JP2575639B2 - Circuit breaker with timer function - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a circuit breaker with a timer function.

(Background technology)

For time-scheduled operation of equipment that uses late-night power such as night lighting, conventionally, a circuit breaker with a time switch added, a circuit breaker with an electromagnetic contactor and a time switch added in consideration of current capacity, In addition, a remote control circuit breaker provided with an interface circuit constituting a time switch and a sensor interlocking unit was considered.

However, these means increase the number of contacts, causing a voltage drop due to poor contact, and in the event of a short circuit on the load side, the time switch and the contacts of the electromagnetic contactor are welded and become unusable. There was a drawback that the probability was high. In addition, there are disadvantages in that installation work and power supply wiring work are complicated, space is increased, and total cost is increased.

[Object of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a circuit breaker with a timer function which can reduce the occurrence of the trouble and can omit a space and wiring.

[Disclosure of the Invention]

The present invention provides a pedestal having a terminal for external connection, and a contact portion provided on the pedestal and connected to the terminal can be opened and closed by a handle and an electromagnet, and the contact portion responds to an abnormal current. An opening / closing mechanism having a configuration for trip-opening a timer, a timer function provided on the pedestal, time setting means built in the timer function for setting an operation time of the timer function, The time setting means and a cover means for covering the terminal, the timer function unit having an input unit connected to a power connection side of the terminal of the pedestal, A time switch circuit that outputs a signal to turn on or off the contact at a predetermined time set by the means,
It has an output circuit for receiving an output signal of the time switch circuit and outputting an exciting current to the electromagnet.

According to the present invention, since the electromagnet is driven by the output of the timer function unit during the predetermined time to open and close the contact unit, the contact of the conventional time switch provided for the main rotation can be omitted. For this reason, occurrence of troubles is reduced and contact reliability is improved. The timer function section and the opening / closing mechanism section are housed in the base, and the input side of the timer function section is connected to the power supply terminal side. As a result, the external terminals and connection for the timer function unit are not required, and the simplification accompanying the elimination of the above-mentioned contacts, space saving, installation work and wiring saving are achieved, and furthermore, erroneous connection, disconnection and noise trouble are prevented. Can be. Further, the cover means can prevent the user from unnecessarily changing the time setting of the time setting means and the power supply side terminal and the load side terminal.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. That is, this circuit breaker with a timer function comprises a table 9 having terminals 12 and 32 for external connection, and a contact portion 1A provided on the table 9 and connected to the terminals 12 and 32, a handle 4 and an electromagnet. An opening / closing mechanism section 5 configured to be openable / closable by 7A and configured to trip and open the contact section 1A in response to an abnormal current; a timer function section 8 provided on a base 9 '; Time setting means 44A which is built in the timer function section 8 and sets the operation time of the timer function section 8;
2 and a cover means 60 for covering the timer function unit 8
Has a time switch circuit 42 having an input portion connected to the terminal 12 of the base 9 and outputting a signal for turning on or off the contact at a predetermined time set by the time setting means 44A. An output circuit 43 that receives an output signal of the switch circuit 42 and outputs an exciting current to the electromagnet 7A is provided.

In particular, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the opening / closing mechanism unit 5 in this embodiment includes a fixed contact 1 that constitutes the contact portion 1A.
The movable contact 2 opposing the movable contact 2 is urged to open by a spring 3 and the movable contact 2 and the handle 4 are operatively linked to each other, and the linkage is broken and tripped in response to an abnormal current such as an overcurrent. The electromagnet 7A is configured such that the plunger 6 is coupled to the operation sequence of the handle 4 so as to be linked to the movable contact 2 and to maintain the ON and OFF positions of the movable contact 2 at its own stable position. It is composed of a bistable electromagnet 7.

The opening / closing mechanism section 5 and the bistable electromagnet 7 are housed in a base 9 constituting an outer shell of the circuit breaker. Table 9
Is formed for each pole, has an opening on the side surface for mounting each part, is closed by a side plate 67, and the bases 9 are connected in parallel. Further, the timer function unit 8 is built in the pedestal 9 ′ and is provided side by side with the pedestal 9. An upper cover 9a is attached to the upper surface so as to straddle the pair of pedestals 9.

The fixed contact 1 is provided at the bottom of the base 9. The fixed contact 1 is provided with a fixed contact 10 and is connected to a power supply terminal 12 via a flexible electric wire 11.

The movable contact 2 has a movable contact 13 at its distal end which comes into contact with and separates from the fixed contact 10, and is supported at its proximal end by a first movable shaft 14 on a movable contact support frame 15, and a contact pressure spring 16 Is interposed.

The handle 4 is supported on the table 9 by a fixed shaft 17,
The link 19 is connected by a second movable shaft 18, and the other end of the link 19 is connected to the first movable shaft 14.

The means for tripping when the linkage is broken in response to an abnormal current such as an overcurrent of the opening / closing mechanism 5 is mainly as shown in FIG.
Bimetal 20 for overcurrent detection and electromagnet device for short circuit detection
An abnormal current detecting means 22 consisting of 21; a tripping member 23 responsive to the abnormal current detecting means 22;
Latch link 24 latched by
And a spring 3 for urging the movable contact 2 to open. The trip member 23 and the latch link 24
Are supported by fixed shafts 25 and 26, respectively, and a fixed member 25 is provided with a trip member return spring 27.
Is provided. The other side of the latch link 24 opposite to the side latched by the latch portion 28 is connected to the movable contact support frame 15 by a third movable shaft 29. As shown in FIG. 6, the electromagnet device 21 for detecting a short-circuit current
Is provided so that the movable contact 2 can be locked. The load-side terminal 32 is provided on the side opposite to the power-supply-side terminal 12 of the base 9 and is provided with the coil 33 (the sixth
(See Fig.), The flexible wire 34, the overcurrent detecting bimetal 20, the frame 35, and the flexible wire 36 are connected to the movable contact 2.

The bistable electromagnet 7 is a polarized type having a pair of permanent magnets 37 as shown in FIG. 5, and the plunger 6 has a lower end contacting a large yoke 38 and an upper end contacting a small yoke 39, respectively. 5 and a second stable state in which the upper end of the plunger 6 contacts the large yoke 38 and the lower end contacts the small yoke 39 in FIG. The coil 40 is the plunger 6
When the pulse current is supplied, the plunger 6 is driven to the other stable state by its polarity. The plunger 6 is connected to the handle 4 via a connecting link 6a as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the timer function unit 8 mainly includes a time setting display unit 41 and a time switch circuit 42 having an input unit.
And an output circuit 43. A time setting display section 41 includes a time setting button (or knob) 44 serving as time setting means 44A for setting a time such as the present time, a time display section 45, and a slide for setting a plurality of types (two types in the embodiment) of times. There is provided a time setting switching means 46 having a switch as an embodiment, and these are provided so as to be exposed from the upper cover 9a of the base 9 as shown in FIG. The time setting switching means 46 switches between two types, for example, so that the first midnight power is turned on at 23:00 to 7:00 and the second midnight power is turned on at 1:00 to 6:00. Things. As shown in FIG. 2, the time switch circuit 42 has a function in which the input section is connected to the power supply terminal 12 and operates at a set time based on the time setting switching means 46 to output a signal and operate the output circuit 43. Make up. Further, the output circuit 43 is configured so as to output a pulse as an exciting current, and its output terminal is connected to the coil 40 of the bistable electromagnet 7. The power of the timer function unit 8 is received from the electric circuit on the power supply terminal 12 side inside the circuit breaker. Therefore, at the set time, the pulse of the output circuit 43 drives the bistable electromagnet 7. Since a more specific circuit configuration of the timer function unit 8 is known, it is omitted.

The cover means 60 covers the upper surface excluding the handle 4, the time display unit and the trip test button from both sides of the pedestal 9, and is screwed to the nut 62 of the pedestal 9 with screws 61 and sealed. The pair of cover means 60 are formed in the same manner, and also cover the load terminal 32 and the power supply terminal 12. 63 is a notch for wire insertion, and 64 is time setting switching means
Reference numeral 46 denotes a display section, 65 denotes a screw insertion, and 66 denotes a guide piece that comes into contact with the edge of the side plate 67 of the base 9 from inside.

47 (FIG. 2) is a normally-closed trip interlocking contact connected in series to the coil 40 of the bistable electromagnet 7, and is constituted by a microswitch 48 (FIG. 5).
The micro switch 48 engages with the protrusion 50 on the side of the latch link 24 via the interlocking lever 49, and drives the micro switch 48 in conjunction with the trip operation of the latch link 24.

51 (FIG. 3) is a trip test button for tripping the tripping member 23, 52 is an arc extinguishing device, and 53 is a trip display mechanism.

56 is a connecting hole for the base 9, 9 ', 57 is a mounting groove for the base 9, 9',
58 is a trip interlocking member that trips the tripping member 23 of the other pole in response to the latch link 24, and 59 is a handle interlocking rod that interlocks the handle (not shown) of the other pole.

The operation of the circuit breaker with a timer function will be described. That is, FIG. 4 shows the ON state, and the movable contact 13
Contacts the fixed contact 10 and, as described above, the bistable electromagnet 7
Is held by A contact pressure is applied by a contact pressure spring 16.

FIG. 6 shows the off state, and when the handle 4 is turned from the state shown in FIG. 4 to the state shown in FIG. 6, the plunger 6 of the bistable electromagnet 7 moves upward to be in a stable state. At the same time, the movable contact 2 rotates about the third movable shaft 29 to
13 is separated from the fixed contact 10.

Here, operations of the timer function unit 8 and the bistable electromagnet 7 will be described. When a predetermined time is reached by the timer function unit 8, an exciting current by a pulse is supplied to the coil 40 of the bistable electromagnet 7 from the output circuit 43. The excitation of the coil 40 causes the plunger 6 to move to the opposite side to move the handle 4 from the on side to the off side or vice versa. As a result, the circuit breaker with the timer function automatically operates from on to off or vice versa at a predetermined time.

FIG. 7 shows a trip state due to a short-circuit current from the ON state. When a short-circuit current flows through the coil 33 of the electromagnet device 21 for short-circuit detection, the movable core 30 is attracted to the fixed core 55 against the return spring 54. The movable bar 56 operates in conjunction with the movable iron core 30 to push and rotate the tripping member 23, and the latch link 24 is released from the latch portion 28. Latch link 24
Is rotated by the spring 3 and the third movable shaft 29 is moved, so that the movable contact 2 is rotated about the first movable shaft 14 and the movable contact 13 is separated from the fixed contact 10. Since the forcibly opening rod 31 pulls the movable contact 2 so as to compress the contact pressure spring 16 momentarily faster than this operation, the movable contact 13 separates from the fixed contact 10 more quickly to realize high-speed current limiting.

On the other hand, when an overcurrent flows, the tripping member 23 is rotated by operating the overcurrent detecting bimetal 20, so that the same trip operation as described above is performed except for the operation by the forced opening rod 31.

The reset after the trip is performed by moving the handle 4 to the off position in a state where the tripping member 23 is returned by the return spring 27, thereby pulling up the movable contact 2 via the link 19 and returning the latch link 24, and Latch to 28.

The operation of the latch link 24 accompanying this trip operation causes the projection 50 in FIG.
The lever 48a of the micro switch 48 returns to the off state from the on state via 49, and the trip interlocking contact 47 opens. As a result, the circuit of the coil 40 is opened, and the bistable electromagnet 7 is not driven by the timer function unit 8. That is, there is no automatic resetting and automatic re-input.

With this configuration, the circuit breaker with a timer function can omit the contacts of the time switch provided in the main circuit as compared with the conventional circuit breaker. Is improved. Therefore, space saving, contact saving material, and wiring saving are achieved. The timer function section 8 and the opening / closing mechanism section 5 are housed in a base 9 and the input side of the timer function section 8 is connected to a power supply side terminal 12.
Side, and the power of the timer function unit 8 is
Since it can be taken from the electric circuit inside 9 ', external terminals and external wiring for the timer function section 8 are not required, further saving space and wiring, and preventing rear connection, disconnection and noise trouble. it can.

In addition, since the bistable electromagnet 7 has polarity and is driven in two directions by pulses of different polarities, the coil 40 requires only one winding, and can be reduced in size and consume less power.
In addition, the trip interlocking contact 47 does not automatically reset or turn on again the bistable electromagnet 7 in an accident state such as a short circuit.

Further, the cover means 60 can prevent the customer from unnecessarily changing the time setting of the timer function unit 8 and changing the power supply side terminal and the load side terminal. In addition, since the time setting switching means 46 is provided, a circuit breaker with a timer function common to both the first and second midnight power circuits can be used. There is convenience that can be switched on-site with one touch.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the opening / closing mechanism 5, in which the abnormal current detecting means 22 of the embodiment is located on the opposite side of the handle 4 and the bistable electromagnet 7 via the movable contact 2. Are provided on the same side as the handle 4 and the bistable electromagnet 7. That is, the movable contact 2 and the plunger 6 of the bistable electromagnet 7 are connected by the latch link / connection link 55, and the latch link / connection link 55
, The latch link / connection link 55 is rotatable in a direction perpendicular to the operation direction of the plunger 6, and the latch link / connection link 55 is latched by the tripping member 23, and the tripping is performed. In this configuration, the member 23 is tripped by the abnormal current detecting means (bimetal in this case) 22. Other members having the same functions as those in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

FIG. 9 shows still another embodiment, in which the handle 4
The opening / closing mechanism that allows the movable contact 2 to be moved between the on position and the off position by the operation of, and trips and opens the movable contact 2 in conjunction with the operation of the abnormal current detecting means (bimetal in this case) 22 5, a fixed contact 1 opposed to the movable contact 2, and an electromagnet 7A for controlling the fixed contact 1 to an ON position of the movable contact 2 and a position (imaginary line) apart from the movable contact 1. And the electromagnet at a predetermined time
The present invention is characterized in that a timer function section (not shown) for supplying an exciting current to 7A is provided. That is, the difference from the embodiment of FIG. 1 is that the opening / closing mechanism section 5 is a normal opening / closing mechanism capable of holding the movable contact 2 at the ON position and the OFF position independently, and the fixed contact 1 is fixed by the electromagnet 7A. Is opened and closed with respect to the movable contact 2. Electromagnet 7A
The armature 71 is normally attracted to the yoke 72 on the magnetic pole S side, and is attracted to one end 73a of the yoke 73 on the magnetic pole N side as shown by an imaginary line at the time of excitation. Other configurations are the same as those of the above-described embodiment, and functionally corresponding components are denoted by the same reference numerals.

The electromagnet 7A may be configured to be driven by the timer function unit 8 and remotely controlled by an operation signal from a remote place.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, since the electromagnet is driven by the output of the timer function unit during the predetermined time to open and close the contact unit, the contact of the conventional time switch provided in the main circuit can be omitted. For this reason, occurrence of troubles is reduced and contact reliability is improved. The timer function section and the opening / closing mechanism section are housed in the base, and the input side of the timer function section is connected to the power supply terminal side. As a result, the external terminals and connection for the timer function unit are not required, and the simplification accompanying the elimination of the above-mentioned contacts, space saving, installation work and wiring saving are achieved, and furthermore, erroneous connection, disconnection and noise trouble are prevented. Can be. Further, there is an effect that the cover means can prevent the user from unnecessarily changing the time setting of the time setting means and the power supply side terminal and the load side terminal.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention with a cover removed, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an outline of a circuit breaker with a timer function of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a circuit with a timer function. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the circuit breaker in the ON state, FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the circuit breaker having different cross-sectional positions, FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the OFF state, FIG. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment in an ON state, and FIG. 9 is a side view of another embodiment viewed from a side opening. 1A contact point, 4 handle, 5 opening and closing mechanism, 7A
... electromagnet, 8 ... timer function part, 9, 9 '... basin, 12
... Power supply terminal, 32 Load terminal, 42 Time switch circuit, 43 Output circuit, 44A Time setting means, 60
...... cover means

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-58-57218 (JP, A) JP-A-57-72707 (JP, U) JP-A-59-85004 (JP, U) JP-A-59-85004 110935 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 60-31050 (JP, U) Japanese Patent Publication No. 45-1692 (JP, B1)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pedestal having a terminal for external connection, and a contact portion provided on the pedestal and connected to the terminal can be opened and closed by a handle and an electromagnet. An opening / closing mechanism unit having a configuration for trip opening the unit, a timer function unit provided on the pedestal, time setting means built in the timer function unit to set the operation time of the timer function unit, A cover unit attached to the base to cover the time setting unit and the terminal, wherein the timer function unit has an input unit connected to a power connection side of the terminal of the base, and A time switch circuit that outputs a signal to turn on or off the contact at a predetermined time set by the setting means,
A circuit breaker with a timer function having an output circuit for receiving an output signal of the time switch circuit and outputting an exciting current to the electromagnet. 2. The circuit breaker with a timer function according to claim 1, wherein said timer function section has time setting switching means for switching a plurality of types of times so that the time can be set.