The object of the invention is an electric switch or circuit breaker, in particular suitable for medium voltage, and comprising a vacuum cartridge. The term “medium voltage” (MT) is used in its usual acceptation, i.e. for a voltage that is greater than 1000 volts in alternating current and greater than 1500 volts in direct current but which does not exceed 52,000 volts in alternating current and 75,000 volts in direct current.
Such apparatuses have to perform breaking and isolation of electric circuits. Their base element is a main movable contact on the electric circuit so as to have a closed state and an open state of the circuit. Breaking of the circuit can however be problematic on account of the occurrence of an arc passing through the movable contact even when the latter has been opened. Vacuum cartridges branch-connected to the main contact are therefore often added so as to make the current flow through the cartridge as soon as the main contact is opened, which prevents formation of an arc. When the vacuum cartridge is in turn opened, the circuit is interrupted in reliable manner, as the arc is extinguished immediately in the vacuum of the cartridge.
The operating mechanism via which the vacuum cartridge is opened is advantageously actuated by the movable contact itself during a part of the opening travel of the latter so that the operator has a single command to perform and so that opening of the vacuum cartridge is synchronized with that of the main circuit with a very small time lag. The documents U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,139, FR-A-2,721,434 and FR-A-2,937,786 describe vacuum cartridges or switches comprising the above.
Various operating mechanisms have already been proposed in the prior art, but they present a certain complication which implies an economic drawback and may reduce their reliability. One of the reasons is that the main movable contact performs a reverse trajectory when closing the electric circuit, and that it therefore intercepts the operating device as it had done during opening of the circuit, which is not possible without precautions being taken, as the operating device, which is generally biased to an invariable state by a spring, does not have a reversible operation. Interception during reclosing of the circuit is therefore prevented by retraction of the main contact or of the operating device, for example by constructing the latter with a unidirectional pivot (as in the third document above), which complicates the switch and may be detrimental to its dependability.
One object of the invention is therefore to simplify such switches and/or circuit breakers, more generally electric switchgear devices, in particular medium-voltage devices.
In a general form, the invention relates to a device in particular suitable for breaking medium voltages, having a vacuum cartridge branch-connected on a main electric circuit principal able to be opened or closed by a main movable contact, the vacuum cartridge having a rod passing through an enclosure and supporting a movable contact of said vacuum cartridge, the switch further comprising an operating mechanism of the vacuum cartridge actuated by the main contact and actuating the rod and comprising a rotating rocker arm connecting the rod and the main movable contact. The rocker arm is rigid and comprises two articulation regions around which it respectively rotates during the opening and closing operations of the main electric circuit.
The known complex rocker arm, composed of two parts articulated on one another, is therefore replaced by a unitary rocker arm fitted with flexibility, without fixed articulation points. The use of an articulation which could be qualified as oscillating between two fixed points in the direction of rotation of the rocker arm enables it to fully intercept the main movable contact in one direction and to be moved by the latter, but without retracting in front of the latter in the other direction of movement.
In most embodiments, the mechanism also comprises a spring biasing the rod to an invariable state, which can be connected for example to a fixed structure of the switch or rocker arm, or between the enclosure and the rod of the vacuum cartridge.
In an important design, the rocker arm is articulated on the rod in one of said articulation regions. In the other of said articulation regions, the operating mechanism can then comprise a fixed pin and a portion of the rocker arm provided with an oblong aperture in which the pin moves when the rocker arm rotates around said one of the articulation regions. In another design, the rod is rigidly fixed to the rocker arm and is flexible. The articulation regions are then advantageously contact points of the rocker arm with fixed parts of the switch, the rocker arm being only connected to the rod in a state in which it is not biased by the main movable contact. Said fixed parts of the switchgear device can belong to a sleeve fixed to the vacuum cartridge and surrounding the rod, and are located on each side of the rod.
Electric conduction through the branch-off to the vacuum cartridge can be procured by the rocker arm, or possibly by a conducting switching tab electrically connected to the movable contact of the vacuum cartridge and extending up to a free end approximately superposed on a free end of the rocker arm which intercepts the main movable contact, the main movable contact rubbing on the free end of the switching tab.
When this tab exists, the rocker arm can also rub on the switching tab with a greater resistance than the force exerted by the biasing spring. This design enables two stable states of the switch to be established at will in different positions of the rocker arm in the absence of biasing by the main movable contact.
The main movable contact can also be rotating or sliding.
Some embodiments of the invention will now be described for purely illustrative purposes only in connection with the following figures:
and
As described in
A switching tab (14) comprises a shaft (15) extending in parallel direction to the end of the line-side stationary contact (1) from the end of the bellows (13), which it touches, up to in front of the free end (5) of the main movable contact (3), and an enlarged end in the form of a spatula (16) which extends from the shaft (15) perpendicularly thereto towards this free end (5) at a short distance therefrom. The rocker arm (12) also comprises two portions (17 and 18) forming an angle between them, the first of which, which extends in front of the end of the enclosure (7), supports the articulation (11), an attachment pin of a spring (22) drawn between the rocker arm (12) and a point (23) of a fixed structure (19) of the switch, and an aperture (20) in which a pin (21) also belonging to the fixed structure (19) slides. The second portion (18) extends in front of the switching tab (14), and their free ends are more or less aligned perpendicularly to the plane of the figure and of the main circuit, in the represented closed state of the vacuum cartridge (6). The switching tab (14) and rocker arm (22) can be in contact by friction or not.
As illustrated in
The step of
In another embodiment (
Opening of the circuit starts as in the above by rotation of the main movable contact (3) (
Reclosing of the circuit is illustrated in
In another embodiment (
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