EP1093145A1 - Control mechanism for a circuit breaker - Google Patents

Abstract

The circuit breaker command has a manual stop button set (40b) and release (40c) and an electromagnetic release (41) operating a pivoting lever (67) and second command pivot (66) releasing a spring release (65). A trip mechanism (64) mounted on the axis (05) is coupled to the manual command exercising the spring release in a first setting and a command lever opening in a second position.

Description

The present invention relates to a circuit breaker or contactor-circuit breaker comprising poles with separable contacts.

Such mechanisms generally include a hand-operated part used to start and stop and reset, as well as a release part comprising an electromagnetic release, a lever swivel hook and swivel control lever with spoiler normally maintained by the hook and biased by a trigger spring, the trigger ensuring in response to an overcurrent the pivoting of the hook lever and the stall the control lever to open the contacts.

In a particular circuit breaker called contactor-circuit breaker, the mechanism must also include a part ensuring the switching of the contacts from an electromagnet depending on whether the coil is powered or not powered.

The invention aims to simplify a circuit breaker mechanism by bringing together several functions on some of its component parts.

According to the invention, an oscillating lever, pivotally mounted on an axis, is coupled with the part of manual control, while the trigger spring exerts by a first press an opening torque on the control lever and by a second press a return torque on the oscillating lever. Preferably, the spring double action trigger is compression type, and the second press of the spring is put in the on position in a slightly offset position by relative to the line joining its first support to the pivot axis of the oscillating lever, the offset ensuring upon triggering the rotation of the oscillating lever towards a intermediate position between its on position and its off position.

The manual control part advantageously has a rotary button and a sliding link cooperating directly with the oscillating lever and coupled to a multipolar lever for actuating the contacts, the link and the button being capable of assuming an on position, an off position and an intermediate position trigger.

A pivoting lock can be associated with the sliding link, this lock being suitable for lock the link in the on position, having an arm coupled to a strip provided for actuating auxiliary contacts, and communicating to the strip three positions "on", "off" and "triggered" respectively. The control part manual is coupled to a single sliding strip with three operating positions, stop and triggered to activate at least one signaling device.

The description will be made below of a non-limiting embodiment of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a contactor-circuit breaker according to the invention.

Figures 2 to 5 illustrate the contactor-circuit breaker respectively in the state "on", in the "off" state, in the "tripped" state and in the process of resetting.

FIGS. 6A to 6D illustrate the positions of the button in the states of the device shown in Figures 2 to 5.

Figure 7 shows in perspective the rod of the control mechanism manual.

Figures 8 and 9 are schematic views of the swing lever and the lever hook.

Figure 10 is a schematic view of the control lever.

Figure 11 illustrates in perspective the lock of the manual control link.

The contactor-circuit breaker shown in Figure 1 has several contact poles provided with fixed contacts 10 and movable contacts 11 with which are associated breaking chambers 12. The fixed contacts 10 are connected by conductors of power 13.14 at upstream (source) power terminals 15 and respectively downstream power (charging) terminals 16 disposed in the housing 17 of the device or on terminal blocks attached to it. The contact poles are double break type and the movable contacts 12 are therefore arranged on a bridge 18 biased in the closing direction by a spring 18a and in the opening direction by the action of a drive member on a pusher 19 associated with each pole.

The contactor-breaker comprises as a unit 17 a single block or an assembly of housings assembled together, offering a rear fixing face 17a to a support. It includes an electromagnet 20 and an electronic protection device 30 whose purpose is to act on the pushers 19 of the various poles to open and close the contacts.

The protection device 30 controls in the event of an overload or overcurrent a electromagnetic trip device 41 with fugitive action. The core of the electromagnetic trip device 41 requests by a push button 41a a lever of a lock belonging to a mechanism 40 for controlling the contacts; pusher 41a has a bearing lateral 41 b which facilitates the return to its rest position and is requested by a spring 41c towards its release position.

A manual control button 42 capable of assuming an on position ("on") and a stop position ("off") cooperates with the mechanism 40 to control switching contacts 11. It is of course possible to use as a switching device manual control two buttons, one on and the other off. The mechanism control 40 includes a bistable automatic control part 40a controlled by the electromagnet 20 from a communicated start or stop order at terminals, a manual control part 40b controlled directly by the button 42 and a trigger part 40c controlled by the electromagnetic trigger 41 and cooperating reciprocally with the control part manual 40b. It should be noted that the three parts 40a, b, c of the mechanism 40 act on a common pivoting lever 43. This lever is multipolar, is mounted so as to pivot around a fixed axis O1 and has two arms 43a, 43b. 43a is coupled to the mechanism 40b and the arm 43b is biased by a lever not indicated actuated by the electromagnet 20 via a lever not indicated and by a lever control 66 displaceable by the trigger 41. The arm 43b has a free end 44 applicable on the top of the various pole pushers 19 in order to open the contacts depending on the implementation of one or other of the parts 40a, 40b, 40c of the mechanism.

The manual control part 40b of the mechanism 40 includes a system for reference 61 which transforms the rotary movement of the button 42 (of axis 03) into translational movement, in a direction X2 parallel to the movement of pushers 19, a link 62 which extends in this same direction X2. The system return 61 includes in particular a rotary finger 61a mounted on an axis 04 and ensuring mechanical coupling with the link.

The link 62 is shown in more detail in FIG. 9. At the various positions of the button, visible in FIGS. 6A to 6D, namely "on" position (figure 6A), "off" position (figure 6B), "tripped" position (figure 6C), "reset" position (FIG. 6D), correspond as many positions of the link 62. At its upper end located towards the button 42, the link 62 includes an opening 62a which receives the operating finger 61a of the return system 61 and a housing 62b which extends in the direction X2 and is provided with rectilinear slides 62i extending according to X2 and notches 62c set back relative to the slides to cooperate with a swivel elastic lock 63.

The link 62 has arms 62d which couple, by an axis or tenons 62e provided at their free end, with a slide or an oblong hole 64a of a lever oscillating 64. At its lower end located towards the contacts, the link 62 comprises an opening 62f into which the end of the arm 43a of the lever 43 engages to ensure a one-to-one connection. In addition, the link has 62g pins cooperating with slides 62h oriented along X2 to guide it.

The oscillating lever 64 is able to pivot around an axis O5 and carries by a support axis 06 one end 65a of a compression helical spring 65. The oscillating lever 64 also has an arm 64b located towards the contacts and an opposite arm 64c oriented opposite the contacts and towards the trip unit 41; arm 64b ends by a range 64d intended to cooperate in abutment with the control lever 66 and the arm 64c is intended to cooperate with the range 41b of the trigger 41 to ensure its rearmament.

The compression spring 65 (see FIG. 8) is articulated at its other end 65b, located near the contacts, on an axis O7 of a control lever 66 itself suitable to pivot around an axis O8. The axes O1, O2, O4, O5, O7 and O8 are fixed and parallel between them, being perpendicular to the plane of FIGS. 2 to 5 and to X1, X2, while the axes O6, O7 of the ends of the spring move according to the positions of swing lever 64 and control lever 66. As will be seen further on, the spring 65 exerts on the lever 66 a torque tending to cause it to tilt in the opening direction of the contacts and on the lever 64 a torque tending to switch in the direction of stop and reset.

The control lever 66 is biased by the part 40c of the mechanism and cooperates with its part 40b. The lever 66 is applied to the multipolar lever 43 near the end free 44 of the arm 43b of the lever 43, by the end of an arm or of an angle 66b on which is located the spring support axis 07. The end 44 of the lever 43 has a different opening stroke depending on whether it is actuated by part 40b or the part 40c of the mechanism.

The lever 66 carries a spoiler 66a normally engaged with a pin or an axis 67a of a hook 67. The control lever 66 has a generally polygonal shape, in particular a trapezoid shape, which is attached to the opposite of the axis O8 and the axis O7 an arm 66c carrying the spoiler 66a and an arm 66d serving stop at range 64d of swing lever 64.

The hook 67 is pivotally mounted on an axis close to the axis O5 and parallel to it or preferably on the axis O5 itself and it receives on an arm 67b the impulse of a butt end of the sliding core 41a of the electromagnetic trip unit 41, the core being oriented to slide in the direction X1.

The elastic lock 63 (see FIG. 11) is pivotally mounted around an axis O9 located near an edge of the rod 62 located towards the parts 40b, 40c of the mechanism. The latch 63 passes through an elongated central housing 62b of the link.

It includes a heel 63a which can snap against the notches 62c of the housing 62b of the link, and includes a bearing 63b against which is applied the end of the core 41a of the trigger 41 and an arm 63c which extends substantially in direction X2 along the rod. A at its end located towards the contacts, the arm 63c has a driver 63d engaged with a movable strip 70 in direction X1. The strip 70 is capable of actuating at least one signaling member 71, for example with mechanical contacts, capable of interrupting the supply of the coil of the electromagnet 20 when the button 42 is put in the "off" position and / or to signal the on, off or tripped state of the device. The three above-mentioned positions of the button 42 and of the link 62 correspond to three "on", "off" and "triggered" positions of the strip 70 which are communicated to it for example by the lock.

The lock is biased by a tension spring 63e which is also hooked to a fixed point 63f and exerts a return effort clockwise. The elasticity of the lock provides an elastic effect at the heel 63a, by an elastic effect clean, which can be added as is the case here the effect of a tension spring 63g. The triggering part 40c of the mechanism 40 thus comprises the hook-lever 67 and the control lever 66 and it dialogues with the oscillating lever 64, the spring 65 and the bolt 63 of the link 62.

The circuit breaker described operates as follows.

On (see Figure 2): the button 42 is in the on position indicated in Figure 6A and it is assumed that the electromagnet 20 is energized, so that it leaves the lever 43 released. By means of the finger 61a turned clockwise, the link 62 is brought to the low position, so that the multipolar lever 43 is tilted counterclockwise by releasing the contact carriers 19. As a result, for each pole, the contacts 10, 11 are closed with a contact pressure exerted by the spring 18a. The lock 63 is engaged on the link by its heel 63a. The triggering part 40c is kept armed in the state indicated in FIG. 4: the pusher 41a is returned to the right, the hook-lever 67 is tilted clockwise and hung on the spoiler 67a of the control lever 66 itself tilted counterclockwise. It should be noted that the oscillating lever 64 is driven counterclockwise by the axis 62e so that the axis O6 for hooking the spring 65 is substantially located on the line connecting the pivot axis O5 of the lever 64 to the 'axis O7 for hooking the spring on the control lever 66. The axis O6 is slightly shifted to the left with respect to the line O5-O7 to induce a clockwise rotation of the oscillating lever 64 when triggered.

Stop:

• in the case of manual control (see FIG. 3), the button 42 is put in the stop position indicated in FIG. 6B. The finger 61a is then raised and, while the heel 63a of the lock 63 emerges from the notches 62c of the link 62 thanks to the elasticity of the lock, the link can thus slide in the extreme high position (position closest to the button) . It follows that the multipole lever 43 switches clockwise and that its end 44 is applied to the pushers 19 by communicating a maximum stroke, for example of the order of 5.5mm, and is applied to the pushers 19 so that the contacts open with an eb stroke . This eb stroke is able to give the device cutting properties. It can be noted that the triggering part 40c remains in the same state as in FIG. 4.
• in the case of automatic control by the electromagnet (see figure 13), the lever 51 rotates clockwise and the contacts are opened with a stroke less than eb.

Triggering (see Figure 4): following an overcurrent signal transmitted to the electromagnet 41, the pusher 41 a moves to the left and strikes the hook lever 67 which switches counterclockwise by releasing the spoiler 67a; the control lever 66 pivots clockwise under the effect of the compression spring 65 whose end 65a remains fixed at first; the control lever 66 is applied to the multipole lever 43 giving a stroke of the order of 4.5 mm, so that the pushers 19 are pushed back and that the contacts open with a stroke ec. It should be noted that ec is less than eb.

In a second step, the pusher 41a of the trigger 41 continues to run and the arm 67b of the hook-lever 67 strikes the bearing surface 63b of the lock 63. The latter comes in an extreme counterclockwise position, significant for triggering, which it transmits to the signaling strip 70 by the coach 63d.

Oscillating lever 64 returns clockwise to an intermediate position between its on and off positions; this return is due to the torque communicated to it by the end high 65a of the spring 65 as a result of the initial offset of O6 with respect to the line O5-O7. The intermediate position of the lever 64 is defined by the stop of its arm 64b against the arm 66b of the control lever 66, itself applied to a fixed stop 66e; the aforementioned position of the lever 64 itself defines a position intermediate of the link 62 by driving the axis 62e by means of the slide 64a and thereby an intermediate position of the button 42. After actuation of the contacts 71, the strip is pulled to the left by the arm 63c of the latch 63 which is itself recalled by its 63rd tension spring.

Reset (see Figure 5): to reset the mechanism after tripping, turn button 42 to a position beyond the stop position, so as to move the rod 62 to an extreme low position, which rotates clockwise the oscillating lever 64 which, by its arm 64c, forces the shutter release button towards its rest position (on the right in the figures) and, by its arm 64b, slightly releases the lever 66 in a counterclockwise direction. The hook lever 67 returns to its hooking position under the effect of a return spring not shown and, when the button 42 returns to the stop position, the spoiler 66a engages on the hook 67a and the device is rearmed.

Claims (8)

Circuit breaker control mechanism comprising a manually controlled part (40b) used to start and stop and reset, as well as a tripping part (40c) comprising an electromagnetic trip device (41), a lever with pivoting hook (67) and a pivoting control lever with spoiler (66) normally held by the hook and biased by a trigger spring (65), the trigger ensuring the pivoting of the hook lever and the stall in response to an overcurrent the control lever to cause the contacts to open,
characterized by the fact that: an oscillating lever (64), pivotally mounted on an axis (O5), is coupled with the part (40b) of manual control, the trigger spring (65) exerts by a first press (O7) an opening torque on the control lever (66) and by a second press (O6) a return torque on the oscillating lever (64). Mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that the trigger spring (65) is compression, and the second support (O6) of the spring (65) is put in the running position in a position slightly offset from the joining line its first support (O7) to the pivot axis (05) of the oscillating lever (64), the offset ensuring upon triggering the rotation of the oscillating lever (64) to a position intermediate between its on position and its off position. Mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that the part (40b) of manual control has a rotary button (42) and a sliding link (62) cooperating directly with the oscillating lever (64) and coupled to a multipolar lever (43) for actuating the contacts, the link (62) and the button (42) being capable of assuming an on position, an off position and an intermediate position trigger. Mechanism according to claim 3, characterized in that the sliding link (62) is associated with a pivoting lock (63), the pivoting lock being able to lock the rod in the on position and being provided with an arm (63c) coupled to a strip (70) intended to actuate auxiliary contacts. Mechanism according to claim 4, characterized in that the pivoting lock (63) communicates to the strip (70) three positions respectively "on", "off" and "triggered". Mechanism according to claim 5, characterized in that the trigger electromagnetic (41) actuates the trigger at first the lever hook (67) and then places the pivoting latch (63) in its position sets off. Mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that the control lever (66) has a stop (66d) against which the oscillating lever is applied (64) when triggered and / or stopped. Mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that the part (40b) of manual control is coupled to a single sliding strip (70) with three positions on, off and triggered to activate at least one signaling device (71).

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