The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 15, 1987
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1986
Samuel Baum, Redwood City, CA (US);
John R Yaeger, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Raychem Corporation, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Abstract
There is disclosed a low loss circuit breaker including a housing, two exterior contacts, a pivotable arm, a means for biasing, a bifurcated member and a shape memory alloy element. The pivotable arm has a latching portion and a contact portion with the contact portion in electrical contact with one of the exterior contacts. The means for biasing exerts a biasing force with respect to the pivotable arm. The bifurcated member has a contact arm in touching relationship with the contact portion of the pivotable arm and is in electrical contact with the one of the exterior contacts through the contact portion of the pivotable arm. The bifurcated member further has a flexure arm cooperating with the latching portion of the pivotable arm wherein the flexure arm releasably restrains the pivotable arm against the biasing force exerted by the biasing means. The shape memory alloy element is operatively connected between the other of the exterior contacts and the flexure arm wherein when the shape memory alloy element is heated, the shape memory alloy element cooperates with the flexure arm to remove the restraining of the pivotable arm. Thereafter the pivotable arm is released so as to pivot and break the electrical contact between the contact portion of the pivotable arm, the contact arm and the one of the exterior contacts.