EP0200617A1 - Electrical actuator adaptable to a two-position commutating device - Google Patents

Abstract

@ The device according to the invention comprises two electromagnets arranged head to tail and each comprising a coil inside which is slidably mounted a core, and two levers (30, 31) mounted oscillating which each comprise a first carrying arm a toothed sector (36, 37) and a second arm coupled to a respective core. The two toothed sectors (36, 37) mesh on a toothed pinion (38) rotatably mounted in the housing (2). This toothed pinion (38) can be coupled to the drive shaft of a switching device.

The invention applies in particular to the control of a circuit breaker with one or more poles.

Description

The present invention relates to an electrical control device adaptable to a two-state switching device, the switching control of which is effected by rotation of a shaft between two angular positions each corresponding to one of the above states.

• -une face avant présentant, dans sa région centrale, une ouverture au travers de laquelle passe une manette servant à l'armement et au déclenchement manuel du disjoncteur, cette manette étant portée par un moyeu creux ou un axe tubulaire monté rotatif dans deux orifices coaxiaux respectivement prévus sur lesdits côtés latéraux ;
• -une face arrière dont le profil est adapté pour permettre sa fixation sur un rail de support axé perpendiculairement auxdits côtés ; et
• -deux faces latérales opposées, en général la face supérieure et la face inférieure, qui peuvent présenter des orifices pour le raccordement de conducteurs électriques dans des bornes logées dans le boîtier.

It applies advantageously, but not exclusively, to the control of a modular circuit breaker with one or more poles, of the type each comprising an electromechanical circuit housed in a prismatic housing which usually comprises two parallel lateral sides and, perpendicularly to these:

• -a front face having, in its central region, an opening through which passes a handle serving for the arming and the manual release of the circuit breaker, this handle being carried by a hollow hub or a tubular axis rotatably mounted in two coaxial orifices respectively provided on said lateral sides;
• a rear face, the profile of which is adapted to allow it to be fixed on a support rail oriented perpendicular to said sides; and
• -two opposite side faces, in general the upper face and the lower face, which may have orifices for the connection of electrical conductors in terminals housed in the housing.

These modular circuit breakers can therefore be assembled side by side on the support rail to form a circuit breaker assembly, for example for a three-phase circuit. The handles of these circuit breakers can then be easily secured to one another in rotation by means of an axis passing through the hollow hubs which, taking into account the nature of this assembly, are arranged coaxially with one another. Of course. to ensure this connection, the bore of the hollow hubs may have axial grooves and the axis may include grooves engaging in said grooves.

In this type of application, the invention more particularly aims at producing an electrical control device for modular circuit breakers, which has a small overall width and whose structure allows its integration, with a minimum loss of space , in a housing having a shape and dimensions similar to those of modular circuit breakers.

Thus, in a similar manner, this box must include at least one rear face equipped with fixing means on the support rail and, perpendicular to said face and to said rail, two parallel lateral sides capable of coming to bear against the sides. side of modular circuit breakers.

The electrical control device must, moreover, comprise mechanical coupling means that are easily connectable and disconnectable for driving the hollow hubs, these coupling means having to be able to be easily mounted on an assembly comprising one or more poles of modular circuit breakers assembled between them.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the application previously described. It proposes an electrical control device which can ensure, more generally, the actuation of at least one switching device, the control of which is ensured by rotation of an operating shaft between two angular positions.

According to the invention, this device is more particularly characterized in that it comprises, housed inside a housing:

-two electromagnets arranged head to tail and each comprising a coil inside which is axially slidingly sliding a core comprising first mechanical coupling means;

-two levers mounted oscillating around two respective axes of rotation orthogonal to the sliding axes of the cores, each lever comprising a toothed sector and a lever arm provided at its free end with second coupling means cooperating with the first coupling means a corresponding core, for transforming the opposite active linear movements of the two cores into opposite tilting movements of the associated levers;

a toothed pinion rotatably mounted in the housing by means of a drive shaft parallel to the axes of rotation of the levers, and on which the two toothed sectors mesh, this drive shaft being provided with means for coupling to the shaft of switching device operation; and

a supply circuit, capable of supplying alternately one or the other of the coils.

In the case where the electrical control device is provided for the control of modular circuit breakers and is housed in a housing comprising at least one rear face equipped with fixing means on a rail or the like and, perpendicular to said face and said rail, two parallel lateral sides against which a modular circuit breaker can be applied, the two electromagnets are advantageously oriented parallel to said lateral sides. The drive shaft is then preferably located so as to come in line with the actuator shaft of the modular circuit breaker. This drive shaft, as well as the actuation shafts of the modular circuit breakers, may have a tubular structure, inside which a common axis can be passed serving to secure said rotating shafts.

• La figure 1 est une coupe schématique d'un dispositif de commande électrique pour disjoncteurs modulaires standard ;
• Les figures 2 et 3 sont des coupes analogues à celle de la figure 1, mais dans lesquelles on n'a représenté simplement, pour faciliter la compréhension, que l'électro-aimant servant à l'enclenchement (figure 2) et la bobine servant au déclenchement (figure 3) ;
• La figure 4 est une vue schématique de dessus d'un dispositif de commande électrique du type de celui représenté sur la figure 1 accouplé à trois disjoncteurs modulaires ;
• La figure 5 est une vue en perspective d'un disjoncteur modulaire du type de ceux utilisés figure 4 ;
• La figure 6 est un schéma simplifié d'un circuit de commande des électro-aimants du dispositif de commande électrique.

An embodiment of the invention will be described below, by way of nonlimiting example, with reference to the appended drawings in which:

• Figure 1 is a schematic section of an electrical control device for standard modular circuit breakers;
• Figures 2 and 3 are sections similar to that of Figure 1, but in which there has been shown simply, for ease of understanding, that the electromagnet used for the engagement (Figure 2) and the coil serving when triggered (Figure 3);
• Figure 4 is a schematic top view of an electrical control device of the type shown in Figure 1 coupled to three modular circuit breakers;
• Figure 5 is a perspective view of a modular circuit breaker of the type used in Figure 4;
• FIG. 6 is a simplified diagram of a circuit for controlling the electromagnets of the electrical control device.

As shown in these figures, the electrical control device 1 is housed inside a flat box 2 which comprises two parallel lateral sides 3, 4 (FIG. 4), a front face 5 having a central region 6 forming a stepped and two lateral regions 7, 8 provided with access holes 9, 10 to screws for tightening electrical terminals 11, 12 housed in the housing 2, a rear face 13 which has a concave profile 15 adapted to allow its fixing on a support rail 16 perpendicular to the two lateral sides 3, 4, and two lateral faces 17, 18 comprising, near the front face, orifices 19, 20 allowing access to the terminals 11, 12 to electrical conductors.

Inside this box 2 are housed two electromagnets, namely: an engaging electromagnet 22 and a triggering electromagnet 23, arranged in the volume delimited by the two lateral sides 3, 4, the two lateral faces 17, 18, the rear face 13 and the two lateral regions 7, 8 of the front face 5.

These two electromagnets 22, 23 are placed side by side with a slight overlap of one with respect to the other and in head-to-tail configuration.

The engagement electromagnet 22 comprises a coil 24 fixedly mounted on the side face 18 and on the rear face 13. Similarly, the trigger electromagnet 23 comprises a coil 25 fixed on the side face 17 and on the back 13.

These two coils 24, 25 are axially parallel to the lateral sides 3, 4 and to the front and rear faces 5, 13 and, consequently, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the rail 16. Inside these coils 24, 25 are axially slidingly mounted two cores 26, 27 each comprising, outside of its coil 24, 25, a transverse recess 28, 29.

These two cores 26, 27 cooperating with two respective levers 30, 31 pivotally mounted in their middle part around two axes 32, 33 perpendicular to the lateral sides 3, 4 of the housing 2 and housed therein near the angular regions 5 ' , 5 "located at the base of the central region 6 of the front face 5 of the housing 2.

Each of these levers 30, 31 comprises an arm 34, 35, the free end of which engages in the recess 28, 29 of a corresponding core 26, 27 and another arm which is located on the other side of its axis of rotation 32, 33 and which carries a toothed sector 36, 37 meshing on a pinion 38. The pinion 38 is common to the two toothed sectors and it is carried by a drive shaft 39 which pivots in two coaxial orifices provided respectively on the two lateral sides 3, 4 near the central region 6 of the front face 5.

The coils 24, 25 can be supplied by a supply circuit of the type shown in FIG. 6 which comprises a current source 40 connected, by one of its terminals 41, at both ends 42 and 43 of the coils 24, 25 and the other terminal 46 of which can be connected either to the end 44 of the coil 24 or to the end 45 of the coil 25, by means of a manual or remote-controlled switch 47 having an engaged position E and a triggered position D. Each of the electrical connections between the switch 47 and the ends 44. 45 of the coils 24, 25 further comprises a switch 48, 49 actuated by a end position 50. 51 of the core of the corresponding electromagnet.

• Pour obtenir la position enclenchée, le commutateur 47 est placé dans la position E, ce qui provoque l'alimentation de la bobine 24 de l'électro-aimant 22. Sous l'effet des forces électromagnétiques exercées par cette bobine 24, le noyau 26 subit un déplacement axial vers l'extérieur qui provoque un basculement du levier 30 et une rotation de l'arbre d'entraînement 36. Parallèlement, le pignon 38 qui engrène également sur le secteur denté 37 provoque un basculement du levier 31 qui repousse le noyau 27 à l'intérieur de la bobine 25. En fin de course, le noyau 26 sollicite le détecteur fin de course 50 qui interrompt l'alimentation de la bobine 24, grâce à l'interrupteur 48, tandis que le détecteur 51 qui n'est plus sollicité par le noyau 27 habilite l'alimentation de la bobine 25.

The operation of the electrical control device is then as follows:

• To obtain the engaged position, the switch 47 is placed in position E, which causes the coil 24 of the electromagnet 22 to be fed. Under the effect of the electromagnetic forces exerted by this coil 24, the core 26 undergoes an axial displacement towards the outside which causes the lever 30 to tilt and a rotation of the drive shaft 36. At the same time, the pinion 38 which also meshes on the toothed sector 37 causes the lever 31 to tilt which repels the core 27 inside the coil 25. At the end of the race, the core 26 requests the limit switch 50 which interrupts the supply of the coil 24, thanks to the switch 48, while the detector 51 which does not is more stressed by the core 27 enables the supply of the coil 25.

The triggered position is obtained by a similar process, by placing the switch 47 in position D, which causes the deployment of the core 27, the rotation in opposite direction of the drive shaft 39 and the return of the core 26 to the position back to school. Likewise. at the end of the deployment stroke of the core 27, the detector 51 interrupts the supply of the coil 25, while the detector 50 enables the supply of the coil 24.

It can therefore be seen that actuation of one of the cores 26, 27 causes the other core to move in the opposite direction. This arrangement therefore has the advantage of avoiding the use of return springs.

Furthermore, thanks to limit switches and switches, when the electrical control device 1 is in one of its two states, for example the triggered state, only the latching coil 24 will be authorized to receive a excitation current in the next phase

• -deux côtés latéraux parallèles 61, 62 contre lesquels peut venir s'appliquer, par l'un de ses côtés latéraux, un disjoncteur modulaire adjacent similaire ;
• -une face antérieure présentant, dans sa région centrale, un étagement 63 muni d'une ouverture 64 au travers de laquelle passe une manette 65 servant à l'armement et au déclenchement manuel du disjoncteur et, à l'extrémité de ses deux régions latérales 66, 66', des orifices d'accès 67, 68 à des vis de serrage de bornes étectriqù'es logées dans le boîtier:
• -une face arrière 69 dont le profil est adapté pour permettre sa fixation sur le rail de support 16 ;
• -deux faces latérales 70, 70' présentant, à proximité du côté avant, deux orifices respectifs 71 permettant l'introduction de conducteurs électriques dans ces bornes.

As previously mentioned, the previously described electrical control device applies to the control of modular circuit breakers. such as circuit breakers 57, 58, 59, 60 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, which each include an electromechanical circuit housed in a flat box which comprises, in a manner analogous to the box of the electrical control device 1:

• -two parallel lateral sides 61, 62 against which can be applied, by one of its lateral sides, a similar adjacent modular circuit breaker;
• -a front face having, in its central region, a step 63 provided with an opening 64 through which passes a handle 65 used for arming and manual tripping of the circuit breaker and, at the end of its two lateral regions 66, 66 ', access orifices 67, 68 to screws for tightening electrical terminals housed in the housing:
• -a rear face 69 whose profile is adapted to allow its attachment to the support rail 16;
• -two side faces 70, 70 'having, near the front side, two respective orifices 71 allowing the introduction of electrical conductors into these terminals.

The handle 65 is carried by a shaft 72 axially perpendicular to the lateral sides .61, 62 and rotatably mounted in two coaxial orifices 73 respectively provided on said sides.

The shaft 72 has a tubular structure, the internal bore 74 of which is provided with three axial grooves at 120 °.

These modular circuit breakers are designed to be assembled side by side on the rail, in a configuration similar to that of circuit breakers 58, 59, 60, the front face of which is shown in FIG. 5.

In this position, the shafts 72 of these switches are arranged coaxially, and it is therefore possible to solidify them in rotation by virtue of a common connecting axis passing through the bores 74, this axis having a section substantially complementary to that of said bores.

A very important advantage of the structure of the electrical control device described above, is that it allows its optimal integration into a housing whose shape and, in particular, the shape of the contour of the lateral sides 3. 4 correspond to those of modular switch boxes 57 to 60.

The mounting of this box 2 against a modular circuit breaker 57 or a set of modular boxes 58, 59, 60 therefore makes it possible to obtain a compact set free of discontinuity in shape.

In such an arrangement, the drive shaft 39 of the electrical control device is aligned with the shafts of the modular circuit breakers. So by providing in this drive shaft a bore 76 of section identical to that of the shafts 72, it is possible to secure these shafts 39 to 72 in rotation by means of a simple connecting pin of the type of that previously described.

In the examples shown in Figures 1 to 3, the central region 6 of the front face of the housing of the electrical control device 1 has, at the right of the drive shaft, a window 80. Furthermore, the pinion 38 carries in an area which does not mesh with the teeth of the lever 30, a sector 81 used for displaying the state of the electrical control device. Thus, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the sector 81 which is located to the right of the window 80 indicates that the device is in the engaged state. By cons, in Figure 3, the sector 81 is not visible through the window 80, which means that the device is in the triggered state.

Another important advantage of the electrical control device described above, is that when it is assembled with modular circuit breakers, as shown in FIG. 4, the state of the latter can be modified by manual action on the levers 65 without no constraint on the part of the electrical control device 1. In addition, in the same way as previously, the transition from one state to another of these modular circuit breakers will result in the authorization for the next phase of one or more 'other coils 24, 25 as appropriate.

In other words, manual actuation of the levers 65 cannot in any way lead to disturbances in the operation of the electrical control device 1.

Claims (7)

1. Electrical control device adaptable to a switching device with two states, the switching control of which is effected by rotation of a shaft between two angular positions each corresponding to one of the above states, characterized in that it comprises, housed inside a shoemaker (2): -two electromagnets (22, 23) arranged head to tail and each comprising a coil (24, 25) inside which is axially slidingly sliding a core (26, 27) comprising first mechanical coupling means ; -two levers (30, 31) mounted oscillating around two respective axes of rotation (32, 33) orthogonal to the sliding axes of the cores (26, 27), each lever (30, 31) comprising a first arm carrying a toothed sector (37, 37) and a second arm (34, 35) provided at its free end with second coupling means cooperating with the first coupling means with a corresponding core (26, 27), for transforming opposite linear movements of the two cores (26, 27) in opposite rocking movements of the associated levers (30, 31); -a toothed pinion (38) rotatably mounted in the housing - (2) by means of a drive shaft (39) parallel to the axes of rotation (32, 33) of the levers (30, 31 and on which the two toothed sectors mesh (36, 37), this drive shaft (39) being provided with means for coupling to the operating shaft of the switching device; and a supply circuit (40 to 51), capable of alternately supplying one or the other of the coils (24, 25), so as to rotate the toothed pinion alternately in one or the other direction. 2. Device according to claim 1,
characterized in that the aforesaid supply circuit comprises, for each of the coils (24, 25), a switch (48, 49) actuated by a limit switch position detector (50, 51) of the core (26, 27) corresponding to this coil, so as to interrupt the supply of this coil when the core has reached said limit position. 3. Device according to one of claims 1 and 2, for the control of at least one modular circuit breaker pole (57) of the type comprising an electromechanical circuit housed in a prismatic housing which usually comprises two lateral sides ( 61, 62) parallel and, perpendicularly thereto, a front face (63) having, in its central region, an opening (64) through which passes a lever (65) used for arming and manual release of the circuit breaker, this handle (65) being carried by an actuating pin (72) rotatably mounted in two coaxial orifices (73) respectively provided on said lateral sides (61, 62), a rear face (69) whose profile is adapted to allow its attachment to a support element (16) oriented perpendicular to said sides, and two opposite lateral faces - (70, 70 ') which may have orifices for introducing electrical conductors into terminals housed in the housing, these circuit breakers able to assemble , side to side lateral, on the support element (16), while their actuating axes (72) arranged coaxially with respect to each other, can be secured to each other, characterized in that it comprises a housing (2 ) comprising at least one rear face (15) equipped with fixing means on said support element and, perpendicular to the axis of this support element (16) and to said rear face (15), two lateral sides (3, 4) against which a lateral side (61, 62) of a modular circuit breaker (57) can be applied, in that the two above-mentioned electromagnets (22, 23) are oriented parallel to said lateral sides (3, 4 ), and in that the drive shaft (39) is located so as to extend coaxially to the right of the actuation shaft (72) of this modular circuit breaker. 4. Device according to claim 3,
characterized in that the actuation shaft (72) of the modular circuit breakers (57 to 60) as well as the drive shaft (39) of the electrical control device (1) have a tubular structure, and in that these shafts can be secured in rotation by means of an axis passing through these tubular structures. 5. Device according to one of claims 3 and 4, characterized in that the front face of said modular circuit breakers as well as the front face of the electrical control device have a central region forming a staging, and in that the axes of rotation of the levers of the electrical control device are located near the angular regions located at the base and on either side of the central region (6) of the front face of the housing (2). 6. Device according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that each of the cores (26, 27) of the coils (24, 25) comprises a transverse recess (28, 29) into which the end of the second arm of the corresponding lever (30, 31) penetrates. 7. Device according to one of claims 3 to 6, characterized in that the central region (6) of the front face of the housing (2) of the electrical control device (1) present, in line with the shaft of drive (39), at least one window (80), and in that the pinion (38) carries, in an area which does not mesh with the teeth of the levers (30. 31 at least one sector used for viewing the condition of the electrical control device (1).

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