Patent Application
20230368999
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The disclosure relates to circuit breakers and more particularly pertains to a new circuit breaker for readily identifying and resetting a tripped circuit breaker. The present invention discloses a circuit breaker having a readily viewable shaft that extends from a housing upon tripping of the circuit breaker. The shaft is depressed to reset the circuit breaker.
The prior art relates to circuit breakers, which generally comprise toggles that are switched upon exposure of attached plates to a specified current. One deficiency of prior art circuit breakers is that a position of the toggle with the circuit breaker tripped configuration is not readily visually discernable from a position of the toggle with the circuit breaker not being tripped. What is lacking in the prior art is a circuit breaker comprising a shaft that extends from a housing upon exposure of the circuit breaker to a specified current, causing the circuit breaker to trip. The shaft then is readily visible and indicates that the circuit breaker has been tripped. Simply depressing the shaft resets the circuit breaker.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing, which defines an interior space. A button, which is selectively depressible, is attached to an upper facet of the housing. A biaser is attached to the housing and is operationally engaged to the button to selectively retain the button in a depressed configuration and an extended configuration. A shaft is slidably attached to the housing and is selectively extendible from the upper facet of the housing. A first end and a second end of a plate spring are attached to the housing and the biaser, respectively. A bimetal strip is attached to the housing and is positioned in the interior space. The bimetal strip is reversibly deformable and is configured to bend upon exposure to a specified current. The button is configured to be depressed to induce electrical contact of the biaser with the bimetal strip, which completes an electrical circuit. Upon exposure to the specified current, the bimetal strip bends and actuates the plate spring to extend the shaft from the upper facet and to disengage the biaser from the bimetal strip, thereby breaking the electrical circuit. A user then is positioned to depress the shaft to reverse deformation of the bimetal strip and to actuate the biaser to extend the button to the extended configuration. The button then is again depressible to complete the electrical circuit.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A button 20, which is selectively depressible, is attached to an upper facet 22 of the housing 12. The button 20 is cup shaped and translucent. The button 20 is attached to a bracket 24, in which a pair of guide holes 26 is positioned, as is shown in
A biaser 38 is attached to the housing 12 and is operationally engaged to the button 20. The biaser 38 selectively retains the button 20 in a depressed configuration and an extended configuration, as is shown in
A shaft 52 is slidably attached to the housing 12 and is selectively extendible from the upper facet 22 of the housing 12. A pipe 54 is attached to and extends from the upper facet 22 of the housing 12. The pipe 54 is in fluidic communication with the interior space 14. The shaft 52 is positioned in the pipe 54 so that an upper end 56 of the shaft 52 is substantially flush with a top 58 of the pipe 54 when the shaft 52 is in a depressed position. The shaft 52 is brightly colored and thus is readily visible when in an extended position, as is shown in
A first end 60 and a second end 62 of a plate spring 64 are attached to the housing 12 and the biaser 38, respectively. A first connecting element 66 is attached to the housing 12 and to the plate spring 64. A bimetal strip 68 is attached to the housing 12 and is positioned in the interior space 14. A wedge 70 is attached to a bottom 72 of the housing 12 and extends into the interior space 14. The wedge 70 contacts the bimetal strip 68 to enhance electrical contact between the bimetal strip 68 and the biaser 38. A second connecting element 74 is attached to the housing 12 and to a first edge 76 of the bimetal strip 68. As is shown in
The bimetal strip 68 is reversibly deformable and is configured to bend upon exposure to a specified current. The bimetal strip 68 comprises a bottom layer 78, which comprises active metal, and a top layer 80, which comprises passive metal. A cutout 82 is positioned in the bimetal strip 68 and defines an extension 84, which extends angularly from the bimetal strip 68 over the cutout 82 so that the extension 84 and is positioned to contact the ratchet spring 50.
An expansion coefficient of the bottom layer 78 of the bimetal strip 68 is greater than that of the top layer 80. Thus, when the bimetal strip 68 is overloaded, a second edge 86 of the bimetal strip 68 is bent from the bottom layer 78 to the top layer 80, and the extension 84 passes through the cutout 82 and away from the biaser 38. As will be shown below, the extension 84 disengaging from the biaser 38 breaks an electrical circuit, effectively “tripping” the electrical overload protection device 10.
Each of a plurality of connectors 88 is attached to a respective one of the first connecting element 66, the second connecting element 74, the ratchet spring 50, and the extension 84, to enhance electric connections therebetween.
An illumination module 90 is positioned between the reset spring 40 and the bracket 24. The illumination module 90 is in electrical contact with the reset spring 40 and is powered when the terminal segment 46 is in electrical contact with the bimetal strip 68. The illumination module 90 is configured to illuminate the button 20, upon depressing of the button 20, until the bimetal strip 68 is exposed to the specified current. An advantage of this configuration is that no wiring is required to supply power to the illumination module 90. The illumination module 90 may comprise a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) 92 and a light emitting diode 94. Using a PCB 92 in the illumination module 90 is convenient, efficient, in that manufacturing is greatly simplified, reduces costs by eliminating parts and welds, provides stability, and reduces a risk of bad contacts and broken circuits within the illumination module 90.
The button 20 is configured to be depressed to induce electrical contact of the biaser 38 with the bimetal strip 68, which completes the electrical circuit. Upon exposure to the specified current, the bimetal strip 68 bends and actuates the plate spring 64 to extend the shaft 52 from the upper facet 22 and to disengage the biaser 38 from the bimetal strip 68, thereby breaking the electrical circuit. A user then is positioned to depress the shaft 52 to reverse deformation of the bimetal strip 68 and to actuate the biaser 38 to extend the button 20 to the extended configuration. The button 20 then is again depressible to complete the electrical circuit.
In use, the electrical overload protection device 10 enables a method of protecting an electronic device from damage due to an electrical overload. A flow diagram for the method is shown in
A fourth step of the method is monitoring the electrical overload protection device for rising of the shaft 52 from the pipe 54. The shaft 52, being elevated and brightly colored, clearly indicates that the electrical overload protection device 10 has been tripped. Tripping of the electrical overload protection device 10 leads to a fifth step of the method, which is depressing the shaft 52 to reverse deformation of the bimetal strip 68 and to reset the button 20. A sixth step of the method is depressing the button 20 again to reestablish the electrical circuit and to resupply power to the electronic device.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
