The invention concerns an arrangement with a plug and a complementary mating plug, for creating and/or detaching the connection between the plug and the mating plug, whereby a lever is arranged on the plug, which is pivoted around a shaft. The connection of the plug with a counter plug can be detached by pivoting the lever into a detaching position and/or created by pivoting the lever into a connecting position. The plug is especially a switch module, for instance a trigger module for a mating plug designed as a circuit breaker.
Such arrangements of plugs and complementary mating plugs, especially of circuit breakers with trigger modules, are used with switching devices, switches and especially switches with accessories, such as adapters, among other things. The connection of a plug with a complementary mating plug, each with several pins that can be connected to electrical conductors, is generally created or detached by plugging in or removing by hand.
The use of a pivoted lever for connecting the plug with a complementary mating plug is, for instance, known from DE 94 04 295 U1 and serves to lock the connection as soon as it is created. By swivelling the lever that is arranged on the plug or on the mating plug, it engages—using a locking curve—an engagement spigot on the other part and in this manner, locks the plug and mating plug in the connected position. A disadvantage here is that plugging in the plug into the mating plug depending on the type of the plug and, for instance, the number and design of the pins to be connected requires considerable force, which needs to be provided in order to be able to create the lock. The requirement of force hereby rises during the plugging-in process, as the pins increasingly mesh, causing an increase in friction. If the requirement of force is, say, 120 newton, in the region of a few millimetres of the fully plugged-in position, there exists a considerable risk of injury when connecting and especially when removing the plug connection by hand. If, for instance, a trigger module in a structurally unfavourable position of a switching device needs to be removed overhead from a circuit breaker by a person standing on a ladder, the sudden disconnection can easily lead to a fall.
A purpose of the invention is to simplify the creation and/or detachment of a connection between a plug and a mating plug especially in that a considerably large force is not required for creating or detaching the connection.
The purpose with regard to the creation or detachment of the connection is in each case fulfilled by an arrangement according to one of the patent claim 1 or 2. An arrangement with a combination of the features of the patent claims 1 and 2 represents a preferred embodiment, which fulfils the purpose with regard to the creation and detachment of the connection. In the other sub-claims, additional preferred embodiments and further advantageous improvements have been specified, some of which are related to one of the patent claim 1 or 2, some to both.
The arrangement according to the invention with a plug and a complementary mating plug is provided for creating and/or detaching a connection of the plug with the mating plug, whereby a lever pivoted around a shaft is arranged on the plug. The terms plug and mating plug within the meaning of the invention are not absolute as to what is the push-in part and what is the receptacle. Preferably, the plug should generally be an exchangeable switch module, especially a trigger module, which ideally interacts with a circuit breaker, whereby the circuit breaker forms or features the mating plug.
The plug is especially developed for receiving a plug insert with several pins and the mating plug for receiving a mating plug insert with several complementary pins, whereby each of the pins can be connected to electrical conductors.
The fact that the lever is provided with a projection enables the connection of the plug with the mating plug to be detached by pivoting the lever into a detachment position by means of a transfer of force from the projection onto the mating plug. An advantage of the solution according to the invention is that in order to overcome the considerable force for plugging in or withdrawing the projection, a leverage effect is transferred to the mating plug, which enables a simplified and more secure detachment of the connection.
In this regard, the projection is especially formed and arranged such that the plug and the mating plug are separated from one another from their connection position by a gap such that additional separation by hand becomes possible without risk of injury, namely, without considerable force. This gap, by which the plug and the mating plug are separated from one another from their connected position is preferably less than 10 millimetres, ideally less than 6 millimetres. Generally, the gap is optimally around 4 millimetres. An expert will recognise that gaps of less than 1 millimetre generally do not permit any meaningful detachment of the plug from the mating plug.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transfer of force from the projection onto the mating plug takes place directly onto the housing of the mating plug. This is an advantage in that no additional counter bearing is required on the mating plug.
As an alternative or preferred solution to the problem, an arrangement is provided for, which has the plug and the complementary mating plug, and is likewise provided for creating and/or detaching a connection between the plug and the mating plug, whereby the plug has an arrangement comprising a lever pivoted around a shaft, and according to the invention, the lever has a connection contour and the mating plug has a spigot, whereby the connection between the plug and the mating plug can be created by pivoting the lever into a connecting position by transferring force from the connection contour onto the spigot. An advantage of this arrangement is that large plug-in forces that arise especially over a stretch of the plug-in path directly before attaining the final connected position can be easily and safety brought about by pushing the lever into the connecting position. For this purpose, the connection contour is formed such that the spigot, and thus the mating plug, are advanced towards the plug or vice versa. An engagement recess arranged behind the connection contour in the pivot direction for purposes of locking advantageously enables the lever to be engaged when the connection between the plug and mating plug is created, if the spigot can be engaged in the engagement recess. This engagement or locking is however not essential for fulfilling the purpose of the invention. Preferably, the arrangement would rather have a lock independent of the lever, which can be locked only after the connection is created, or which cannot be opened when the mating plug, designed as a circuit breaker, is in the switched-on state, such that the replacement of a plug designed as a switch module, especially a trigger module, is not possible.
According to the preferred embodiment of both variants, it is provided for that the lever has an actuation grip on one side for pivoting the lever around the shaft, whereby the connection contour and/or the projection are arranged on the opposite side of the lever. In a combination of both variants, the lever preferably has a fork, whereby the connection contour and the projection are arranged on different arms of the fork.
According to another preferred embodiment of both variants, the lever can be pivoted between the connecting position and the detaching position over an angular range of less than 90°, preferably over an angular range of less than 60°, ideally an angular range of less than 45°. Smaller pivot angles allow the actuation grip to be guided along only one side of the plug's housing, which is advantageous in case of limited structural space, which is commonly the case in switching devices, say, in industrial systems.
According to another preferred embodiment of both variants, the actuation grip of the lever is guided into a guide coulisse on one actuation side of the plug. Ideally, the actuation grip should be engaged in the connecting position and/or the detaching position. It is thus possible to clearly ascertain from the actuation side of the plug whether the connection has been created or detached or, if required, is in an undefined interim position. The actuation side of the plug is generally assigned to the operator and is located opposite the pins, for instance.
According to another preferred embodiment of both variants, the actuation side of the plug can be covered at least partially by a pivoted cover, whereby the cover has a lock, such that the cover can be pivoted into a position covering the actuation side only if the actuation grip is in the connecting or detaching position, that is, especially engaged. If the status of the plug connection is unclear, the actuation grip will be in an interim position, such that the lock prevents the actuation side from being covered. A preferred embodiment that prevents accidental errors has ramps on the edges of the lock, whereby the ramps are provided to displace the actuation grip into the connecting position or detaching position. This is evidently possible on if the actuation grip is already nearly in the connection position or nearly in the detachment position and needs to be shifted only by a very small angular range of, say, less than 10°, especially less than 5°.
In case of a mating plug designed as a switch, especially a circuit breaker, the switch can be switched on only if the cover of the actuation side of the plug or the switch module is closed. The closed cover guarantees a definite state of the plug connection, namely either completely connected or completely detached, so that switching on the switch does not entail the risk of there being an incompletely set up connection, which could lead to damage to the electrical appliance. In the detached state, the lever held in the detaching position when the cover is closed also advantageously serves as a transportation lock.
The invention will be described in further detail below based on one embodiment, with the help of diagrams. The designs are exemplary and do not restrict the general concept of the invention
Below are the details of the figures:
The lever 31 also has a connection contour 38 and the mating plug 12 has a spigot 36, whereby the connection of the plug 11 with the mating plug 12 can be created by pivoting the lever 31 into a connecting position according to the line marked V. When pivoting the lever 31 into the connecting position V, the shape of the connection contour 38 results in a transfer of force from the connection contour 38 onto the spigot 36, by which the plug 11 and the mating plug 12 move towards one another, say, over a stretch of 4 millimetres, whereby the region of greatest force is overcome. An engagement recess 17 arranged behind the connection contour 38 in the pivot direction towards the connecting position V advantageously allows an additional engagement of the lever 31 when the connection between the plug 11 and mating plug 12 is set up, by engaging the spigot 36 in the engagement recess 17.
A rotary knob 15 on the circuit breaker 12 will be described later in greater detail in connection with the
11 Plug, especially trigger module
12 Mating plug, especially circuit breaker
14 Actuation side
15 Rotary knob
16 Counter tab
17 Engagement recess
20 Cover
21 Lock
22 Ramp
23 Latch
31 Lever
32 Shaft
33 Actuation grip
34 Coulisse
35 Engagement means
36 Spigot
37 Housing of mating plug
38 Connection contour
39 Projection
A Shaft
T Detaching position
V Connecting position
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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11002730.7 | Apr 2011 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2012/055348 | 3/26/2012 | WO | 00 | 2/27/2014 |