ES2455494B1 - SHOT MECHANISM THAT PROTECTS FROM RESIDUAL CURRENT AND SWITCH CIRCUIT - Google Patents

Abstract

Trigger mechanism that protects from residual current and circuit breaker. # The present invention describes a trigger mechanism to protect from residual current and a trigger. Said firing mechanism comprises a firing bar and a hammer, and said hammer is fitted with said firing bar so that said hammer is movable between a normal operating position and a firing position. Said trip bar has a first coupling part and a second coupling part (s), and said first coupling part interacts with a bar that protects from residual current of a device that protects from residual current so that it causes said bar trigger activates the firing of said hammer, and said second coupling part interacts with at least one of an overload protection device and short-circuit protection device so that said trigger bar activates the firing of said hammer to trip . The trip protection mechanism is shared by the device that protects against residual current, the device that protects against overloads, the device that protects against short circuits, and the like. Therefore, structures are simplified, and costs are saved.

Description

Trigger mechanism that protects from residual current and circuit breaker

The present invention relates to a molded case circuit breaker, and refers in particular to a thermal-electromagnetic type trigger 5 for the molded case circuit breaker, which can cooperate with a residual current protector to perform the function. residual current protection in addition to overload protection and short circuit protection.

Background of the technique 10

Molded case circuit breakers have been widely used in medium and low voltage power distribution circuits and power lines, power supplies and equipment.

A molded case circuit breaker generally comprises a trigger that performs protection functions, i.e. overload protection, short circuit protection, timed protection, leakage protection, etc. A circuit breaker as a traditional mechanical structure is usually used primarily to protect against thermal overloads and short circuits. A thermal overload protection device is normally composed of a bimetallic strip and a current circuit. When the temperature exceeds a certain threshold, the bimetallic band deforms to activate the firing of a firing mechanism. A short-circuit protection device commonly consists of a coil and an electromagnet that will trigger the trip mechanism when the short-circuit current exceeds a certain threshold.

In addition, apart from the mentioned protection functions, the molded case circuit breaker is generally provided in addition to a residual current protection device. The residual current protection device is capable of identifying a fault leakage current in a circuit, which guarantees the safety of people and systems.

Due to the tendency to miniaturization and the reduction of costs of molded case circuit breakers, today the residual current protection device ordinarily cooperates with a magnetothermal trigger to cut a fault leakage current in a circuit. And after resolving the fault, the circuit breaker mechanism must reset the trigger and the circuit breaker body only after the residual current protection device has been restored.

In the circuit breaker of the prior art, although it has been found that the residual current protection device cooperates with the thermo-magnetic trip mechanism, it is necessary to provide a large trip force provided by the residual current protection device. , and the design margin is small. Thus, in the events in which a short circuit failure occurs, the mechanism is contaminated, and the like, the trigger cannot be tripped or is triggered erroneously, and the reliability is reduced.

Description of the invention

Therefore, there remains a need to improve triggers and thermal electromagnetic mechanism

that protect from residual currents.

In view of the state of the art mentioned, according to the present invention, a new firing mechanism is provided that protects from residual current, which comprises a trigger bar and a hammer. Said trigger interacts with said trigger bar so that it moves the trigger bar between a normal operating position and a firing position. Said trigger bar has a first coupling part and a second coupling part. A bar that protects from residual current of a device that protects from residual current interacts with said first coupling part so that said trigger bar acts and then triggers the firing of said hammer. And at least one device that protects against overloads and a device that protects against short circuits interacts with said second coupling part so that said trigger bar acts and then causes said hammer to fire. 10

Said second coupling part is a rotating arm that cooperates with the device that protects against short circuits. And said trigger bar also comprises a third coupling part that fits with the overload protection device to facilitate the trigger bar to act in case of overload.

With this structure, a single trip protection mechanism is shared by the device that protects against residual current, the device that protects against overloads, the device that protects against short circuits, etc. Therefore, the structure is simplified and the cost is reduced. And since the behavior of the mechanism to perform the residual current protection by the trigger is the same as that of the short-circuit protection and the overload protection, that is, the hammer pushes the trigger of the circuit breaker. Therefore, the trip architecture between the trigger and the circuit breaker body is simplified, and the fault current indication design is also simplified.

Preferably, the movement of said hammer between said normal operating position and said firing position is a translational movement. Furthermore, said residual current protecting rod acts in the coupling part of said residual current protecting rod so that said trigger bar rotates in a first direction, and at least one of said overloading protective device and said short-circuit protection device acts on said second coupling part, so that said trigger bar rotates in said first direction. Preferably, said trigger bar has a coupling part and said hammer has a coupling end. Said firing bar is requested so that the coupling part thereof is coupled with the coupling end of the hammer to maintain said hammer in said normal operating position.

With the above structures, the hammer is released by translation slide, which ensures that the circuit breaker mechanism is pushed to be triggered reliably and the firing procedure is simple to ensure reliable and stabilized action. The residual current protection bar collaborates with a residual current protector to actuate, to drive the trip of the trip mechanism when a leakage current fault occurs, which interrupts the fault current. For firing, the firing force to be provided by the residual current protection shield can be greatly reduced, and therefore the design margin is greatly increased and the reliability of the products is improved, especially The reliability of the residual current protection function is improved after short-circuit failures occur (the mechanism becomes heavily contaminated).

Preferably, when said device that protects from residual current is tripped, said bar that protects from residual current moves in translation along its longitudinal direction to push the trigger bar.

With this structure, in comparison with the prior art structure in which the residual current protection bar rotates to push the trigger bar, the space necessary for the movement of the residual current protection bar can be reduced, and the reliability of the movement of the residual current protection bar can be improved, and the firing force of the residual current protection device can be reduced.

Preferably, said residual current protecting bar is provided with a guide limiting part 10 that interacts with the corresponding part provided in a base of the trip mechanism or a housing of the switch circuit so as to perform a guide function for the bar which protects from residual current during the movement of said bar that protects from residual current and limits the travel of said bar that protects from residual current. Preferably, said guide limiting part is a guiding groove formed on one side of said bar that protects from residual current, and said corresponding part is a guiding protuberance 15 provided at the base of said trip mechanism or circuit housing. switch, and the guiding protuberance is inserted into said guiding groove.

With this structure, the stability of the movement of the bar that protects from residual current can be guaranteed by a simple structure. twenty

Preferably, the coupling part of said residual current protection bar is a platform part disposed on one side of the trip bar, which is inserted into a recess part formed on said residual current protection bar, so that said recess part abuts against and pushes the platform part of said trigger bar during the translation movement of said bar that protects from residual current.

With this structure, when the device that protects from residual current is not rearmed, since the platform part of the trip bar is inserted in the recess part of the bar that protects from residual current, the rotation of the bar stops Trigger in the direction of reset. That is, the reset of the firing mechanism and the trigger body can only be performed when the device that protects from residual current is rearmed, thereby improving the safety of the equipment.

Said firing mechanism that protects from residual current also comprises a support having a guiding passage. Said hammer is slidably mounted in said guiding step, and is guided by said guiding step.

Thanks to the support, the hammer can be located with greater precision, and the action of the hammer is guided by the support, and the reliability of the operation of the hammer is improved.

Preferably, said trigger mechanism that protects from residual current is arranged in the trigger housing to constitute a set.

With this structure, the trigger can be assembled with the circuit breaker as a whole, resulting in exchange capacity (existing between the circuit breaker and the trigger; between the trigger and the residual current protector), which facilitates industrialized manufacturing and compliance with the requirements of different customers. By using the structure of the trip mechanism, the manufacturing and assembly time of the circuit breaker are also effectively reduced, further facilitating the storage and management of manufacturing.

In accordance with the present invention, a trigger is also provided which comprises the previous firing mechanism.

Brief description of the figures

Other aspects, features and advantages will be easy to understand and can easily be determined with respect to the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating a trigger according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view illustrating the trigger shown in Figure 1 of another view;

Figure 3 is a perspective view illustrating a trigger bar of the trip protection mechanism for the trigger shown in Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a perspective view illustrating a hammer of the trigger protection mechanism for the trigger shown in Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a perspective view illustrating a bar that protects the trip protection mechanism for the trigger shown in Figure 1 from residual current;

Figure 6 is a perspective view illustrating a support of the trigger protection mechanism for the trigger shown in Figure 1; 25

Figure 7 is a schematic view illustrating the hammer assembly of Figure 4 and the support of Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a schematic view illustrating the assembly of the firing bar of Figure 3 and the hammer of Figure 4;

Figure 9 is a schematic view illustrating the assembly of the trip bar of Figure 3 and the residual current protecting bar of Figure 5; and, 30

Figure 10 is a schematic view to explain the residual current protection.

Figure 10A illustrates the state before the residual current protection mechanism is triggered, that is, the state before the trip mechanism is triggered. Y

Figure 10B illustrates the state after the mechanism that protects from residual current is triggered, that is, the state after the trip mechanism is triggered. 35

The drawings are intended to describe exemplary embodiments of the present description, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present description. Unless explicitly stated, drawings should not be considered as drawn to scale.

Description of Preferred Embodiments 40

In the description of the embodiments shown in the drawings, specific terms are used for reasons of clarity. However, the disclosure of this descriptive patent specification is not intended to be limited to the terms

specific selected. And it should be understood that each specific element includes all technical equivalents with similar functions and effects. In the following descriptions, the terms "includes", "comprises" and the like should be understood as open, whose intention is that there may be other elements or unnamed members that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art according to the instructions of the present invention, except for the indicated elements or elements. 5

Although the examples of embodiments are described with some technical limitations with reference to the accompanying drawings, the description is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. And all the components or elements described in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not indispensable for the present invention.

Preferred embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrate a trigger 100 in accordance with the preferred embodiments. As is well known in the prior art, the trigger 100 mainly comprises a main housing 101, a mounting part (not shown) for mounting the trigger 100 with a circuit breaker, protective devices (not shown) housed in the main housing 101, and a firing mechanism 102 mounted 15 substantially on top of the main housing 101, etc. The protection devices include an overload protection device, a short circuit protection device and a residual current protection device, which are activated in the case of overload, short circuit, current leakage failure and the like, thus activating the firing mechanism Since these protection devices are the same as the prior art protection devices, they are not critical to the present invention. Therefore, those skilled in the art can perform them with reference to prior art structures, and their detailed description may be omitted in this document.

The firing mechanism 102 according to the preferred embodiments of the present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, especially from Fig. 3 to Fig. 10. The firing mechanism 102 is designed as a set, detachably mounted on the top of the main housing 101 of the trigger 100 and is common among a plurality of different types of triggers. Then, the mounted trigger 100 can be mounted with the circuit breaker as a whole.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the firing mechanism 102 substantially comprises a support 10, 30 a firing bar 20, a hammer 30 and a residual current protection bar 40. The support 10 is mounted in the housing main 101 of the trigger 100 to house the trigger bar 20, the hammer 30 and the residual current protection bar 40 of the trigger mechanism 102. The trigger bar 20 can be pivotable along an axis passing therethrough. Two opposite ends of said axis are arranged in a side plate 50, respectively. Of course, the shaft can also be integrated with the trigger bar 20, and pivotally mounted on the side plate 50 by the two ends of the shaft (ie, two ends of the trigger bar 20).

In addition, the trigger bar 20 is pushed in a predetermined direction by means of a recovery spring (not shown). The spring may be a torsion spring, and one end of the torsion arm thereof is trapped in the trigger bar 20 and the other end is trapped in a corresponding slot (not shown), 40 so that the bar is pushed shot 20 in the predetermined direction (clockwise direction, in the present invention). Of course, other forms of springs or elastic elements can also be adopted to perform these functions, which are all included within the scope of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 3, the trigger bar 20 is generally an elongated rod, and one side (ie the horizontal side in Figure 3) of the outer periphery thereof is provided with a coupled part 21 in order to engage with hammer 30 which will be described below. In addition, another side (i.e. the lower part of Figure 3) of the outer periphery of the firing bar 20 is provided with a plurality of rotating arms 22A-22C which are connected with firing elements of a protection device of Three-phase short-circuit, respectively, and then mounted on trigger 100. Three projections 24A-24C are arranged respectively on an upper side of Figure 3 of trigger bar 20, corresponding to three phases. These projections 24A-24C are provided with holes 25A-25C, and thermal adjustment screws (not shown) are threaded into these holes. After assembly, these thermal adjustment screws are fitted respectively with trip elements of the overload protection device. The length of the thermal adjustment screws protruding from the holes 10 25A-25C can be adjusted, and therefore the stroke length of the entire overload protection mechanism and the space between the thermal adjustment screws can be adjusted and the trigger element of the overload protection device. In addition, a coupling portion 23 to engage with the residual current protection bar is disposed in a different position on one side of the trip bar 20 which is substantially the same side of the rotation arms 22A-22C, which must be coupled with a bar that protects from residual current 40 which will be described below and has a substantially platform shape.

Now with reference to Figure 4 and Figure 8, the hammer 30 is a substantially elongated rod, and one end thereof has a coupling end 31, and the other end is formed as a substantially disk-shaped execution portion 33 which pushes a blocking device of a circuit breaker mechanism and then cuts off the fault current. In addition, a rib 32 may be arranged in the main body of the hammer to improve the strength of the entire hammer 30. As shown in Figure 8, after assembly, the hammer 30 is placed on the firing bar 20, and the coupling end 31 of the hammer 30 is coupled with the coupling part 21 of the trigger bar 20. As shown in the figures, in preferred embodiments of the present invention, the coupling end 31 of the hammer 30 is a hook, and the coupled part 21 of the 25 firing bar 20 is a step. However, those skilled in the art will understand that any appropriate form can be taken as long as both can make a releasable coupling without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Now, with reference to Figure 6 and Figure 7, the hammer 30 is mounted on a guide passage 11 of the support 10 30 which is mounted on the base of the firing mechanism 102. And the guide passage 11 of the support 10 has a channel (not shown), so that it corresponds to the rib 32 of the hammer 30, to ensure proper installation of the hammer 30, and to guide the movement of the hammer 30 during the movement of the hammer 30. Of course, the present invention it is not limited to this guiding structure, and any guiding structure can be adopted to perform the hammer guide function 30. A solicitation spring (not shown) is disposed between the hammer 30 and 35 the support 10 so as to push the hammer 30 in the direction shown by arrow A in figure 10A and in figure 10B.

Now, with reference to Figure 5 and Figure 9, the residual current protection bar 40 is an elongated bar, which slides in a predetermined direction when the residual current protection device is activated. The 40 residual current protection bar 40 is guided to move by means of a corresponding portion (not shown) of the housing 101 of the trigger 100. In particular, an overhanging portion 41 is formed on one side of the protection bar of residual current 40, in which a guide groove 411 is formed. After

assembly, a guiding protuberance (not shown) is inserted as the guiding part of the trigger housing 101 in the guiding groove 411, so that the residual current protection bar 40 moves only in the direction of the length ( along the direction of the length of the residual current protection bar 40 in Figure 5) of the round-trip guide groove 411, and the length of the movement stroke is defined by the length of the groove of guidance 411 in the direction of the length. Of course, another 5 forms of guidance and limitation structures can be adopted. For example, the guiding protuberance is formed in the residual current protection bar 40, and the guiding groove is formed in the main housing 101 of the trigger, always within the scope of protection of the present invention.

In addition, a recess portion 42 is formed in the residual current bar 40 in a corresponding position in the direction of its length. The recess part 42 is sized so that it can be coupled with the coupling part 23 of the trip bar 20. Especially, after assembly, the coupling part 23 of the trip bar 20 is inserted into the part of recess 42 in order to push the trigger bar 20 to rotate through the coupling between the coupling part 23 and the recess part 42 following the movement of the residual current protection bar 40. However, other ones can also be adopted structures for the coupling 15 of the trip bar 20 and the residual current protection bar 40. For example, a protuberance is formed in the residual current protection bar, which can rest against the coupling part of the protection bar residual current of the firing bar, thus rotating the firing bar. Alternatively, other coupling means such as pins, pins or the like can be adopted. Therefore, all structures capable of performing the aforementioned functions are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

With reference to Figure 10A and Figure 10B below, the operating principles of the firing mechanism of the present invention are described.

Figure 10 shows the status before the trigger mechanism is activated. As shown in Fig. 10A, in this state, under the action of the recovery spring of the firing bar 20, the coupling is carried out between the coupling end 31 of the hammer 30 and of the coupled part 21 of the trigger bar 20, and hammer 30 is held in place. And the coupling portion 23 is inserted into the recess portion 42 of the residual current protection bar 40. The trigger 100 is in a normal operating state. 30

When a fault leakage current occurs, a residual current protection device (not shown) is triggered, so that the residual current protection bar 40 moves along the direction indicated by arrow A of the 10A, and then the recess portion 42 of the residual current protection bar 40 pushes the coupling part 23 of the trip bar 20, so that the trip bar 20 rotates about an axis in one direction. contrary to the hands of the clock of Fig. 10. With the rotation of the firing bar 20, the coupled part 21 of the firing bar 20 and the coupling part 31 of the hammer 30 are released. Therefore, the clamping effect of the trigger bar 20 on the hammer 30, and the hammer 30 moves in translation along the direction indicated by arrow A of Figure 10A under the action of the bypass spring (not shown) and under guiding the support guide mechanism 10. The Hammer 30 pushes the locking device of the circuit breaker mechanism of 40 circuit and then cuts the fault current. Figure 10B illustrates the state at that time.

If the fault is not resolved, since the trigger bar 20 is pushed to a position shown in Figure 10B by the

recess portion 42 of the residual current protection bar 40 at this time and the residual current protection bar 40 cannot be reassembled and thereby prevents rotation of the trip bar 20 along the direction of the clockwise before the fault leakage current, despite pushing the hammer 30 in a direction opposite to the direction shown by arrow A, the coupling part 21 of the firing bar 20 is unable to engage with the end coupling 31 of the hammer 30. Therefore, the hammer 30 cannot be reset. After the resolution of the fault, pushing the hammer 30 along the direction opposite to the direction shown by arrow A of Figure 10A, the entire firing mechanism is reset, and at this time, as the protection bar of residual current 40 stops preventing the rotation of the firing bar 20, and the firing rod 20 rotates according to the clockwise direction of Fig. 10 under the action of the recovery spring so that the coupling part 21 of the trigger bar 20 is coupled with the coupling end 31 of the hammer 30. 10

The trip mechanism according to preferred embodiments of the present invention has been described above with reference to the residual current protection device. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, said trigger bar 20 is further provided with a plurality of rotation arms 22A-22C that can be fitted with the short-circuit protection device, and the thermal adjustment screw disposed on the 15 trigger bar 20 fits with the overload protection device. Therefore, when one of the short-circuit protection devices, of the overload protection devices and the like is tripped due to the appearance of the overload current, the short-circuit current, and the like, the tripped part of the protection device pushes the rotating arm 22 of the firing bar 20 or the thermal adjustment screw of the firing bar 20, resulting in the rotation of the firing bar 20, and the entire firing mechanism 20 is triggered. Here the operating mode of the trip mechanism will not be repeated again, which is similar to that described above with reference to the residual current protection device.

For certain embodiments of the present invention that have been described in this way, it is obvious that they can be varied in many ways. And within the scope of the present description and the claims, elements and / or characteristics of the different embodiments can be combined and / or replaced with each other. For example, in detailed embodiments, the trip bar 20 is provided with three rotation arms 22A-22C and three thermal adjustment screws 25A-25C to correspond to three phases. However, the number is not limited, and one or more swivel arms or thermal adjustment screws can also be adopted according to the service conditions. The coupled part of the firing bar can be such that it protrudes, and the coupling part 30 of the hammer in the form of a recess, and vice versa. The hammer is provided with the rib 32 to improve the strength of the hammer 30, and in the meantime the rib 32 is also used as the guided portion of the hammer in order to engage with a corresponding part of the support for guiding the sliding of the hammer 30. Certainly, the force improvement rib and the guiding part can be formed separately, and various other guidance structures commonly used in the art can also be adopted. The specific positions 35 of the coupling part, the rotating arms and the like of the trigger bar 20 can be changed according to the general design of the trigger, without being limited to what is shown in the drawings. These modifications should not be considered as outside the scope of the present invention, and the intention of all these improvements is that they be included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. 40

Claims (13)

1. A trigger mechanism (102) that protects against residual current, comprising: a firing bar (20) and a hammer (30) that interacts with said firing bar (20) so that said hammer (30) is movable between a normal operating position and a firing position, wherein, said 5 trip bar (20) has a first coupling part (23) and a second coupling part (s) (22A-22C), a device that protects from residual current cooperates with said first coupling part (23) so which causes said trigger bar (20) to activate the firing of said hammer (30), and one of a device that protects against overloads and a device that protects against short circuits interacts with said second coupling part (22A-22C) so which causes said trigger bar (20) to activate the firing of said hammer (30). 10 2. The firing mechanism (102) protecting against residual current according to claim 1, wherein the movement of said hammer (30) between said normal operating position and said firing position is a translational movement. 3. The firing mechanism (102) protecting against residual current according to claim 2, wherein said firing bar (20) has a coupling part (21), and said hammer (30) has a coupling end (31), and the coupling part (21) of said trigger bar (20) is fitted with the coupling end (31) of said hammer (30) to keep said hammer (30) in said normal operating position. 4. The firing mechanism (102) that protects against residual current according to claim 1, wherein said second coupling part (s) (22A-22C) has the form of a rotating arm that can cooperate with the device It protects from short circuits. 5. The trip mechanism (102) that protects against residual current according to claim 4, wherein, the mechanism also comprises a third coupling part, which cooperates with the device that protects against overloads for firing the mechanism of Shooting. 6. The trip mechanism (102) that protects against residual current according to claim 5, wherein said third coupling part are thermal adjustment screws arranged in projections (24A-24C) formed in said trip bar 30 (20 ). 7. The trip mechanism (102) that protects from residual current according to any of claims 1-6, wherein, when said device that protects from residual current is tripped, a bar that protects from residual current (40) of said device that protects from residual current is interacting with said first coupling part so that the translational movement of said bar that protects from residual current (40) pushes said trigger bar (20) to rotate. 8. The trip mechanism (102) that protects against residual current according to claim 7, wherein said bar that protects against residual current (40) has a recess part (42), and the first coupling part (23 ) of said 40 firing bar (20) is constructed in the form of a platform insertable in said recess portion (42). 9. The trip mechanism (102) protecting against residual current according to claim 7, wherein said bar that protects from residual current (40) has a guide limiting part (411) that fits with a corresponding guide part to guide the translational movement of said bar that protects from residual current (40), and to limit the length of stroke of the translational movement of said bar that protects from residual current (40). 10. The trip mechanism (102) that protects from residual current according to claim 9, wherein said guide limiting part 5 (411) is a guide groove (411) formed in said bar that protects from residual current (40), and said corresponding guide part is a protuberance formed in a housing (101) of the trigger, and the protuberance is inserted into said guide groove (411). 11. The firing mechanism (102) that protects against residual current according to claim 7, wherein, also 10 comprises a support (10) having a guiding passage (11), and said hammer (30) is mounted from sliding form in said guiding step (11) and is guided by said guiding step (11). 12. Trigger (100), comprising at least one of a device that protects against overloads and a device that protects against short circuits, and a device that protects against residual current, in which, said trigger (100) 15 also comprises the mechanism tripping (102) that protects against residual current according to any of claims 1-11, and at least one of the device that protects against overloads and the device that protects against short circuits fits with one of the second coupling part (s) (22A -22C) of the trip bar (20) of said trigger mechanism (102), and said device that protects from residual current coincides with the first coupling part (23) of said trigger bar (20), so that shoot said trigger (100). twenty 13. The trigger (100) according to claim 12, wherein said trigger (100) is interchangeably assembled in a switch circuit as a whole.