EP0102574B1 - Interrupteur de protection à bilame - Google Patents

Interrupteur de protection à bilame Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0102574B1
EP0102574B1 EP19830108195 EP83108195A EP0102574B1 EP 0102574 B1 EP0102574 B1 EP 0102574B1 EP 19830108195 EP19830108195 EP 19830108195 EP 83108195 A EP83108195 A EP 83108195A EP 0102574 B1 EP0102574 B1 EP 0102574B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
bimetal
switch
resistor
protective switch
thick
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
EP19830108195
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0102574A2 (fr
EP0102574A3 (en
Inventor
Manfred K. Müller
Tomoyoshi Uchiya
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Limitor AG
Uchiya Thermostat Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Limitor AG
Uchiya Thermostat Co Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Limitor AG, Uchiya Thermostat Co Ltd filed Critical Limitor AG
Publication of EP0102574A2 publication Critical patent/EP0102574A2/fr
Publication of EP0102574A3 publication Critical patent/EP0102574A3/de
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0102574B1 publication Critical patent/EP0102574B1/fr
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H1/00—Contacts
    • H01H1/50—Means for increasing contact pressure, preventing vibration of contacts, holding contacts together after engagement, or biasing contacts to the open position
    • H01H1/504—Means for increasing contact pressure, preventing vibration of contacts, holding contacts together after engagement, or biasing contacts to the open position by thermal means
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H77/00—Protective overload circuit-breaking switches operated by excess current and requiring separate action for resetting
    • H01H77/02—Protective overload circuit-breaking switches operated by excess current and requiring separate action for resetting in which the excess current itself provides the energy for opening the contacts, and having a separate reset mechanism
    • H01H77/04—Protective overload circuit-breaking switches operated by excess current and requiring separate action for resetting in which the excess current itself provides the energy for opening the contacts, and having a separate reset mechanism with electrothermal opening

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a bimetallic circuit breaker and a method for its production. It is based on a bimetallic circuit breaker with the features specified in the preamble of claim 1.
  • Such a switch is known from US-A-3,272,944.
  • US-A-3 272 944 shows a bimetallic circuit breaker sealed in glass.
  • the state of the art mentions that it is known to bridge the switch with a tungsten wire as a resistor, which acts on the bimetallic element through radiant heat and becomes very hot.
  • This solution is practically limited to bimetallic circuit breakers hermetically sealed in glass bulbs, and as US-A-3,272,944 itself says, it is sensitive to shock and has a short life.
  • This bimetal circuit breaker which is claimed as new in US Pat. No. 3,272,944, is also melted into glass.
  • the supply lines to the switch run through a glass base in the usual way, and this is coated with a resistance material where the supply lines emerge inside the bulb, which causes a shunt between the supply lines.
  • the heat generated in this resistor when the switch is open is to be transferred to the bimetal element by heat conduction via the supply lines, that is to say very concentrated. This means that the supply lines must reach a temperature that is far above the switching temperature of the switch. This practically rules out the possibility that this construction principle can be transferred to bimetal circuit breakers other than encapsulated in glass.
  • DE-A-2 927 475 discloses a bimetallic circuit breaker as known, which is bridged by a thermistor and can be kept open by its heating power.
  • the bimetal circuit breaker is housed in a glass bulb.
  • the two leads to the switch contacts lead through the thermistor and dissipate its heat and transfer it to the bimetal element.
  • thermistors have widely scattering resistance values, ceramic elements are sensitive to vibration and, moreover, they are relatively expensive.
  • the invention has for its object to remedy this situation by an inexpensive, manually resettable bimetallic circuit breaker, which need not be encapsulated in a glass bulb, but can be encapsulated in an open design or in a plastic housing, in which the risk of local overheating is kept small and the heating power of the bridging resistor can be adjusted very precisely.
  • the resistance value of the thick-film resistor is selected in accordance with the respective switching and monitoring task of the circuit breaker so that when the circuit breaker is closed (undisturbed operation of the monitored device) the vast majority of the current flowing through the bimetal circuit breaker takes the path via the contact spring and the closed switching contacts and only a relatively small part of the current flows through the thick-film resistor lying parallel to the switch contacts, so that the ohmic heat generated in the thick-film resistor is not sufficient to heat the bimetal element of the circuit breaker to its switching temperature.
  • the resistance value should be chosen so that when the switch is open, the ohmic heat generated as a result of the higher current passage through the thick-film resistor is sufficient to keep the bimetal element above its switching temperature and therefore the switch open.
  • the heating power required for this is typically on the order of a few watts; at a supply voltage of 220 V, suitable resistance values for the thick-film resistor are of the order of 10 k ⁇ , e.g. B. between 5 k Q and 25 k ⁇ .
  • the bimetal circuit breaker is reset by interrupting the power supply to the thick-film resistor. In the simplest case, this can be done by pulling the mains plug or by opening an existing mains switch; however, a separate circuit breaker can also be provided for this purpose. Such a switch can in principle be provided at any point on the device, so that there are no particular installation problems for the resettable circuit breaker. Since the circuit breaker always requires an electrical supply line, there is no separate installation problem for the new circuit breaker. Unlike other bimetallic circuit breakers, the switch according to the invention is a bistable element that can be reset electrically by simple means - namely by temporarily interrupting the power supply - and can therefore also be used to produce logic operations. It is particularly suitable for installation in small electrical devices, built-in thermostats, small motors, small transformers, kitchen and household appliances, etc.
  • the thick-film resistor can dissipate its heat over a large area, e.g. transferred to a housing wall of a bimetallic switch encapsulated in plastic by placing it on this housing wall, or to the insulating support of an open switch by using the thick-film resistor e.g. is arranged at the bottom.
  • the heating power required to keep the thermal switch open which is typically a few watts, is distributed over a larger area, so that local overheating, which could deform or otherwise damage the bimetallic circuit breaker (especially if the insulating support or the insulating housing is made of a plastic) exist) are not to be feared when using thick film resistors.
  • thick-film resistors are used in many ways to set very precisely to their nominal resistance by trimming using a laser beam; the deviations from the nominal value of the resistance within a series are correspondingly small and - unlike with the known bimetallic circuit breakers - you do not need to plan a «heating power reserve» for safety.
  • Another advantage of using thick-film resistors is that it is easily possible to adapt the base area of the resistor to the geometric specifications of the bimetallic circuit breaker, so that an optimal heat transfer from the thick-film resistor to the bimetallic element can be achieved for each bimetallic circuit breaker.
  • the thick-film resistor is still a very inexpensive component. It is only through its use that the self-locking bimetal circuit breaker can be used in an almost unlimited area of application.
  • the stationary switch contact and the contact spring with the movable switch contact are usually located on one side of an electrically insulating carrier; it is the same with the switch according to the invention.
  • the thick-film resistor is in this case on the other side of the carrier and an opening is provided in the carrier between the thick-film resistor and the bimetal element or the contact spring, whereby the heat transfer from the thick-film resistor to the bimetal element is facilitated.
  • connection lugs or pins are advantageously first fixed in one piece in the carrier, for. B. overmolded with plastic, then separated, in particular in the area of an opening provided in the central section of the carrier, and on the separate connecting lugs or pins, the resistance is then e.g. attached by soldering.
  • connection lugs embedded in the carrier in this way inevitably always have the same positions relative to one another within a series, so that the connection points with the thick-film resistor can always lie at the same locations on the connection lugs or pins.
  • the bimetal element can be the contact spring itself (e.g. if the circuit breaker is an overcurrent protection switch that monitors the current flowing through its switch contacts), or it can be an element that is separate from the contact spring but acts on the contact spring . In the latter case, the bimetal element is preferred as a snap disk because it has a particularly sharply defined switching temperature and a particularly large contact stroke during contact separation, which has a favorable effect both on the switching reliability and on the reliability of keeping the circuit breaker open.
  • bimetal switches which are heated by a thick-film resistor are known from DE-U-7 920 923; however, these are not safety cut-outs, but thermal timers, whose task is to have the timers respond after a switching process after a period determined by the heating power.
  • a bridging of the switch by the resistor is just as little described as its use for keeping the switch open until an arbitrary reset.
  • a typical application example for such a known time switch would be a staircase light switch which, after a predetermined period of time after the light in the staircase has been switched on, automatically switches it off again.
  • connection lugs 2 and 3 with soldering eyelets 4 and 5 are embedded in an electrically insulating flat support 1.
  • Tongues 7 and 8 are punched out of the connection lugs 2 and 3, raised in steps and likewise embedded in sections in the support 1.
  • the tongues 7 and 8 are in height and parallel to Top side 9 of the carrier 1, the connecting lugs 2 and 3 are at the height and parallel to the bottom side 6 of the carrier 1.
  • a contact spring 10 is attached at one end, which carries at its movable end a switch contact 11, which cooperates with a stationary switch contact 12, which is attached to the other tongue 7.
  • a bimetallic snap disk 16 is held loosely between hook 15 at the front and rear on the contact spring 10 and tabs 17 on the side of the contact spring 10.
  • connection lugs 20, 21 extend in opposite directions from the thick-film resistor 18 and are soldered to the connection lugs 2 and 3 of the circuit breaker.
  • the carrier 1 has an opening 19 running from bottom to top through which the ohmic heat generated in the thick-film resistor 18 can reach the contact spring 10 and the snap disk 16.
  • the switch When the switch is installed and closed, the current largely flows via the switch contacts 11 and 12 and only to a small extent via the thick-film resistor 18. However, if the switch responds and opens, the current only flows via the thick-film resistor 18, which heats up and releases so much heat to the snap disk 16 that it remains above its switching temperature as long as the current through the thick-film resistor 18 is not interrupted.

Landscapes

  • Thermally Actuated Switches (AREA)

Claims (7)

1. Interrupteur de protection à bilame qui ouvre par un élément à bilame lorsque une température présélectionnée est dépassée et qui est tenu dans cette position ouverte par une résistance ohmique qui se trouve en parallèle à l'interrupteur, caractérisé en ce que la résistance (19) est une résistance à couche épaisse et que la lame élastique (10) avec le contact mobile (11) et le contact fixe (12) de l'interrupteur de protection à bilame sont arrangés sur l'un côté d'un support isolateur électrique (1) tandis que la résistance (18) est arrangée sur l'autre côté du support isolateur (1) et que celui-ci est percé entre la résistance (18) et la lame élastique (10).
2. Interrupteur de protection à bilame selon revendication 1, caractérisé en ce que l'élément à bilame (16) est un disque à ressort.
3. Interrupteur de protection à bilame selon revendication 2, caractérisé en ce que le disque à ressort (16) est tenu sur la face supérieure ou inférieure de la lame élastique (10) par des crochets (15), des éclisses (17) ou d'autres attaches semblables.
4. Interrupteur de protection à bilame selon revendication 1, caractérisé en ce que la lame élastique elle-même est l'élément à bilame.
5. Interrupteur de protection à bilame selon une des revendications précédentes, caractérisé en ce que la résistance (18) est fixée aux lamelles (2, 3) ou bien des pointes de l'interrupteur de protection à bilame.
6. Procédé de fabrication d'un interrupteur de protection à bilame avec les caractéristiques selon revendication 5, caractérisé en ce que les deux lamelles (2, 3) étant rattachées l'un à l'autre en une pièce sont tout d'abord fixées dans le support isolateur (1) et puis elles sont détachées l'un de l'autre-par exemple par un processus de découpage - et que la résistance (18) est fixée sur les lamelles (2, 3) ou bien les pointes après.
7. Procédé selon revendication 6, caractérisé en ce que les deux lamelles (2, 3) ou bien les deux pointes sont détachées l'un de l'autre au secteur du percement (19) du support (1).
EP19830108195 1982-08-21 1983-08-19 Interrupteur de protection à bilame Expired EP0102574B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE19823231136 DE3231136C2 (de) 1982-08-21 1982-08-21 Bimetallschutzschalter
DE3231136 1982-08-21

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0102574A2 EP0102574A2 (fr) 1984-03-14
EP0102574A3 EP0102574A3 (en) 1986-04-16
EP0102574B1 true EP0102574B1 (fr) 1988-06-01

Family

ID=6171391

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19830108195 Expired EP0102574B1 (fr) 1982-08-21 1983-08-19 Interrupteur de protection à bilame

Country Status (2)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0102574B1 (fr)
DE (2) DE3231136C2 (fr)

Families Citing this family (20)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3320730A1 (de) * 1983-01-15 1984-07-19 Fritz Eichenauer GmbH & Co KG, 6744 Kandel Temperaturwaechter
DE3333620A1 (de) * 1983-09-17 1985-04-11 Braun Ag, 6000 Frankfurt Schutzschalter
EP0244521B1 (fr) * 1984-11-08 1989-05-03 Nippondenso Co., Ltd. Démarreur de moteur à combustion interne
DE3539425A1 (de) * 1985-11-07 1987-05-14 Limitor Ag Thermobimetallschalter
DE3601055A1 (de) * 1986-01-16 1987-07-23 Limitor Ag Sicherheitsausschaltvorrichtung
DE3644514A1 (de) * 1986-12-24 1988-07-07 Inter Control Koehler Hermann Bimetallschalter
US4780698A (en) * 1987-04-30 1988-10-25 Texas Instruments Incorporated Circuit interrupter device and method for making
JPH089867Y2 (ja) 1988-04-30 1996-03-21 ウチヤ・サーモスタット株式会社 サーモスタット
GB2252674B (en) * 1991-01-04 1995-01-04 Otter Controls Ltd Improvements relating to thermally responsive electric switches
JP2585148B2 (ja) * 1991-04-05 1997-02-26 ウチヤ・サーモスタット株式会社 フィルム状発熱体内蔵型サーモスタット
FR2686451A1 (fr) * 1992-01-17 1993-07-23 Elth Sa Securite thermique et elements chauffants avec une telle securite integree.
DE4206157A1 (de) * 1992-02-28 1993-09-16 Hofsass P Thermoschalter
DE9203559U1 (de) * 1992-03-17 1992-05-21 Knobel Ag Lichttechnische Komponenten, Ennenda Bimetall-Thermoschalter mit Dickschicht-Widerstandsheizelement
JP2585164B2 (ja) * 1992-07-07 1997-02-26 ウチヤ・サーモスタット株式会社 サーモプロテクタ
DE9214940U1 (de) * 1992-11-03 1992-12-17 Thermik Geraetebau Gmbh, 7530 Pforzheim Temperaturwächter
DE4425330A1 (de) * 1993-07-26 1996-01-25 Siemens Ag Schalter zur Strombegrenzung
US5420561A (en) * 1994-01-21 1995-05-30 Littlefuse, Inc. Breaker or resettable fuse device
US6229121B1 (en) * 1999-07-23 2001-05-08 Industrial Technology Research Institute Integrated thermal buckling micro switch with electric heater and sensor
JP4471479B2 (ja) * 2000-10-13 2010-06-02 ウチヤ・サーモスタット株式会社 サーマルプロテクタ
DE10235650B4 (de) * 2002-08-02 2006-04-27 INTER CONTROL Hermann Köhler Elektrik GmbH & Co KG Thermischer Überlastschutz

Family Cites Families (11)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR1401964A (fr) * 1963-07-19 1965-06-11 Otter Controls Ltd Interrupteur électrique sensible à la température
US3272944A (en) * 1964-11-12 1966-09-13 Sylvania Electric Prod Encapsulated thermostatic switch having a heater disposed in the stem
GB1141316A (en) * 1965-08-04 1969-01-29 Texas Instruments Inc Thermal delay relays
US3312802A (en) * 1965-12-30 1967-04-04 Gen Electric Bimetal with heater mounted through a channel formed by alternately spaced portions separated by slits
US3579167A (en) * 1966-07-20 1971-05-18 Texas Instruments Inc Thermostatic switch with improved heater assembly and method of assembling same
NL7004367A (fr) * 1970-03-26 1971-09-28
DE2719329A1 (de) * 1977-04-30 1979-03-15 Uchiya Thermostat Bimetallschutzschalter
JPS5510289U (fr) * 1978-07-07 1980-01-23
DE2907807A1 (de) * 1979-02-28 1980-09-04 Siemens Ag Bauelementekombination mit einem kaltleiter und einem weiteren bauelement
DE7920923U1 (de) * 1979-07-21 1979-10-25 Limitor Ag, Zuerich (Schweiz) Thermischer Zeitschalter
DE3104828A1 (de) * 1981-02-11 1982-09-09 Limitor AG, 8022 Zürich "bimetalltemperaturschalter"

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE3231136C2 (de) 1984-08-23
DE3231136A1 (de) 1984-02-23
EP0102574A2 (fr) 1984-03-14
EP0102574A3 (en) 1986-04-16
DE8223614U1 (de) 1985-05-09

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