WO2009025483A2

WO2009025483A2 - Protecting cover for terminals

Info

Publication number: WO2009025483A2
Application number: PCT/KR2008/004802
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sung-Kwon Lee; Mi-Jung Kim
Original assignee: Sung-Kwon Lee; Mi-Jung Kim
Priority date: 2007-08-20
Filing date: 2008-08-19
Publication date: 2009-02-26
Also published as: KR100852365B1; WO2009025483A3

Abstract

A terminal protection cover covers a terminal adapted in a wiring breaker, a switch etc. The terminal protection cover covering terminals of a wiring breaker etc. coupled to an electrical line includes an insertion part into which the electrical line is inserted, the insertion part being formed in a hollow cylinder shape; and a cover part formed being united with a lower part of the insertion part, the cover part covering the terminal.

Description

PROTECTING COVER FOR TERMINALS

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a terminal protection cover, and more particularly, to a terminal protection cover for covering a terminal adapted in a wiring breaker, switch etc. Background Art

[2] In general, a wiring breaker has an importance of electric instruments to protect a line and a load device from an accident current such as a short circuit, overcurrent etc.

[3] FIG. 1 illustrates an internal structure of general wiring breaker. FIG. 2 is a disassembled perspective view illustrating a coupling structure of crimped terminal and terminal of a conventional wiring breaker.

[4] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of conventional wiring breaker, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a state of adapting a terminal protection cover in the breaker of FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of wiring breaker provided with other conventional terminal protection cover.

[5] A general configuration of wiring breaker 1 is described as follows, referring to FIG.

1.

[6] The wiring breaker 1 comprises a power side terminal 3 receiving applied-power and a load side terminal 4 coupling the applied power to a load line, which are adapted within a case and a cover generally forming an outer shape; a fixed contact and a moving contact switched to selectively supply power source supplied from an electrical path to a load side; a detection part 7 to detect an occurrence of accident current; a trip part 8 generating a trip operation when the detection part detects the accident current; a cross bar 9 rotating in one direction by the trip part 8; a link part 10 structurally switching the electrical path by a rotation of the cross bar 9; and an arc extinguishing part 11 extinguishing an arc, that is, removing an arc discharge, when an arc occurs between contact points of the fixed contact 5 and the moving contact 6, etc.

[7] The power side or load side terminal (hereinafter, referred to a terminal) 3 or 4 of the wiring breaker 1 is generally provided with an electrical line for a connection of electrical path, and in a conventional art, a crimped terminal is used to connect such electrical line and a terminal of the wiring breaker 1.

[8] A connection structure between a terminal of the conventional wiring breaker 1 and the crimped terminal is described as follows, referring to FIG. 2.

[9] Referring first to FIG. 2, one end of the conventional crimped terminal 12 is formed being united with a terminal lug 12a of a circular shape into which an end part 13a of an electrical line 13 adapted by removing an insulation coating is inserted. Another end of the crimped terminal 12 is formed in a plate shape, and a middle part thereof has a screw insertion hole 12b. The terminals 3 and 4 of the wiring breaker 1 assembled with such ones have screw fastening holes 3a and 4a to which a screw 14 is fastened through the screw insertion hole 12b of the crimped terminal 12.

[10] The connection between the conventional crimped terminal and the terminal of wiring breaker 1 is described as follows.

[11] A worker cuts and removes by a given level an insulation coating surrounding the end part 13a of the electrical line 13 to be adapted to the terminals 3 and 4 of the wiring breaker 1 by using a knife or stripper etc.

[12] Then, the end part 13a of the electrical line 13 got by removing the insulation coating is inserted into the terminal lug 12a of the crimped terminal 12, and after that, the terminal lug 12a into which the electrical line 13 has been inserted, is pressed and firmly fixed by using a compressor.

[13] Subsequently, in a state that the screws insertion hole 12b of the crimped terminal 12 is arranged on the same line with the screw fastening holes 3a and 4a of the terminals 3 and 4 by the worker, the screw 14 is fastened to that by applying a driver etc. thereto from an upper part. Then, the screw 14 is tightened to the screw fastening holes 3a and 4a of the terminals 3 and 4, and thus is pressurized and fixed thereto to apply an electric current to between the terminals 3 and 4 of the wiring breaker and the crimped terminal 12.

[14] However, a combined portion between the terminals 3 and 4 of the conventional wiring breaker and the crimped terminal 12 is exposed intact to the outside, causing a short circuit due to an inflow of foreign substance or dust etc. and pollution etc.

[15] To solve such problem, a protection cover covering the terminals of the wiring breaker 1, which is referred to as reference numbers 10 of FIG. 4 and 800 of FIG. 5, has been recently developed as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5.

[16] In the protection cover referred to as 10 of FIG. 4 and 800 of FIG. 5, an electrical line service hole referred to as reference numbers 100 of FIG. 4 and 840 of FIG. 5, into which an electrical line is entered, is formed.

[17] The protection cover 10, 800 is generally formed of plastic, and the electrical line service hole 100, 840 is formed being fixed thereto with a given size, and when a thickness of the electrical line is relatively thin, a gap is generated between the electrical line service hole 100, 840 and the electrical line, still causing a problem of short circuit due to an inflow of foreign substance or dust etc.

[18] Furthermore, for example, when the thickness of electrical line is relatively thick, there is a problem the electrical line cannot be inserted into the electrical line service hole etc. Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[19] In employing the crimped terminal 12, the size of electrical line service hole 100, 840 may be formed with a given size, but a lower part of the electrical line service hole 100, 840 must be opened as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 to open/close the protection cover 10, 800, and this may cause an inflow of foreign substance or dust etc.

[20] In addition, several terminals in place of each terminal are covered at a time and then fixed thereto, that is, there is a problem the size of protection covers 10, 800 must be different from one another according to the size of wiring breaker as the number of terminals in the production.

[21] Furthermore, the existing wiring breaker intact cannot be used to fix the protection cover 10, 800, but a specific configuration to fix the protection cover 10, 800 must be used as a new wiring breaker to which a curved coupling structure of FIGS. 3 and 4 or a hinge coupling structure of FIG. 5 is added.

[22] Accordingly, some embodiments of the invention provide a terminal protection cover which is capable of preventing an inflow of foreign substance or dust etc. into terminals and which can be used for electrical lines with various thickness and various sizes of breakers and can be simply fixed to the existing breaker without a specific added configuration. Technical Solution

[23] According to an embodiment of the invention, a terminal protection cover covering a terminal of a wiring breaker etc. coupled to an electrical line comprises an insertion part into which the electrical line is inserted, the insertion part being formed in a hollow cylinder shape; and a cover part formed being united with a lower part of the insertion part, the cover part covering the terminal.

[24] A width of the cover part may be the same as a width of the terminal.

[25] At least one of the insertion part and the cover part may be formed of elastic material.

[26] At least one of the insertion part and the cover part may be formed of resistance- to-flame rubber, resistance-to-flame silicon or resistance-to-flame plastic.

[27] The cover part may be comprised of a horizontal part formed contacting with a lower part of the insertion part and a vertical part formed being bent to the horizontal part.

[28] In a coupling portion between the horizontal part and the vertical part, a groove may be formed thinner than a thickness of the horizontal part and the vertical part.

Advantageous Effects

[29] In embodiments of the invention described above, an inflow of foreign substances can be perfectly intercepted by covering terminals of a breaker with an inventive terminal protection cover. [30] In addition, in the inventive terminal protection cover, an electrical line is inserted into the insertion part and fixed thereto, thus a specific fixation unit to fix the terminal protection cover is unnecessary. [31] Furthermore, as the size of cover part is the same as the size of the terminal, the cover part can be stably mounted in a load flute of a given size regardless of the size of the breaker decided being based on the number of terminals, thereby perfectly covering the terminal. [32] It is therefore, unnecessary to manufacture various sizes of terminal protection covers, thereby reducing the cost of design and enhancing a working efficiency through a dominant compatibility.

Brief Description of the Drawings [33] The accompanying drawings illustrate example embodiments of the present invention. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be considered as limited to

[34] FIG. 1 illustrates an internal structure of general wiring breaker;

[35] FIG. 2 is a disassembled perspective view illustrating a coupling structure of crimped terminal and terminal of a conventional wiring breaker; [36] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of conventional wiring breaker;

[37] FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a state of adapting a terminal protection cover applied to FIG. 3; [38] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of wiring breaker provided with other conventional terminal protection cover; [39] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention; [40] FIG. 7 is a sectional view of terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention; [41] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of wiring breaker provided with a terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention; and [42] FIG. 9 is an enlarged view illustrating an installation portion of terminal protection cover shown in FIG. 8.

Mode for the Invention [43] Hereinafter, some embodiments of the invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, those skilled in the art appreciating the ideas of the present invention can easily propose other embodiments through addition, deletion, change, etc. of components within the scope of the present invention. [44] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 7 is a sectional view of terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of wiring breaker provided with a terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 9 is an enlarged view illustrating an installation portion of terminal protection cover shown in FIG. 8. [45] A terminal protection cover 20 according to an embodiment of the invention is provided to cover a terminal 31 adapted in a wiring breaker 30, switch etc. [46] As shown in FIGS. 6 to 9, the terminal protection cover 20 is comprised of an insertion part 21 and a cover part 22. [47] Into the insertion part 21, a crimped terminal 34 and/or electrical line 33 coupled to the terminal 31 is inserted. It is enough that the insertion part 21 is adapted to accept the insertion of the electrical line 33 and/or crimped terminal 34. [48] That is, though various shapes of insertion parts may be applied, a shape of the insertion part 21 has a hollow cylinder shape in an embodiment of the invention. [49] In place of separately forming the insertion part 21, a shape having a function of the insertion part 21 may be directly formed in a horizontal part 23 of the cover part 22 as the configuration of the cover part 22 to be described below. [50] Here it may be beneficial to form the horizontal part 23 relatively thick and the horizontal part 23 must have the configuration into which an electrical line etc. is inserted. [51] The cover part 22 is comprised of horizontal part 23 formed contacting with a lower part of the insertion part 21, and a vertical part 24 formed being bent to the horizontal part 23. [52] The cover part 22 may be comprised of the horizontally part 23 without adapting the vertical part 24. [53] That is, the terminal protection cover 20 may be comprised of only the insertion part

21 and the horizontal part 23 to cover the terminal 31. [54] In a coupling portion between the horizontal part 23 and the vertical part 24, a groove

25 is formed thinner than a thickness of the horizontal part 23 and the vertical part 24. [55] [56] *In such configuration, the vertical part 24 can be easily rotated to the horizontal part

23 by using the groove 25. [57] The vertical part 24 is provided with a handle part 26 so that a user can simply grasp it to open or close. [58] The insertion part 21 is formed vertical to the horizontal part 23, and the horizontal part 23 is formed vertical to the vertical part 24. [59] That is, the insertion part 21 and formed in parallel with the vertical part 24, and between them, the horizontal part 23 is formed in a vertical direction. [60] The insertion part 21 is formed in the horizontal part 23 at a rear direction of a contact portion between the horizontal part 23 and the vertical part 24. The horizontal part 23 has a hole connected through the insertion part 21. [61] A load flute 32 to stably accept the terminal 31 is formed in the breaker 30, and the cover part 22 is stably mounted on the load flute 32 to cover the terminal 31. [62] Here, a width of the cover part 22 is almost equal to a width of the terminal 31.

[63] On the other hand, the size of the terminal 31 is adapted equally to the international standard, and the size of the load flute 32 is almost the same as the size of the terminal

31. [64] Accordingly, the size of respective terminals 31 is always uniform in respectively various sizes of breakers 30, and the cover part 22 is manufactured in an almost equal size to the size of the terminal 31, thereby resulting in a dominant compatibility regardless of the size of breaker 30 changed in the size depending on the number of terminals 31. Additionally, it is unnecessary to manufacture various sizes of terminal protection covers 20. [65] At least one of the insertion part 21 and the cover part 22 is formed of elastic material. [66] In particular, the insertion part 21 may be beneficially formed of elastic material such as rubber. [67] That is why the insertion part 21 can be closely in contact with the crimped terminal

34 through elasticity so as to prevent an inflow of foreign substances when the insertion part 21 is inserted into the crimped terminal 34 combined with the electrical line 33. [68] For that, the size of the insertion part 21 may be beneficially formed a little smaller than the size of the crimped terminal 34. [69] At least one of the insertion part 21 or cover part 22 is formed of resistance-to-flame rubber, resistance-to-flame silicon or resistance-to-flame plastic. [70] The terminal protection cover 20 according to an embodiment of the invention may be formed of transparent material as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. [71] With such configuration, a method of installing a terminal protection cover is described as follows. [72] Electrical line 33 is first inserted into insertion part 21 of the terminal protection cover 20, and the crimped terminal 34 is combined with the electrical line 33. [73] The crimped terminal 34 is coupled to terminal 31 of the breaker 30.

[74] Then, the terminal protection cover 20 descends toward the terminal 31.

[75] Here, since the insertion part 21 is formed of elastic material and an inner diameter thereof is a little smaller than the size of the crimped terminal 34, the insertion part 21 becomes closely contacted with the crimped terminal 34, thereby preventing an inflow of foreign substances. [76] The cover part 22 completely covers the terminal 31.

[77] Here, the size of the terminal 31 is uniform being based on the international standard as described above, and the size of load flute 32 of the breaker 30 on which the terminal 31 is loaded is also almost equal to the size of the terminal 31, therefore the cover part 22 having the same width as the terminal 31 is loaded being closely contacted with the load flute 32, thereby perfectly covering the terminal 31.

[78] Accordingly, when the terminal protection cover 20 according to an embodiment of the invention covers the terminal 31 of the breaker 30, an inflow of foreign substances can be perfectly cut off.

[79] In addition, in the terminal protection cover 20, the electrical lien 33 is inserted into the insertion part 21 and fixed thereto, and thus a specific fixation unit to fix the terminal protection cover 20 is unnecessary.

[80] Furthermore, as the size of the cover part 22 is the same as the size of the terminal

31, the cover part can be stably mounted in load flute 32 of a given size regardless of the size of the breaker 30 decided being based on the number of terminals 31, thereby perfectly covering the terminal 31.

[81] It is therefore, unnecessary to manufacture various sizes of terminal protection covers

20, thereby reducing the cost of design and enhancing a working efficiency through a dominant compatibility.

[82] On the other hand, the vertical part 24 may rotate to open by using the handle part

26, thereby inspecting the terminal 31.

[83] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in the above, they are only examples and are not intended to limit the present invention. It may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and applications may be made without departing from the essential feature of the present invention. For example, a terminal protection cover may be diversely varied within the scope of the invention. Each of the components specifically represented in the embodiments of the present invention may be modified. And, differences associated with this modification and application should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention defined in accompanying claims. Industrial Applicability

[84] Accordingly, in covering a terminal of a breaker with a terminal protection cover according to an embodiment of the invention, an inflow of foreign substances can be perfectly cut off, thereby effectively preventing a short circuit or fire etc.

Claims

[1] A terminal protection cover covering a terminal of a wiring breaker coupled to an electrical line, the cover comprising: an insertion part into which the electrical line is inserted, the insertion part being formed in a hollow cylinder shape; and a cover part formed being united with a lower part of the insertion part, the cover part covering the terminal. [2] The cover of claim 1, wherein a width of the cover part is the same as a width of the terminal. [3] The cover of claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one of the insertion part and the cover part is formed of elastic material. [4] The cover of claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one of the insertion part and the cover part is formed of resistance-to-flame rubber, resistance-to-flame silicon or resistance-to-flame plastic. [5] The cover of claim 1, wherein the cover part is comprised of a horizontal part formed contacting with a lower part of the insertion part and a vertical part formed being bent to the horizontal part. [6] The cover of claim 5, wherein in a coupling portion between the horizontal part and the vertical part, a groove is formed thinner than a thickness of the horizontal part and the vertical part.