebetween. The ends of the contact elements which protrude from the housing are devised as plug-in prongs arranged in parallel with each other. In order to provide a circuit breaker of such small size that it can be plugged into a flat-shape fuse female plug socket, the contact elements are provided in a middle zone thereof, each with a step-like bend the height of which corresponds to about half the height of the interior space in the housing. The bent contact ends then come to rest against the opposite internal surfaces of the housing sidewalls. At one of the contact ends of a first contact element there is fastened a bimetal snap spring with one side thereof and extends transverse to the direction in which the contact elements extend. This bimetal snap spring has a slewable end which overlaps the second contact element and is biassed into contact with the latter when in rest position. The push button is provided at its inner end with a separating wall which is adapted for sliding between the slewable end of the bimetal spring and the contact end of the second contact element when the circuit breaker is released.