GB2194679A

GB2194679A - Profiled support rail

Info

Publication number: GB2194679A
Application number: GB08719297A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Wilhelm Hofmann; Hock Lian Koh; Karl F Neumayer
Original assignee: BBC Brown Boveri France SA
Current assignee: BBC Brown Boveri France SA
Priority date: 1986-08-14
Filing date: 1987-08-14
Publication date: 1988-03-09
Anticipated expiration: 2007-08-14
Also published as: DE3627722A1; GB2194679B; SG66191G; HK67191A; GB8719297D0

Abstract

A profiled support rail (20) for mounting appliances (30) e.g. circuit breakers, with a common bus bar connection (36) is provided with a plastics part (10) which is firmly held at one end in a receiving pocket of the profiled support rail (20) so as to form a cantilevered resilient catch element for clamping the installation (30) between it and a holding element (24) provided on the support rail (20). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Profiled support rail The invention relates to a profiled support rail.

Profiled support rails are used for securing installation appliances, such as circuit breakers for example. A very common type of such support rails is represented by the so-called hat-section support rails which in accordance with DIN (German Industrial Standard) EN 50022 are standardized throughout Europe and which are used for snapping on installation appliances.

In addition to the latter, installation systems have also been developed, in particular in areas under British influence, in which both the fastening of the installation appliances and their current supply are provided by means of integrated bus bars. In these systems it is possible in part to detach the appropriate installation appliances individually from the bus bar and to remove them with the catches integrated on the appliance from the installation group and vice versa, and to insert and attach them there.

These catches vary greatly, however, in terms of their design and arrangement and do not permit the universal application of marketable installation appliances.

Taking this state of the art as a starting point, the object of the invention is to provide a profiled support rail of the type according to the preamble which will permit a comprehensive application of installation appliances, independently of the nature and arrangement of the fastening catches suitable for the appliances.

According to the invention the attainment of this object is characterized by the features of Claim 1 and/or Claim 9.

According to this, the invention provides that a plastics moulded part be produced which is inserted in existing profiled support rails and by means of resilient tongues, which engage in a positively locking or form-locking manner with the installation appliances attached to the profiled support rail, hold the latter immovably in the position predetermined by the structure of the profiled support rail and the installation appliance.

The dimensions of the tongues are made such that their width corresponds to the housing width, i.e. the distance between the two flat sides of the housing, of an installation appliance.

Slots, which are arranged transversely to the longitudinal axis of the profiled support rail produced as a flat section by means of metalsheet forming or continuous casting methods, are provided between the tongues. In this connexion the length of the tongues amounts to approximately half the width of the section.

The support section on which the invention is based is generally produced from metal, in particular sheet steel or light metal. It can, however, be advantageous for temperature-resistant plastics materials, preferably with fibre reinforcement, to be used instead.

In order to secure the plastics moulded part according to the invention in the support rail, a positively locking, or form-locking, detachable connexion with the profiled support rail is provided, which can be additionally fixed by an appropriate design by means of a nonpositive locking connexion.

These and further advantages and advantageous developments of the invention are set out in the Sub-Claims.

The particular advantages of the invention, further developments of the invention and improvements will be explained and described in greater detail with reference to an embodiment illustrated in the Figures, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a plastics moulded part; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a profiled support rail; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the profiled support rail of Fig. 2 with the plastics moulded part of Fig. 1 inserted; Fig. 4 shows a profiled support rail including a plastics moulded part with an installation appliance attached, and Fig. 5 shows a profiled support rail including a plastics moulded part with an installation appliance attached.

In Fig. 1 a plastics moulded part 10 is shown, which is an elongate flat section comprising integrally moulded portions 12 on its top 11 and integrally moulded portions 14, 15, 16 on its underside 13. In addition, the plastics moulded part 10 is provided with transverse slots 18 which traverse the section over approximately half the width of the section in each case and thus define in the plastics moulded part 10 individual portions, socalled tongues 19, the width of each of which corresponds to that of installation appliances customary in the trade.

The integrally moulded portions 12 have a trapezoid cross-section and act as stops and supports for an installation appliance, which is not shown in Fig. 1. In addition, the integrally moulded portion 12 contributes to the reinforcement of the tongues 19, at the free end of which the integrally moulded portion 16 is situated. The integrally moulded portion 16 forms an angled pressure surface at the end face of the tongue 19 for an installation appliance or for its fixed catch stud, provided for fastening on a hat-section support rail, as made clear below and in Figs. 4 and 5.

The integrally moulded portions 14, 15, which form a longitudinal groove 17 between them, are provided for positive-locking engagement in a profiled support rail 20, Fig. 2.

In this connexion the integrally moulded portions 14, 15 are constructed in such a way that their envelope naturally forms a larger cross-section than the receiving profile (described below) provided in the support rail 20.

The longitudinal groove 17 allows the integrally moulded portions 14, 15 to yield resiliently during insertion into the receiving profile in the support rail 20 and thus to bear against the receiving profile of the support rail 20 with uniform pressing force.

The -integrally moulded portion 16 likewise has a trapezoid cross-section and is likewise integrally formed at the free ends of the tongue 19. In this connexion, a narrow strip, the width of which corresponds approximately to the thickness of the profile of the plastics moulded part 10, projects forward and forms an angle with the lateral edge of the plastics moulded part 10. The housing (not shown in Figs. 1 and 2) of an installation appliance engages in this angle (see below) in a positively locking or form-locking manner and is acted upon in a non-positively locking or force-locking manner on account of the elasticity of the resilient tongue 19.

A longitudinal groove 21, which is formed in the underside 13 of the plastics moulded part 10 at a slight distance from the integrally moulded portion 15, is used to improve the elasticity of the resilient tongue 19.

Referring to Fig. 2, showing the profiled support rail 20 in accordance with the invention, the underside of the support rail 20 is flat and the top of it is provided with integrally moulded portions 22, 23, 24, 25 associated in pairs 22, 23 and 24, 25 with one another. These integrally moulded portions 22, 23, 24, 25 are provided with undercuts in each case, which are used to hold holding elements of the installation appliances (not shown in Fig. 2) to be attached. One of these integrally moulded portions 22, 23, 24, 25, which all run parallel to the longitudinal axis of the profiled support rail 20, namely the integrally moulded portion 25, has an approximately circular, open hollow profile 26 which is used as a receiving profile (see above) for the plastics moulded part 10 for fixing it.

In Fig. 3 the profiled support rail 20 of Fig.

2 is shown, into which the plastics moulded part 10 according to Fig. 1 is inserted. This illustration shows that the integrally moulded portions 14, 15 on the plastics moulded part 10 bear closely against the inner wall of the hollow profile 26 and reduce the cross-section of the longitudinal groove 17 between them. It should also be noted that the plastics moulded part 10 is supported on an integrally moulded portion 27 on the profiled support rail 20 and thus produces an additional fastening. The tongues 19, as shown, project in cantilever above the support rail 20.

The groove 21, mentioned above, on the plastics moulded part allows the tongues 19 to yield resiliently, for example while setting up- or dismantling an installation appliance.

Fig. 4 is a lateral elevation of the profiled support rail 20 of Fig. 2 with the plastics moulded part 10 of Fig. 1 inserted therein and an installation appliance 30 which is attached thereto and which is shown only in profile, the installation appliance (which may be a circuit breaker) also being adapted for fastening to a (not shown) standardized hat-section rail (referred to above).

The installation appliance 30 is held by virtue of the fact that a part 32 disposed on the rear thereof engages behind the undercutting of the integrally moulded portion 24 and the plastics moulded part 10 with its integrally moulded portion 16 acts in a resilient manner upon the part 32 integrally joined to the installation appliance 30 and thus fixes it in this position. More particularly, portion 16 of the plastics moulded part 10, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, has a vertical surface engaging a vertical surface of portion 32, 33 of appliance 30, 31 in a positive, or "form-locking", manner to hold portion 32, 33 in engagement with portion 24 of support rail 20. Moreover, the friction between these vertical surfaces, due to the resilience of tongue 19, acts in a "forcelocking" manner to prevent portion 32, 33 from being inadvertently disengaged.

In addition, a holding element 34 is provided, which engages in a positively locking manner in the dovetail-shaped groove formed by the integrally moulded portions 22, 23 and at its other end embraces a bus bar 36 which is used for supplying the installation appliance.

An arrangement is shown in Fig. 5 which closely resembles the arrangement shown in Fig. 4. An installation appliance 31, which in contrast to Fig. 4 is not adapted for fastening to standardized hat-section support rails 20, is attached to a profiled support rail 20 and with a lug 33 integrally formed on its rear engages, in the same manner as in the case of the installation appliance 30 shown in Fig. 4, behind an undercutting of the integrally moulded portion 24 on the support rail 20, the plastics moulded part 10 with its integrally moulded portion 16 acting upon the installation appliance 31 in a resilient manner and thus fixing it in position. In addition, a holding element 34 is provided which is likewise held in the dovetail-shaped groove formed by the integrally moulded portions 22, 23 in a positively locking manner against the profiled support rail and embraces a bus bar 36 at its other end.

The part 10 may be moulded. Alternatively it may be made by extrusion followed by cutting out the slots 18. The plastics material may for example by polyamide or reinforced polyamide. The resilience of tongues 19 depends, of course, on the nature of the plastics material and on the design of the part 10.

The support rail 20 is preferably extruded.

Claims

1. A profiled support rail for securing inserted installation appliances, in particular cir cuit breakers, with a common bus bar connexion, which profiled support rail is constructed as an elongated metal-sheet forming or continuous casting piece with holding elements which project on a flat side and are integrally formed parallel to the longitudinal axis and the arrangement of which is adapted to the installation appliances, characterized in that, in order to secure the installation appliances (30, 31) on the profiled support rail (20), two holding elements (10, 24) orientated towards one another are provided which clamp the installation appliances or parts thereof between themselves, one holding element (24) is connected in a stationary manner to the profiled support rail and engages behind a part (32, 33) of the installation appliances, while the other is constructed as a plastics moulded part (10) which can be inserted into the profiled support rail (20) and which acts as a catch element and bears against the installation appliances (30, 31) in both a positively locking or form-locking manner and a nonpositively locking or force-locking manner.

2. A profiled support rail according to Claim 1, characterized in that the plastics moulded part (10) is a flat section of plastics material, which is provided on both flat sides (11, 13) with integrally moulded portions (12, 14, 15, 16) which are used for anchoring in the profiled support rail (20) on the one hand and engage with the installation appliance (30, 31) on the other hand.

3. A profiled support rail according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the plastics moulded part (10) comprises resilient tongues (19) which are separated from one another by transverse slots (18), the distance between which in each case corresponds to the width of an installation appliance (30, 31).

4. A profiled support rail according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterized in that the tongues (19) are arranged on one longitudinal side of the plastics moulded part (10) and are used for acting upon the installation appliance (30, 31) after insertion in the profiled support rail (20).

5. A profiled support rail according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterized in that the tongues (19) comprise integrally moulded portions (12, 16), the shape of which is adapted to the installation appliances (30, 31) and which act upon the installation appliances (30, 31) in a resilient manner in order to secure them.

6. A profiled support rail according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterized in that on the longitudinal side opposite the tongues (19) the plastics moulded part (10) comprises a longitudinal bulge (14, 15) which engages in a positively locking manner in a corresponding longitudinally profiled recess (26) in the profiled support rail (20).

7. A profiled support rail according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterized in that the longitudinal bulge (14, 15) in the plastics moulded part (10) comprises a first longitudinal groove (17) which [effects] the resilient deformation of the longitudinal bulge (14, 25) and thus ensures a non-positively locking connexion of the plastics moulded part (10) with the profiled support rail (20).

8. A profiled support rail according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterized in that a second longitudinal groove (17), which increases the resilience of the tongues (19), is formed in the plastics moulded part (10) paral lel to the first longitudinal groove (17).

9. A rigid profiled support rail (20) in combination with a resilient and/or flexible member (10) for supporting electrical appliances (30, 31), the top of the support rail (20) having, along one edge thereof, a hollow portion (25) which is adapted to receive and grip a resilient portion (14, 15, 17) of the member (10) so that tongues (19) of the latter, separated from each other by transverse slots (18), project in cantilever above the support rail (20), the top of the support rail (20) having an integral undercut portion (24) directed towards angled pressure surfaces formed on portions (16) at free ends of the tongues (19), for engagement of portions (32, 33) of the appliances (30, 31) between said undercut portions (24) and said angled pressure surfaces.