KR100424355B1 - Alarm devices for circuit breakers - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the alarm device of the circuit breaker according to the present invention, an alarm device for capturing an overcurrent trip operation to a main body of a circuit breaker and outputting an alarm signal can be obtained with a small number of parts and a long-term stable alarm operation.

In order to realize the above object, the alarm device of the present invention is constituted of an alarm switch 2 of a pressing button type incorporating an automatic return point 2b, an actuator of a swing lever type arranged to face the pressing button 2a of the switch, (3), and an operation lever that connects the actuator and the movable contact holder (6), which are constituent members of the opening and closing mechanism of the circuit breaker, are collectively provided in the unit case (1). In the closed state of the circuit breaker The operation lever which follows the movement of the movable contact holder accompanied by the overcurrent trip operation of the circuit breaker drives the actuator and pushes the push button of the alarm switch to invert the built-in contact to output an alarm signal .

Description

Alarm devices for circuit breakers

The present invention relates to an alarm device which is installed in a main body of a circuit breaker and captures an overcurrent trip operation of the circuit breaker or an open circuit operation by a turn operation handle and outputs an alarm signal to the outside.

A circuit breaker for wiring or the like is installed in the circuit breaker main body and an alarm device is provided, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-137048.

As proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-52778, a circuit breaker configured to stop the operation handle of the circuit breaker in the middle of the normal ON and OFF operation positions during an overcurrent trip operation is provided with an alarm The specific configuration of the apparatus is proposed by the same applicant as the present invention as Japanese Patent Application No. 7-52231 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-087646).

The alarm device of this proposal is composed of a push button type alarm switch (micro switch) incorporating an automatic return contact, an actuator of a swing lever type arranged opposite to the push button of the switch, and a push button A pressing spring for applying a pressing force and an operation lever for connecting the movable contact holder of the breaker and the actuator are provided in the unit case.

With such a construction, when the circuit breaker is closed normally (ON), the pressurizing spring pushes the pressing button of the alarm device by the spring. On the other hand, when the overcurrent trip operation or the opening operation by the opening / closing operation handle is performed, the operation lever driven by the movement of the movable contact holder as the constituent member of the opening mechanism drives the actuator to release from the pressing button of the alarm switch, And an alarm signal is output to the outside by the judgment operation of the contact.

However, in the above-described conventional alarm device, there are the following problems in terms of alarm operation, cost, and durability.

1) The pressing spring attached to the actuator of the alarm device is applied to the opening / closing mechanism (toggling mechanism) of the circuit breaker as a load load. In addition to the positional accuracy of each component of the alarm device provided in the circuit breaker main body, The driving force applied to the actuator of the alarm device at the time of opening of the breaker may be insufficient and the alarm switch may not operate reliably.

2) In addition, the circuit breaker is normally in the closed energized state, and the state in which the contactor is opened by the handle operation or the overcurrent trip operation is a very short time compared to the case of the normal closed circuit. For this reason, if the circuit breaker is kept in the closed state and the push button of the alarm switch is pressed for a long period of time with the push spring pressed, the temperature rise due to the heat generation accompanying the energization of the circuit breaker is also applied. There is a possibility that the alarm switch can not function due to the deterioration of the spring elasticity due to the creep of the contact piece (plate spring member) of the return contact.

3) Installing a pressurizing spring, which is an independent part, in the actuator of the alarm device has problems such as an increase in the number of parts and occupation space.

An object of the present invention is to provide an alarm device for a circuit breaker which is configured to solve the above problems and to obtain a stable number of alarm operations with a small number of parts for a long time.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an electronic control unit comprising: an alarm switch of a push-button type incorporating an automatic return contact; an actuator of a swing lever type disposed opposite to a pushing button of the switch; And an operation lever driven by the movement of the movable contact holder in the opening operation of the circuit breaker is operated while keeping the actuator in a free state in the closed state of the circuit breaker, The lever drives the actuator so that the push button of the alarm switch is pushed in and the built-in contact is reversed.

Further, the following configuration can be adopted on the premise of the above-described configuration according to the present invention.

1) a dog provided on a movable contact holder of a circuit breaker and a dog provided on an opening and closing operation handle at a position where one end of the operation lever is coupled to the actuator and the other end divided by two strands is provided in the circuit breaker main body, In the closed state, a clearance is established between the tip of the operation lever and the dog of the movable contact holder.

2) In the item 1), the actuator is made of a leaf spring material having elasticity that exceeds the returning force of the push button of the alarm switch.

3) In the above item 1), the unit case is a resin molded product, and a supporting leg portion for attaching an alarm switch, an actuator, and an operation lever to a predetermined position is integrally formed in the case.

According to the above arrangement, in the normal closed state in which the circuit breaker is energized, the actuator of the alarm device is not restrained and the button that the built-in contact of the alarm switch returns to is held in a protruding state. Therefore, the movable contact piece of the alarm switch is not deformed by the creep phenomenon and the elasticity of the spring necessary for automatic return is not lowered even after a long use period. Further, there is no need to install a pressure spring on the actuator, and the number of assembled parts of the alarm device is reduced, so that product assembly is simplified.

When the overcurrent trip operation or the circuit breaker opens by the handle operation, the operation lever of the alarm device driven by the movement of the opening / closing mechanism at that time pushes the push button of the alarm switch through the actuator to operate the switch, And outputs an alarm signal. Also, when the circuit breaker is reset to the closed position, the restraint of the actuator is released and the alarm switch automatically returns.

Further, as an operation lever provided in the alarm device, an alarm signal can be outputted only at the time of an overcurrent trip operation or at the time of an opening operation by an overcurrent trip operation and an opening / closing operation handle. In addition, in the closed state of the circuit breaker, by setting a clearance between the operation lever of the alarm device and the movable contact holder of the circuit breaker, which is a charging part, heat generation of the contact piece due to energization of the circuit breaker does not transmit heat to the operation lever , Whereby it is possible to prevent malfunction of the alarm switch caused by thermal deformation of the operation lever.

Furthermore, by constituting the actuator with a plate spring material having an elasticity (Young's modulus) exceeding the returning force of the push button of the alarm switch as in the above-mentioned constitution 2), the imbalance of the relative positional accuracy between the circuit breaker and the alarm device The switch contact can be reversed by pushing the push button of the alarm switch by the bending force of the actuator. That is, when the actuator is squeezed beyond the operating stroke of the alarm switch due to the unevenness of the positional accuracy, the actuator itself absorbs an excessive stroke instead of bending. Thus, when assembling the alarm device in the circuit breaker, some imbalance in assembly accuracy is allowed.

In addition, according to the structure (3), it is easy to mount and position each component provided on the alarm device, and the assembling property is improved.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The following will describe embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

Figs. 1 and 2 show an embodiment of an alarm device that detects only an overcurrent trip operation of the circuit breaker and outputs an alarm signal. In the figure, " 1 " is a unit case of the alarm device. The alarm switch 2, the actuator 3, and the operation lever 4 are collectively arranged at the base portion of the unit case 1 Is installed. Here, the unit case 1 is made as a resin molded product, and its base portion is integrally formed with support angles 1a to 1d for attaching the above-mentioned respective components at predetermined positions. In the figure, "5" denotes an external connection terminal.

Here, the alarm switch 2 is a push-button type micro switch incorporating an automatic return contact (a movable contact provided on a contact piece having spring characteristics) 2a, and a hole 2b formed in the switch case is connected to the unit case 1, (1a) and (1b) provided in the front side of the vehicle. An actuator 3 made of a leaf spring material is provided in front of the pressing button 2c of the alarm switch 2 and the hinge portion 3a of the actuator 3 is pointed to the supporting angle 1c of the unit case 1 And is pivotably supported. The operation lever 4 is made of an insulating material and has an L-shape in its shape. The operation lever 4 is pivotally supported on the support angle 1d and the engagement pin 4a provided at one end A thereof is hooked to the actuator 3, And the other end B is arranged so as to face the dog 6a (see FIG. 2) formed in the movable contact holder 6 at a position protruding sideward from the unit case 1 and provided on the circuit breaker main body. A dog 7b for driving the operating lever in the second embodiment of the present invention to be described later is provided at the rear end of the half-moon boss portion of the handle 7, Respectively. The opening and closing operations of the circuit breaker by the operation of the handle 7 and the tripping operation by the overcurrent trip are described in detail in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-52778, which was described earlier, and a description thereof will be omitted here.

The operation of the alarm device having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (c). (A) and (b) show the circuit breaker ON state, the open state by the operation of the handle 7 and the trip operation state by the overcurrent trip, respectively. The tip B of the operation lever 4 of the alarm device is separated from the dog 6a of the movable contact holder 6 in the ON and OFF operations of the breaker by the operation. Therefore, the operation lever 4 and the actuator 3 are in a free state without being restrained, and the alarm switch 2 has a state in which the button 2c, which the built-in contact 2a automatically returns to press, And an alarm signal is not outputted from the alarm device.

On the other hand, when the circuit breaker trips due to the overcurrent trip, the dog 6a of the movable contact holder 6 swings in the counterclockwise direction as shown in Fig. 3 (c) and drives the tip B of the operation lever 4 . As a result, the operation lever 4 is pivoted clockwise about the support shaft, the actuator 3 is driven in the clockwise direction, and the tip of the operation lever 4 pushes the push button 2c of the alarm switch 2. As a result, the contact 2a of the alarm switch 2 inverts and outputs a list signal. In this case, the actuator 3 pushes the push button 2a, and the actuator itself made of the leaf spring material is also bent so that the alarm switch 2 is kept in the reverse operation position by the bending force, Absorbs only the excessive compression stroke applied to the actuator 3 through the operation lever 4 in the contact holder 6. [ When the operation handle 7 is reset after the overcurrent trip operation, the movable contact holder 6 returns to the state shown in Fig. 2, the operation lever 4 is released from restraint, and the actuator 3 becomes free again . As a result, the contact 2a of the alarm switch 2 is automatically returned to stop the alarm signal.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show another embodiment of the present invention. That is, in the first embodiment, the alarm switch is configured to output the alarm signal only when the overcurrent trip operation is performed. In this embodiment, however, only the operation lever provided in the alarm device is replaced with another shape to perform the trip operation And an alarm signal (auxiliary signal) for notifying the opening of the breaker to the outside when the contact of the alarm switch is reversed at the opening of the opening by the opening and closing operation handle.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the shape of the operation lever is different from that of the first embodiment, and the other structures are the same as those of the first embodiment. In other words, the operation lever 40 employed in this embodiment has an anchor shape as a whole, and tip portions A and B among the tip portions A, B, and C branched at three portions are formed in the same manner as in Embodiment 1, , A dog 7b formed on the opening and closing handle 7 of the circuit breaker so that the remaining tip end portion C protrudes from the unit case 1 and faces the dog 6a of the movable contact holder 6 of the circuit breaker Respectively.

Next, the operation of the alarm device with such a configuration will be described in Fig. 4 (a) - (c). The operation lever 40 and the actuator 3 are in the unconstrained state and the contact 2a of the alarm switch 2 is in the unlocked state as in the case of the first embodiment in the closed state of the circuit breaker shown in Fig. And the button 2b for automatically returning and pressing is held in a state protruding toward the front end of the actuator 3. [

When the opening / closing operation handle 7 is pivoted counterclockwise toward the OFF position to open the circuit breaker as shown in FIG. 5B, the dog 7b of the operation handle 7 is operated by the operation lever 40 provided on the alarm device. The operating lever 40 is pivoted clockwise. Thereby, the actuator 3 is driven to push the pushing button 2c of the alarm switch 2 so as to invert the contact 2a to output an alarm signal. In other words, the open circuit breaker is informed to the outside by an alarm signal. When the circuit breaker operates in the overcurrent trip mode as shown in FIG. 3C, the dog 6a of the movable contact holder 6 pulls the operation lever 40 clockwise in the same manner as the operation of the first embodiment, ) To turn on the contact 2a of the alarm switch 2 and output an alarm signal.

If the operation lever 40 of the present embodiment is replaced with the operation lever 4 having the shape described in the first embodiment, a method of using the alarm switch 2 to output an alarm signal only during an overcurrent trip operation is possible.

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, the following effects are obtained as compared with the alarm apparatus of the conventional configuration.

That is, in the normal state in which the circuit breaker is closed, the actuator provided in the alarm device is held in a free state, and only when the circuit breaker is opened, the actuator is driven by the operation lever driven by the opening / closing mechanism, And the alarm switch is reversed to output an alarm signal. As a result, the following effects can be obtained.

1) In normal operation, the automatic return contact built in the alarm switch is not subjected to a pressing load, and the contact piece is deformed due to the creep phenomenon while being pressed for a long time at the reverse operation position, thereby preventing the automatic return. . Further, by setting a clearance between the tip of the operation lever and the movable contact holder of the circuit breaker, heat generated by the contact piece due to energization of the breaker does not transfer heat to the operation lever, It is possible to prevent malfunction of the alarm switch.

2) Since the pressing spring attached to the actuator in the conventional structure is unnecessary, the number of parts and the number of assembling steps can be reduced, thereby reducing the cost.

3) Also, by setting the operation lever of the alarm device to the shape described in Claim 1, the alarm signal can be outputted only by the overcurrent trip operation of the circuit breaker, or by the overcurrent trip operation and the handle operation It can be output at the time of the opening of the opening, and it is possible to cope with the demand of the user simply.

4) As described in claim 4, the actuator is made of a plate spring material having elasticity so that the unevenness and excessive stroke of the assembling precision of the alarm device provided in the circuit breaker can be continuously absorbed, The push button of the alarm switch can be surely pushed in and operated.

5) In addition, the adoption of the constitution of claim 5 with respect to the unit case of the alarm device facilitates the attachment of parts and improves the assemblability of the apparatus.

1 is an exploded perspective view showing an assembling structure of an alarm device corresponding to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

(B) is a diagram showing a state of opening operation by a handle operation, and (c) is a diagram showing an overcurrent trip operation Fig. 4 is a view showing an operation state of an alarm device to be interlocked;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing an assembling structure of an alarm device corresponding to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. FIG.

Fig. 4 is an explanatory view of the operation of Fig. 3, Fig. 4 (a) is a view showing the closed state of the circuit breaker, Fig. 4 (b) is a view showing the operating state of the alarm device interlocked with opening operation by handle operation, ) Shows an operation state of an alarm device interlocked with an overcurrent trip operation.

Description of the Related Art [0002]

1. Support angle for mounting the unit case, 1a-1d

2. Alarm switch, 2a. Auto return contact

2c press button 3. Actuator

4, 40. Operation lever 6. Movable contact holder

6a. Locking dog 7. opening / closing handle

A.B.C. The tip of the operating lever

Claims (3)

An alarm device for a circuit breaker mounted on a main body of a circuit breaker and for detecting an overcurrent trip operation of the circuit breaker or an opening operation of the opening and closing operation handle 7 and outputting an alarm signal, And an actuator 3 of a swinging lever type which is arranged to face the pushing button 2c of the alarm switch and an actuator 3 for opening and closing the actuator 3, The operation lever is integrally provided in the unit case 1, An operation lever that follows the movement of the movable contact holder 6 of the circuit breaker in the opening operation of the circuit breaker drives the actuator 3 to operate the alarm switch 3 2 is pushed in to push the built-in contact in reverse, The dog 6a and the opening and closing handle 7 provided on the movable contact holder 6 of the circuit breaker at positions where one end of the operation lever is coupled to the actuator 3 and the other end divided by two strands is installed on the circuit breaker main body And in the closed state of the circuit breaker, a clearance is established between the tip of the operation lever and the dog (6a) of the movable contact holder (6) . The method according to claim 1, Characterized in that the actuator (3) is made of a plate spring material having elasticity exceeding the returning force of the pressing button (2c) of the alarm switch (2). The method according to claim 1, Wherein the unit case 1 is a resin molded product and the case 1 is integrally formed with the support leg portions 1a-1d for attaching the alarm switch 2, the actuator 3 and the operation lever to predetermined positions, respectively Alarm device of circuit breaker.

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