1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit breaker such as no-fuse circuit breakers or earth leakage breakers and, more particularly, to a circuit breaker of which specification can be easily changed depending on breaking capacity.
2. Description of the Related Art
A circuit breaker not only has the function of make-and-break of an electric circuit, i.e., the switch function by the operation of an operating handle provided at this circuit breaker, but also has the function of breaking an electric circuit for preventing electric wires or current consumers from burning due to the flow of an over-current, i.e., an important role of breaking function. This breaking of an electric circuit is defined to be within a range of 1 kA to 200 kA as “rated breaking current” in accordance with, for example, JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) C8370. It is as known that each manufacturer intends to provide a wide range of product variations so as to select a circuit breaker having a suitable rated breaking current depending on situations of the electric circuit, that is, distance from a transformer, or thickness of an electric wire.
At the time of breaking an electric circuit in such a circuit breaker, molten metallic materials or molten insulating materials due to the generation of arc heat may be scattered in the surrounding area along with arc gas, and the molten materials may be adhered to the make-and-break mechanism or the trip mechanism. In general, a circuit breaker is capable of interrupting a rated breaking current about two to three times. Further, when considering that the rapid reset operation (sliding shift to the OFF position of an operating handle) is made, for example, to stop an alarm output having been generated at the time of breaking, it is not desirable that functions of the above-mentioned make-and-break mechanism or trip mechanism are impaired due to adhesion of the above-mentioned molten materials.
To address such problems, conventionally, as shown in the Japanese Patent Publication (unexamined) No. 228669/2005, the following circuit breaker is proposed. This circuit breaker is arranged such that an insulating housing of the circuit breaker is divided into a case body, a middle cover to be mounted on the top of this case body, and a top cover with which the top of the middle cover is covered; a contact portion where arc is generated and an arc-extinguishing device functioning to extinguish this arc, are contained in the case body; and a make-and-break mechanism or a trip mechanism is contained in the middle cover to separate the above-mentioned make-and-break mechanism or trip mechanism from the contact portion, thereby preventing the adhesion of molten materials to, e.g., make-and-break mechanism.
However, in the circuit breaker as shown in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication (unexamined) No. 228669/2005, due to the fact that a partition wall over each of the poles is formed at the bottom of the middle cover and a make-and-break mechanism or a trip mechanism is attached to a central pole portion of the above-mentioned partition wall, a middle cover will be inevitably an indispensable part to construct a circuit breaker. Since there are varieties of rated breaking currents respectively serving as indexes of performance capability of a circuit breaker as described above, there is no reason that a circuit breaker should have a large rated breaking current. Rather, it is preferable to select a rated breaking current in light of situations of an electric circuit thereof.
Nevertheless, in the case of a comparatively small rated breaking current, the adhesion of molten materials is not regarded as a disadvantage, so that the mounting of a middle cover is an over specification, and there will be the possibility of being less cost competitive.
Furthermore, in the case of preparing a circuit breaker without the use of the middle cover in order to prevent the over specification, it is necessary to review the entire construction of a make-and-break mechanism itself. Thus, a problem exists in that it is difficult to share parts depending on the magnitude of rated breaking current, that is, the difference in breaking capacity.
The present invention was made to solve the problems as described above, and has an object of obtaining a circuit breaker in which a breaking portion and a make-and-break mechanism part, and a breaking portion and an over-current trip device are separated as has heretofore been done in the case of a comparatively large rated breaking current, and in which they are not separated without change of layout or part structure of these breaking portion, make-and-break mechanism part, and over-current trip device in the case of a comparatively small rated breaking current.
A circuit breaker according to the invention comprises:
a make-and-break mechanism part that includes an operating handle, and is disposed between frame plates opposite to each other;
a base in which a cross bar that turns in cooperation with mentioned make-and-break mechanism part, a moving contact that cooperates with the cross bar, a fixed contact that repeats contact and separation from the moving contact, a breaking portion including an arc-extinguishing device functioning to extinguish arc generated between both contacts, and an over-current trip device are contained;
a middle base in which a partition wall serving to separate the mentioned breaking portion from the make-and-break mechanism part, and the mentioned breaking portion from the over-current trip device, is provided; and in which the mentioned make-and-break mechanism part is contained; and
a cover with which mentioned base, middle base and each of parts contained in these base and middle base are covered.
In this circuit breaker, a frame of the mentioned make-and-break mechanism part is secured to the mentioned base through the mentioned middle base; and the secured part of the mentioned frame and the inner bottom face of the mentioned base are disposed in the proximity.
The circuit breaker of above construction may comply with both of the mentioned specification of separating the above-mentioned make-and-break mechanism or trip mechanism from the above-mentioned breaking portion, and the specification of no such separation. Thus, irrespective of the magnitude of breaking capacity, or even if there is any difference in the rated current value or the number of poles, it comes to be possible to share main components of the circuit breaker such as make-and-break mechanism part. Consequently, it is possible to achieve the cost down of products.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
a) and (b) are cross sectional views taken along the line D-D and the line E-E in
A first preferred embodiment according to the present invention is hereinafter described referring to
In the above-mentioned base 4, there are fixed or disposed the over-current trip device 103 as described above, and other moving contact part 104 connected with a cross bar 5, fixed contact 6 (refer to
Now, the assembly procedures of this circuit breaker are described referring to
Frame plates 11 of the make-and-break mechanism part 102 are in opposition to each other (refer to
Since the above-described fastening of the make-and-break mechanism part 102 forms an essential part of the invention, the detailed description thereof will be hereinafter made. With reference to
Thus, it will be shown that as compared with this substantially semi-circular portion or the threaded part 11b (refer to
In general, a circuit breaker is more likely to be inexpensive as a rated breaking current thereof is smaller. Accordingly, each manufacturer is required to reduce the manufacturing cost of products of small rated breaking current. In this regard, since the invention does not place much importance on the advantages of mounting any middle base 3 in the case of a small rated breaking current, this comparatively expensive middle base 3 is not necessarily used, and a unit of make-and-break mechanism part 102 can also be used in a shared manner, thus enabling to obtain a circuit breaker of a manufacturing cost for a reasonable price. Although unemployment of a middle base 3 leads to the necessity of mounting such parts as the above-described spacers or side plates 3a and 3a (refer to
Advantages of mounting a middle base 3 are hereinafter described. As shown in
In addition, the horizontal part 3f is provided with a third hole 3h are slot-shaped conforming to the turning range of a protrusion 5b of the cross bar 5. Thus, it is possible to know a state of the cross bar 5, that is, a position of the moving contact 9 from outside of the middle base 3 with the protrusions 5b, so that, for example, engagement of these protrusions 5b with actuators acting as an auxiliary contact makes it possible to transmit the state of contact of a circuit breaker 101 to outside of this circuit breaker as electric signals.
Further, to achieve reliable positioning of the circuit breaker 101 and to prevent the dislocation of the circuit breaker 101 due to vibration or impact, it is preferable that an arc-extinguishing device holding part 3i (refer to
According to the foregoing first embodiment, a three-pole circuit breaker is described as an example. However, an electric circuit is not limited to the three-pole type, and there is the one having voltage poles and a neutral pole, that is, a four-pole circuit breaker. In this second embodiment, a middle base 3 is applied to this four-pole circuit breaker, and is now described referring to
In the case of a four-pole circuit breaker, typically a base and a cover are for exclusive use in the four-pole circuit breaker. The advantage of the middle base 3 as described in the first embodiment, that is, the prevention of adherence of molten material to the sliding parts is to be performed focusing attention only on voltage poles in this four-pole circuit breaker. Thus, as shown in
As a result of such arrangement, not only a make-and-break mechanism part 102 but also a middle base 3 can be shared, so that it is possible to improve more standardization of parts.
Further, according to the above-mentioned embodiments, although examples in which the make-and-break mechanism part 102 is provided with pairs of threaded parts 11a, 11b, 11a, 11b at both ends (front and back ends) of frame plates 11 respectively, and secured thereto with screws from the underside of a base 4 are described. However, it is not limited to the threaded mounting, and any other alternative fastening means may be employed as a matter of course.
While the presently preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described. It is to be understood that these disclosures are for the purpose of illustration and that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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P2005-368020 | Dec 2005 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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3354415 | Gribble et al. | Nov 1967 | A |
6373014 | Mitsuhashi et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
6573815 | Tsukima et al. | Jun 2003 | B1 |
7154062 | Asakawa et al. | Dec 2006 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2005-228669 | Aug 2005 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070139147 A1 | Jun 2007 | US |