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:
Apr. 14, 2009
Filed:
Jul. 24, 2007
Patrick W. Mills, Bradenton, FL (US);
Kevin D. Gonyea, Bradenton, FL (US);
Richard G. Benshoff, Sarasota, FL (US);
James M. Mccormick, Bradenton, FL (US);
Patrick W. Mills, Bradenton, FL (US);
Kevin D. Gonyea, Bradenton, FL (US);
Richard G. Benshoff, Sarasota, FL (US);
James M. McCormick, Bradenton, FL (US);
Eaton Corporation, Cleveland, OH (US);
Abstract
A circuit interrupter includes a housing, separable contacts, and an operating mechanism including a latch. The operating mechanism opens the contacts responsive to actuation of the latch. A trip mechanism cooperates with the latch to trip open the contacts. The trip mechanism includes a thermal overload mechanism actuating the latch responsive to a thermal fault caused by current flowing through the contacts, a solenoid cooperating with the thermal overload mechanism to actuate the latch responsive to the electromagnetic device being energized, and a processor repetitively determining a value of the current flowing through the contacts, determining if the value exceeds a predetermined value for a number of occurrences, and responsively energizing the solenoid, in order to actuate the latch contemporaneous with actuation of the latch by the thermal overload mechanism, in order to decrease the time to trip open the contacts.