KR20060092105A - Circuit breaker - Google Patents

Abstract

The circuit breaker according to the present invention includes a fixed contactor 3 having a fixed contact, a movable contactor 4 having a movable contact, and a U-shaped slit arc extinguishing chamber 5 surrounding the fixed contact and the movable contact ( a slitted arc-extinguishing chamber, a trip crossbar 10 operated by an overcurrent tripping device 8 in operation, and a latch 7 in place of the trip crossbar 10 ) Is latch catcher (engaged) to the latch to support the locking position (locking position). The latch receiver extends downwardly between the arc chamber and the trip crossbar. The mold case 1 is further defined as a space between the arc chamber and the gas outlet 1c on the upper side of the load side terminal 2a, and further includes a gas outlet passage in which the latch receiver is disposed. The metal protective cover 13 made of a thin steel sheet covering the locking portion with the trip crossbar for shielding against the metal melt scattered from the arc chamber, has one of the fixing portions and the fixing portion latched with each other. By deformation, it is fixed on the back surface of the latch receiver.

Circuit breaker

Description

Circuit breaker {CIRCUIT BREAKER}

1A is a side cross-sectional view showing the overall configuration of one embodiment of a circuit breaker according to the present invention.

1B is an enlarged view showing the configuration of main parts of the circuit breaker shown in FIG. 1A.

Fig. 2A is a detailed exploded perspective view showing a latch support and a protective cover attached to the latch support or above.

Fig. 2B is a detailed perspective view showing a state where the protective cover is attached to the latch receiver or more.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a conventional circuit breaker.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a circuit breaker including a breaker such as a molded case circuit breaker or an earth leakage breaker.

Prior art

First, as an example of the prior art of a circuit breaker, the structure of the mold case circuit breaker disclosed in JP-A-2001-332162 is shown in FIG. In Fig. 3, reference numerals 1, 2, 3, and 3a indicate a mold case of a circuit breaker, a load side terminal, a fixed contact integrated with a power supply terminal, and a fixed contact, respectively. 4 and 4a denote movable contacts and movable contacts, respectively. Reference numeral 5 denotes a U-shaped slitted arc-extinguishing chamber that surrounds the fixed contact 3a and the movable contact 4a and is disposed at the bottom of the mold case 1. Reference numerals 5a and 6 denote coils for blowout and open / close operation levers, respectively. Reference numeral 7 denotes a latch having an opening and closing spring extended between the movable contacts 4. 8, 8a, and 8b are electronic overcurrent trip devices, coils, disposed on the side of the load-side terminal 2 of the mold case 1 and connected between the load-side terminal 2 and the movable contact 4; Represent each armature. Reference numeral 10 denotes a trip crossbar disposed on the rear surface of the overcurrent trip device 8 and connected to the armature 8b. Reference numeral 11 denotes a latch receiver which opposes the arc portion 10a of the trip crossbar, and usually retains the latch 7 in the locked position and restrains the movable contact 4 in the closed position. Indicates. 12 is a crossbar return spring (compression spring) provided between the trip crossbar 10 and the latch receiver 11. Gas discharge ports 1b and 1c are opened on both end surfaces of the mold case 1 (terminal side on the power supply side and terminal side on the load side) to discharge the arc gas generated in the arc extinguishing chamber 5 at the time of current interruption. have.

The opening and closing operation of the circuit breaker is described in detail in JP-A-2001-332162. The overcurrent flowing as a result of a short circuit accident causes the overcurrent trip device 8 to operate, and the above operation causes the amateur 8b to kick a leg that protrudes below the trip crossbar 10 to trip the crossbar. Rotate (10) clockwise. As a result, the arc portion 10a of the trip crossbar 10 falls on the window 11a opened on the surface of the latch receiver 11, thereby eliminating the engagement between the latch receiver 11 and the latch 7. As a result, the latch 7 is tilted from the locked position, and the movable contact 4 is opened by the force of the opening / closing spring. Alternatively, the trip operation causes an arc to be generated between the fixed contact 3a and the movable contact 4a. However, the arc generated as described above is extended into the extinguishing chamber 5, so that the arc voltage is raised to extinguish the arc.

In other words, upon interruption of excessive current, such as a short circuit current, the metal melt and the vapor of the metal melt are generated in the arc chamber due to the arc occurring between the fixed contact 3a and the movable contact 4a, so that the contact It comes in contact with their metal material. The metal melt and the vapor of the metal melt are scattered around with the arc gas. In such a case, the attachment of the scattered metal melt on the arc 10a of the trip crossbar 10 and the return spring 12 increases the friction between the latch receiver 11 and the arc 10a of the trip crossbar 10. Let's do it. In addition, the spring function of the return spring 12 is inferior. Therefore, there is a fear that reclosing of the circuit breaker may not be possible or the trip operation after the reinsertion may be impossible.

Therefore, in order to prevent the above problem, in the structure of FIG. 3, the partition 1a which protrudes from the bottom part of the mold case 1 toward the area | region between the extinguishing chamber 5 and the latch base 11 is provided. . Using the partition wall 1a as a shielding barrier, the latching portion 11 and the tripping crossbar 10 and the return spring 12 prevent the adhesion of the metal melt scattered from the arc chamber.

However, the structure leads to the blocking of the release of arc gas towards the outside (especially at the gas outlet 1c on the side of the load-side terminal), which makes the structure unsuitable for circuit breakers with high breaking capacity. Based on this, a protective measure has already been proposed by the same applicant as the present invention as a countermeasure for improving the above structure. According to the proposed protective measures, the barrier rib 1a is removed to increase the emission of generated gas, and the latch holder 11 is used instead of the barrier rib 1a as a shield for molten metals scattered from the arc chamber 5. A protective cover made of resin is mounted on the back side of the sheet (see JP-A-2002-56762).

However, experiments conducted by the inventor in a short circuit breaking test by an actual circuit breaker on the resin protective cover proposed in the above JP-A-2002-56762 show that the protective cover has the following problems. It was.

That is, while the metal melt produced by the overcurrent blocking in the arc chamber is very high temperature (about 1000 ° C.), the heat resistant temperature of the nylon resin is 250 ° C. at most in the mold protection cover made of nylon, for example. . Thus, a thin protective cover (e.g. 0.5 mm thick) causes the resin to melt due to the metal melt attached thereon, which easily perforates the protective cover and consequently the blocking of the protective cover. Leads to loss of function. Therefore, in order to secure the durability of the protective cover as a molded product made of resin, the thickness of the protective cover must be increased. However, in a circuit breaker having parts assembled with little gap in the mold case as shown in Fig. 3, each part should be as compact as possible. In addition, unnecessary interference between components should be avoided. This makes it really difficult to attach a thick protective cover over the latch receiver.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is based on the configuration proposed in JP-A-2002-56762 provided with a protective cover on the latch base for shielding against metal melt scattered from the arc chamber. It is to provide an improved circuit breaker. The improvement aims to achieve an improvement in breaking capacity, with an improvement in durability and a reduction in thickness of the protective cover.

Circuit breaker including a mold case for achieving the above object,

A fixed contact having a fixed contact,

A movable contact having a movable contact,

An opening and closing mechanism for opening and closing the movable contactor;

A slitted arc-extinguishing chamber surrounding the fixed contact point and the movable contact point;

An overcurrent tripping device operating by overcurrent,

A trip crossbar operated by the overcurrent trip device in operation,

A latch provided to the opening / closing mechanism for driving the movable contactor;

A latch catcher engaged with the latch so as to support the latch in a locking position, usually against the trip crossbar;

The mold case has a gas outlet at each of the upper terminal side on the power supply side and the upper terminal side on the load side,

The latch receiver includes a mold case, which is disposed to extend downwardly between the arc chamber and the trip crossbar;

The mold case is further defined as a space between the arc chamber and the gas outlet at the upper side of the load side terminal, and further includes a gas outlet passage in which the latch receiver is disposed.

A metal protective cover is attached and fixed to the rear surface of the latch receiver, and covers the locking portion with the trip crossbar to shield molten metal scattered from the arc chamber.

In one embodiment, the mold case is the metal protective cover is made of a thin iron plate, the fixing portion of the protective cover and the fixing portion of the latch receiving portion and the fixing portion of at least one side of the protective cover and the latch receiving. To deform, characterized in that the fixed to the back of the latch receiving.

As described above, the protective cover which is fixed to the back of the latch receiver is formed of a metal such as iron. Therefore, even if the thickness of the protective cover is thin (about 0.2 mm thick), shielding against the metal melt scattered from the arc chamber can be made safe and durable. In addition, a partition as provided between the latch receiver of the conventional mold case and the arc chamber is removed. For this reason, the mold case according to the present invention has a gas discharge path connecting the extinguishing chamber to the gas discharge port on the side of the load-side terminal through the region where the latch receiver is located. Therefore, the release property of the gas produced | generated at the time of current interruption improves, and this invention can be applied to the circuit breaker with a large breaking capacity.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, 2A and 2B. In the drawings showing an example, the same reference numerals are given to components corresponding to the components shown in FIG. 3, and description thereof is omitted.

That is, the circuit breaker (refer FIG. 1A) as an example shown in drawing is basically the same structure as a conventional circuit breaker, but differs in the following points. First, the partition wall 1a provided in the mold case 1 is removed. For this reason, the mold case 1 of this invention has a latch base, and has the gas discharge path defined as the space between the gas discharge port 1c and the extinguishing chamber 5 on the side of the load side terminal 2. Therefore, the gas generated in the extinguishing chamber 5 at the time of interrupting the current is not only from the gas outlet 1b opened on the side of the power supply terminal, but also from the gas outlet 1c opened on the side of the load terminal 2. It can be easily released to the outside. In addition, on the rear surface of the latch receiver 11 (opposed to the arc-extinguishing chamber 5), a protective cover 13 is provided as shown in Fig. 1B. The protective cover 13 is tripped with the latch receiver 11 to shield the metal melt scattered from the arc chamber 5 during the current interruption from being attached onto the latch portion of the latch receiver 11 and the trip crossbar 10. The locking portion with the crossbar 10 is shielded. The protective cover 13 is provided in place of the resin protective cover disclosed in the prior art JP-A-2002-56762, and is a thin steel sheet such as a thin steel sheet (for example, a steel sheet having a thickness of 0.2 mm). ) By pressing. The protective cover 13 deforms the fixing portion of the protective cover 13 and the fixing portion of the latch receiving 11 to each other to shield the latch receiving 11 and to deform one of the locked fixing portions. As a result, the film is deposited on the latch receiver 11.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the protective cover 13 provided as the pressed workpiece of the thin steel sheet has a shape corresponding to that of the latch receiver 11, and is formed on the surface of the latch receiver 11. The part where the window 11a, the cutting recessed part 11b, and the crossbar return spring 12 (refer FIG. 1A) hits is covered. The window 11a is a hole made so that the hole portion 10a of the trip crossbar falls by the operation of the overcurrent trip device. The cutting recess 11b is provided to avoid interference by a leg piece of the trip crossbar. In addition, the opposing portion 13a with respect to the window 11a is made to expand in the rear, so as to form a recess inside the protective cover 13 to provide a gap with respect to the arc portion 10a of the trip crossbar 10. The protective cover 13 covers a hole as a drilled part in each of two positions of the upper position and the lower position of the face. The holes are mated to the respective protrusions 11c as other fixing portions provided to protrude from the rear surface of the latch receiver 11. Thereafter, the upper portion of the protrusion 11c is deformed so that the protective cover 13 is deposited on the latch receiver 11.

The inventors of the present invention provide a latch support 11 in a state in which a protective cover made of a steel sheet having a thickness of 0.2 mm is removed from a partition wall (see FIG. 3) between the extinguishing chamber 5 and the latch support 11. The advantages of the present invention were tested by repeating the current interruption experiments on circuit breakers deposited on the back of the backplane. The experimental results confirmed the shielding of the protective cover 13 and the high durability against the attachment of the hot metal melt.

Moreover, in the prior art shown in FIG. 3 (a configuration having the partition wall 1a), the breaking capacity was 440 V / 2.5 kA, whereas the removal of the partition wall in the mold case prevented the release of the gas generated at the current interruption. Improvements have been made to enable blocking of 440V / 10kA.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above and other variations in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The mold case according to the present invention has a gas discharge path connecting the extinguishing chamber to the gas discharge port on the side of the load-side terminal through the region where the latch receiver is located. Therefore, the release property of the gas produced | generated at the time of current interruption improves, and this invention can be applied to the circuit breaker with a large breaking capacity.

Claims (2)

A fixed contact having a fixed contact, A movable contact having a movable contact, An opening and closing mechanism for opening and closing the movable contactor; A slitted arc-extinguishing chamber surrounding the fixed contact point and the movable contact point; An overcurrent tripping device operating by overcurrent, A trip crossbar operated by the overcurrent trip device in operation, A latch provided to the opening / closing mechanism for driving the movable contactor; A latch catcher engaged with the latch so as to support the latch in a locking position, usually against the trip crossbar; The mold case has a gas outlet at each of the upper terminal side on the power supply side and the upper terminal side on the load side, In the circuit breaker comprising a mold case, the latch receiver is disposed extending downward between the arc chamber and the trip crossbar, The mold case is defined as a space between the arc chamber and the gas outlet at the upper side of the load side terminal, and further includes a gas outlet passage in which the latch receiver is disposed. And a metal protective cover is fixed to the back surface of the latch receiver and covers the locking portion with the trip crossbar to shield molten metal scattered from the arc chamber. The method of claim 1, The metal protective cover is made of a thin steel plate, engages the fixing portion of the protective cover and the fixing portion of the latch receiver and deforms the fixing portion of at least one of the protective cover and the latch receiver, so that the back of the latch receiver is The circuit breaker, characterized in that the fixed to the deposition.

Images