JP3046844U - Breaker - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide a circuit breaker that simply shuts off a power supply line due to a temperature rise, vibration due to an earthquake, or the like. SOLUTION: The circuit breaker of the present invention includes a switch means 30 connected to an AC power supply 10 via a contact releasing coil 41, and the switch means 30 when a disconnection factor is detected.
And a control means 20 for turning ON the
It comprises a sensitive element 50 and the control means 20 which is activated when the sensitive element 50 is turned off.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a circuit breaker, and more particularly, to a circuit breaker that easily shuts off a power supply line even when the temperature rises or the vibration due to an earthquake occurs.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, a circuit breaker for cutting off a power supply line has been used, but the circuit breaker does not take into account temperature rise, vibration due to an earthquake, and the like. Therefore, for example, in the earth leakage protection outlet, there is a danger that a failure or a fire may be caused by the heat or ignition of the plug blade receiving part. Also, many electrical appliance plugs are often used for a long time once they are plugged into an outlet. Therefore, dust accumulates between the plug and the outlet, and if moisture in the air adheres, current flows between the two plug blades. Due to the above-mentioned phenomena, the insulation of plug and outlet materials deteriorates, and a tracking fire caused by heat generation is considered to be a problem.

[0003] In view of the above circumstances, even when the microcomputer constituting the control means and the semiconductor element in the peripheral circuit thereof fail due to aging such as heat, power is supplied by a tripping operation based on the output of the magnetoresistive element. Circuit breakers that cut off tracks have been proposed.

[0004] The circuit breaker has a load current detecting means for detecting a negative overcurrent flowing through the power supply line via a contact, and responds to the load current of each phase based on the detection output of the load current detecting means. A current detecting means for outputting an analog voltage signal for each phase having the same voltage level, and a control means for executing a tripping operation based on a load current indicated by the analog voltage signal. The present invention is characterized in that a current detecting means is provided with a magnetoresistive element whose resistance value changes according to the magnitude of a magnetic field, and means for interrupting the feeder line by an output of the magnetoresistive element is provided.

Therefore, according to the circuit breaker, at the time of an overcurrent, the tripping operation by the control means and the tripping operation by the output from the magnetoresistive element are executed. Even if the means breaks down, the circuit breaker can be turned off by a tripping operation based on the output of the magnetoresistive element.

[0006]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

 However, in the circuit breaker having the above configuration, even when a failure occurs due to a rise in temperature, the reliability is improved by activating the cutoff function, and the rise in temperature itself is not a cause of the interruption. Also, in the event of an earthquake, the use of heating equipment may cause a secondary disaster due to fire.

[0007] The present invention has been proposed based on the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and has as its object to provide a circuit breaker that simply shuts off a power supply line even due to a temperature rise or vibration due to an earthquake. It is.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 As shown in FIG. 1A, the present invention achieves the above object by switching the switch means 30 connected to the AC power supply 10 via the contact release coil 41 and detecting the interruption factor. A circuit breaker having control means 20 for turning on a switch means 30 is provided with a sensitive element 50 and the control means 20 which is activated when the sensitive element 50 is turned off. And

In FIG. 1A, when a thermosensitive element is used as the sensitive element 50, when the thermosensitive element detects an abnormal temperature rise, the control means 20 is activated and the power supply line is cut off.

In FIG. 1A, when a seismic device is used as the sensitive element 50, when the seismic device detects vibration or the like due to an earthquake, the control means 20 is activated and the power supply line is cut off. You.

Further, when an overcurrent element is used as the sensitive element 50 in FIG. 1B, when the overcurrent element detects an overcurrent state, the control means 20 is activated and the power supply line is cut off. You.

[0012]

[Embodiment of the invention]

 First, the configuration of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The AC power supply 10 is connected to a power supply line via contacts 11A and 11B of the circuit breaker.

The circuit breaker of the present invention includes a switch means 30 connected to the AC power supply 10 via a contact release coil 41 and a diode 61 provided for rectification. It has a control means 20 for turning on the switch means 30 and a sensitive element 50 which is turned off when a temperature rise, vibration or the like is detected.

At the time of normal power supply, the control means 20 does not operate in a state where the control means 20 does not detect the interruption factor, so that the switch means 30 keeps the OFF state, and accordingly, the contacts 11A, 11B Is closed.

When an interruption factor such as a short circuit occurs, the control unit 20 detects the interruption factor and turns on the switch unit 30. When the switch means 30 is turned ON, the contacts 11A and 11B are opened by exciting the contact release coil 41, and the power supply line is cut off.

On the other hand, in a normal power supply state, if there is an abnormal temperature rise or vibration due to an earthquake in the use environment of the circuit breaker, the sensing element 50 detects heat generation, vibration, and the like, and turns off. Then, the control means 20 is started. As a result, the switch means 30 is turned on, and the switch means 30 excites the contact release coil 41 to open the contacts 11A and 11B, thereby cutting off the power supply line. That is, when the sensitive element 50 is turned off, the power supply line is cut off in the same manner as when the control means 20 detects a cutoff factor. (However, as will be described later, the mechanism of the control means 20 in the event of a leakage is different from the mechanism of the control means 20 in the event of a temperature rise or vibration.) FIG. FIG. 3 shows a circuit diagram illustrating an example in more detail.

The control means 20 is an earth leakage breaker IC 21, the switch means 30 is a thyristor 31 whose output voltage from the earth leakage breaker IC 21 is a gate voltage, and the sensing element 50 is a temperature fuse 51 which is a thermal element. And the power supply 22 of the earth leakage breaker IC 21 (hereinafter, the voltage of the power supply 22 is referred to as “DC power supply V”), the power supply step-down resistor Rv of the earth leakage breaker IC 21, and the thyristor 31. A capacitor C is provided between the cathode and the gate.

The collector of the transistor Q provided in the earth leakage breaker IC 21 is connected to the anode of the DC power supply V via a resistor R1, and the emitter of the transistor Q is directly connected to the cathode. Further, a resistor R2 is connected between the collector and the emitter. When no leakage is detected, a predetermined positive voltage is applied to the base of the transistor Q, and the transistor Q is turned on. Therefore, the potential between the cathode and the gate of the thyristor 31 becomes the same potential through the transistor Q and the temperature fuse 51, so that the discharge of the thyristor 31 is prevented, and the main circuit contacts 11A and 11B are closed. Become.

When the earth leakage breaker IC 21 detects an earth leakage, the base voltage of the transistor Q becomes zero or negative, and the transistor Q is turned off. Therefore, the voltage divided by the resistors R1 and R2 of the DC power supply V becomes the gate voltage of the thyristor 31, so that the thyristor 31 drops. As a result, power is supplied from the AC power supply 10 to the contact release coil 41, and the power supply line is cut off by opening the contacts 11A and 11B.

Further, when the temperature fuse 51 is blown out due to an abnormal temperature rise in the above-described state where there is no earth leakage, the gate and the cathode of the thyristor 31 are cut off. It will be connected. Therefore, a voltage sufficient to break over the thyristor is applied between the gate and the cathode of the thyristor 31, so that the thyristor 31 breaks down and the contacts 11A and 11B open. That is, when the temperature fuse 51 is blown, the power supply line is cut off in the same manner as when the earth leakage breaker IC 21 detects an earth leakage.

As the thermal element, a temperature detecting element 52 having a low initial resistance value may be used instead of the temperature fuse 51. At this time, if there is an abnormal temperature rise in the above-described state where there is no leakage, the resistance of the temperature detecting element 52 increases, and it is necessary to break over the thyristor between the gate and the cathode of the thyristor 31. Voltage is applied, the thyristor 31 descends, and the power supply line is cut off. Other operations are the same as those in the case where the temperature fuse 51 is used, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

If the circuit breaker of the present invention is applied to, for example, an earth leakage protection outlet, it is possible to provide an outlet that can handle not only earth leakage but also temperature rise. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, in the earth leakage protection outlet 70, by disposing the temperature fuse 51 or the temperature detecting element 52, which is a heat-sensitive element, inside the plug blade receiving portion 71, When an abnormal temperature rise occurs in a part, the power supply line is cut off, and failures due to heat generation and fire accidents can be prevented.

Further, in the configuration shown in FIG. 2, if a seismic sensor is provided in place of the heat-sensitive element, and when a vibration exceeding a predetermined level is detected, the gate and the cathode of the thyristor 31 are cut off. The power supply line is also interrupted by vibration due to an earthquake or the like.

Furthermore, if an overcurrent element such as a current fuse is provided as the sensitive element 50, it is possible to cut off the power supply line due to the overcurrent. However, in this case, the sensitive element 50 is arranged as shown in FIG. 1B so that the current fuse is blown when the current flowing through the main circuit becomes an overcurrent state. When the current fuse is blown, the power supply line is cut off in the same manner as when the earth leakage breaker IC 21 detects an earth leakage.

By connecting a plurality of sensitive elements 50 in series, it is possible to provide a circuit breaker having a plurality of interrupting factors.

[0026]

[Effect of the invention]

 By applying the present invention to a conventional circuit breaker, it is possible to provide a circuit breaker that simply cuts off the power supply line due to temperature rise or vibration due to an earthquake, in addition to the conventional circuit breaker function. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a secondary disaster such as a failure or fire accident caused by heat generation, or a fire caused by electric heating equipment at the time of an earthquake.

Further, since the interruption factor depends on the sensitive element used, various interruption factors can be considered. Further, by using the sensitive elements in combination, it is possible to provide a circuit breaker having a plurality of interrupting factors.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of an application example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 AC power supply 11A, 11B Contact 20 Control means 21 IC for earth leakage breaker 22 Power supply for IC for earth leakage breaker 30 Switching means 31 Thyristor 41 Contact release coil 50 Sensitive element 51 Temperature fuse 52 Temperature detection element 61 Diode 70 Earth leakage protection outlet 71 Plug blade receiving part Q Transistor C Capacitor R1, R2, Rv Resistance

Claims (5)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. A circuit breaker comprising: switch means connected to an AC power supply via a contact release coil; and control means for turning on the switch means when a disconnection factor is detected. A circuit breaker comprising: the control unit that is activated when the sensing element detects a value equal to or greater than a predetermined value. 2. The thyristor is used as the switch means, and when the sensitive element is ON, the potential between the cathode and the gate of the thyristor is set to the same potential via the sensitive element to prevent the thyristor from falling off. Sensing element is O
2. The circuit breaker according to claim 1, wherein the output voltage of the control means is applied to the gate of the thyristor when the thyristor becomes FF, and the thyristor is discharged. 3. The circuit breaker according to claim 2, wherein said sensitive element is a thermal element. 4. The circuit breaker according to claim 2, wherein said sensitive element is a seismic sensor. 5. The element according to claim 2, wherein said sensitive element is an overcurrent element.
The circuit breaker according to the above.