FR3060196A1 - AUXILIARY CONTACT - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an auxiliary contact (100) for electrical equipment (50) comprising a lever (52) with two stable positions, the auxiliary contact (100) comprising: - a control unit (200), - a vibration sensor ( 110) detecting vibration from the electrical equipment (50) upon tilting the lever (52) from one position to another, - a presence detector (112) detecting the presence of an individual, - a unit wireless transmission device (114), - a visual indicator (116) for displaying a signal, the control unit (200) collecting vibration data from the vibration sensor (110) and presence / absence data presence delivered by the presence detector (112) and, depending on these data, transmitting to the wireless transmission unit (114) a signal to be transmitted and, to the visual indicator (116), a signal to display.

Description

® FRENCH REPUBLIC

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY © Publication number:

(to be used only for reproduction orders)

©) National registration number

060 196

62443

COURBEVOIE © Int Cl ⁸ : H 01 H23 / 20 (2017.01)

PATENT INVENTION APPLICATION

A1

©) Date of filing: 14.12.16. © Applicant (s): TECHNICAL INTEGRATION AND (© Priority: WIRING (ITEC) - FR. @ Inventor (s): FOLLET MARTIN and HUET PHILIPPE. ©) Date of public availability of the request: 15.06.18 Bulletin 18/24. ©) List of documents cited in the report preliminary research: Refer to end of present booklet (© References to other national documents ® Holder (s): TECHNICAL INTEGRATION AND related: WIRING (ITEC). ©) Extension request (s): (© Agent (s): LE GUEN & ASSOCIES Civil society professional.

FR 3 060 196 - A1 (04) AUXILIARY CONTACT.

The invention relates to an auxiliary contact (100) for electrical equipment (50) comprising a lever (52) with two stable positions, the auxiliary contact (100) comprising:

- a control unit (200),

- a vibration sensor (110) detecting the vibrations from the electrical equipment (50) when the lever (52) switches from one position to the other,

- a presence detector (112) detecting the presence of an individual,

- a wireless transmission unit (114),

- a visual indicator (116) intended to display a signal, the control unit (200) collecting vibration data delivered by the vibration sensor (110) and presence / non-presence data delivered by the presence detector ( 112) and for, as a function of these data, transmitting, to the wireless transmission unit (114), a signal to be transmitted and, to the visual indicator (116), a signal to be displayed.

i

The present invention relates to an auxiliary contact allowing the signaling of the state of an electrical equipment to which the auxiliary contact is fixed, as well as an assembly comprising an electrical equipment and such an auxiliary contact.

A conventional electric circuit breaker has a lever which is accessible from the outside and which can take two stable positions, namely: an operating position in which the circuit breaker is closed and a safety position in which the circuit breaker is open.

To know the state of the circuit breaker remotely, it is known to fix an auxiliary contact on the side of the circuit breaker.

The auxiliary contact has an arm which enters the circuit breaker and comes into contact with a moving part of the circuit breaker and controls a signaling system for the auxiliary contact.

When the circuit breaker lever is in the operating position, the moving part takes a first position and when the circuit breaker lever is in the safety position, the moving part takes a second position.

The movement of the moving part from the first position to the second position causes the arm of the auxiliary contact to move, and this movement controls the signaling system which passes into a position making it possible to identify that the circuit breaker is in the safety position.

Although such an installation is entirely satisfactory from the operating point of view, each auxiliary contact is dedicated to a particular circuit breaker, and it is therefore not possible to use an auxiliary contact for a circuit breaker for which it has not been planned.

When a technician must therefore install or replace an auxiliary contact on a circuit breaker, he must have several types of auxiliary contacts in order to be able to cover all possible combinations.

An object of the present invention is to provide an auxiliary contact which can be used with different types of electrical equipment.

To this end, an auxiliary contact for electrical equipment is proposed comprising a lever with two stable positions, said auxiliary contact comprising:

- a control unit,

- a vibration sensor intended to detect vibrations from electrical equipment when the lever is tilted from one position to another,

- a presence detector intended to detect the presence of an individual in front of the auxiliary contact,

- a wireless transmission unit,

- a visual indicator intended to display a signal, the control unit is designed to collect vibration data delivered by the vibration sensor and presence / non-presence data delivered by the presence detector and for, as a function of these data, transmit a signal to be transmitted to the wireless transmission unit and, to the visual indicator, a signal to be displayed.

Advantageously, the control unit is provided for comparing the vibration data delivered by the vibration sensor with previously recorded vibration data, and deducing therefrom the position reached by the lever, and the signal to be emitted then comprises the position of the lever. .

The invention also provides an assembly comprising electrical equipment comprising a lever with two stable positions and an auxiliary contact according to one of the preceding variants fixed to the electrical equipment.

The characteristics of the invention mentioned above, as well as others, will appear more clearly on reading the following description of an exemplary embodiment, said description being made in relation to the accompanying drawings, among which:

Fig. 1 is a front view of an electric circuit breaker equipped with an auxiliary contact according to the invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of the architecture of the auxiliary contact according to the invention.

Fig. 1 shows an assembly comprising an electric circuit breaker 50 and an auxiliary contact 100 fixed to the circuit breaker 50.

The electrical circuit breaker 50 consists of a housing comprising inter alia a front wall 54 and two side walls 56. The circuit breaker 50 comprises a lever 52 which is accessible from the outside through the front wall 54 and which can take two stable positions , namely: an operating position (position 1) in which the circuit breaker is closed and a safety position (position 0) in which the circuit breaker is open. The circuit breaker 50 conventionally comprises a return means, for example a spring or a leaf spring. When the lever 52 is in the operating position, the return means is tensioned, and when the lever 52 is in the safety position, the return means is released. The transition from the safety position to the operating position causes the return means to be energized, which is released by returning to the safety position.

Switching from the operating position to the safety position takes place automatically when the circuit breaker 50 detects an electrical problem, or manually when a technician voluntarily switches lever 52.

Switching from the safety position to the operating position is carried out manually when a technician voluntarily switches lever 52.

The auxiliary contact 100 according to the invention comprises a housing 102 which also consists inter alia of a front wall 104 and two side walls 106.

The auxiliary contact 100 is fixed by one of its side walls against a side wall 56 of the circuit breaker 50 by any suitable fixing means such as for example clips, and the two front walls 54 and 104 are oriented in the same direction.

Fig. 2 shows the electrical architecture of the auxiliary contact 100.

The auxiliary contact 100 comprises a control unit 200, a vibration sensor 110, a presence detector 112, a wireless transmission unit 114 and a visual indicator 116.

The auxiliary contact 100 is electrically powered for example by a battery, a battery, or by the mains.

The vibration sensor 110 is provided for detecting vibrations from the circuit breaker 50 when the lever 52 is tilted from one position to the other, that is to say from the operating position to the safety position and from the safety position to the operating position.

The presence detector 112 is oriented towards the front of the auxiliary contact 100. It is here installed in the front wall 104, so as to pick up the presence of an individual, and more particularly with a hand of the individual, in front of the auxiliary contact 100, and more particularly at the level of the front wall 104 of the auxiliary contact 100 and consequently of the front wall 54 of the circuit breaker 50. Such a presence detector 112 thus makes it possible to detect the presence of the hand of a technician , and thus it is possible to know whether a tilting of the lever 52 is due to automatic or manual operation. The presence detector 112 is for example an infrared detector.

The wireless transmission unit 114, which is symbolized here by an antenna, makes it possible to communicate with a monitoring center, which allows monitoring personnel to permanently know the state of the circuit breaker 50 associated with the auxiliary contact 100.

The visual indicator 116, for example an LED, is designed to display a signal, in particular a first signal when the circuit breaker 50 is in the operating position, and a second signal when the circuit breaker 50 is in the safety position. The visual indicator 116 allows a technician to quickly view the state of the circuit breaker 50 associated with the auxiliary contact 100. The visual indicator 116 may for example have a color (for example green) when the circuit breaker is in the operating position, and another color (for example red) when the circuit breaker is in the safety position. Of course, another combination is possible.

The control unit 200 is provided for collecting the vibration data delivered by the vibration sensor 110 and the presence / non-presence data delivered by the presence detector 112 and for, as a function of these data, transmitting to the wireless transmission unit 114, a signal to be transmitted and, to the visual indicator 116, a signal to be displayed.

Thus, such an auxiliary contact 100 can dispense with the circuit breaker 50 and can adapt to different types of circuit breakers 50, and the detection of a tilting of the lever 52 makes it possible to inform a monitoring center and a technician. In addition, the detection of the presence or not of an individual in front of the auxiliary contact 100 makes it possible to conclude that there is a voluntary or automatic changeover.

According to a particular embodiment, the control unit 200 comprises connected by a communication bus 201: a processor 204 or CPU ("Central Processing Unit" in English); a random access memory RAM 206 (“Random Access Memory” in English); a ROM 208 read-only memory; a storage unit 210; at least one communication interface 202, allowing the control unit 200 to communicate with the vibration sensor 110, the presence detector 112, the wireless transmission unit 114, and the visual indicator 116.

The processor is able to execute instructions loaded into RAM from ROM. When the equipment is powered on, the processor is able to read and execute instructions from RAM. These instructions form a computer program causing the processor to implement all or part of the algorithms and steps implemented.

An operation of the auxiliary contact 100 can then be as follows from a known position of the lever 52:

a vibration detection step during which the vibration sensor 110 detects vibrations and transmits data representative of the vibrations thus detected to the control unit 200,

a step for detecting an individual during which the presence detector 112 110 detects whether an individual is present and transmits data representative of this presence / non-presence to the control unit 200,

a first step of transmitting a signal during which the control unit 200 transmits to the wireless transmission unit 114, a signal to be transmitted, said signal containing the information according to which the lever 52 has tilted and that this changeover is voluntary or automatic,

- a second step of transmitting a signal during which the control unit 200 transmits to the visual indicator 116, a signal to be displayed, said signal being representative of the position of the lever 52.

Thus, when the control unit 200 recognizes a tilting of the lever 52 from one position to the other without the presence of an individual, it deduces therefrom that this is an automatic tilting on default.

When the control unit 200 recognizes a tilting of the lever 52 from one position to the other with the presence of an individual, it deduces therefrom that this is a manual tilting.

The signal to be transmitted can then include this various information.

The previous operation is based on knowledge of the original position of the lever 52 in order to deduce therefrom the succession of tiltings.

The vibrations generated by the passage from the operating position to the safety position are different from the vibrations generated by the passage from the safety position to the operating position due, among other things, to the behavior of the return means.

To distinguish the position of the circuit breaker 50, it is then preferable to carry out learning of the auxiliary contact 100. For example, during an initialization of the auxiliary contact 100, the auxiliary contact 100 stores in its memory, the vibration data from of the circuit breaker 50 when the lever 52 switches from the operating position to the safety position and the vibration data from the circuit breaker 50 when the lever 52 switches from the safety position to the operating position, and during a subsequent tilting, the auxiliary contact 100 can, by comparing the new vibration data with the previously recorded vibration data, deduce therefrom the direction of tilting of the lever 52 and therefore its position.

The operation described above then comprises, between the detection step and the first transmission step, an analysis step during which the auxiliary contact 100, and more particularly the control unit 200, compares the vibration data. detected with the previously recorded vibration data, and deduces therefrom the position reached by the lever 52. The signal to be transmitted then comprises the position of the lever 52.

Thus, the auxiliary contact 100 can dispense with the knowledge of the original position of the lever 52, since the position reached by the lever 52 is deduced from the analysis of the vibration data on each tilting.

Thus, when the control unit 200 recognizes a tilting of the lever 52 from the operating position to the safety position without the presence of an individual, it deduces therefrom that it is an automatic tilting on fault.

When the control unit 200 recognizes a tilting of the lever 52 from the operating position to the safety position or from the safety position to the operating position with the presence of an individual, it deduces therefrom that manual tilting.

The signal to be transmitted can then include this various information.

The invention has been more particularly described in the case where the auxiliary contact 100 is fixed to a circuit breaker, but it applies in the same way when the auxiliary contact 100 is fixed to any electrical equipment comprising a lever having two stable positions, like for example a switch.

Claims (3)

1) Auxiliary contact (100) for electrical equipment (50) comprising a lever (52) with two stable positions, said auxiliary contact (100) comprising: - a control unit (200), 5 - a vibration sensor (110) provided for detecting vibrations from the electrical equipment (50) during the tilting of the lever (52) from one position to the other, - a presence detector (112) intended to detect the presence of an individual in front of the auxiliary contact (100), 10 - a wireless transmission unit (114), - a visual indicator (116) provided for displaying a signal, the control unit (200) is provided for collecting vibration data delivered by the vibration sensor (110) and presence / non-presence data delivered by the detector presence (112) and for, according to these data, 15 transmitting, to the wireless transmission unit (114), a signal to be transmitted and, to the visual indicator (116), a signal to be displayed. 2) Auxiliary contact (100) according to claim 1, characterized in that the control unit (200) is provided for comparing the vibration data delivered by the vibration sensor (110) with previously recorded vibration data, 20 and deduce therefrom the position reached by the lever (52), and in that the signal to be transmitted then comprises the position of the lever (52). 3) An assembly comprising electrical equipment (50) comprising a lever (52) with two stable positions and an auxiliary contact (100) according to one of claims 1 or 2 fixed to the electrical equipment (50).