The present application is a national phase of PCT/FI2003/000836, filed 6 Nov. 2003, which derived from Finland Application No. 20021999, filed 7 Nov. 2002. All priorities are claimed.
The invention relates to plug-in unit assemblies comprising instrument transformers, and particularly to protective relay assemblies comprising a plug-in unit.
Different protective relay versions comprise a varying number of current and voltage transformers. Their connectors are subject to the requirement that the current circuits must close when the plug-in unit is being extracted, but, correspondingly, the voltage circuits must not short. In known solutions, a connector adapted to connect current and voltage transformers has to be assembled for each combination from different current and voltage connector components and, in addition, the modules have to be coded in order to prevent a module from being inserted into the wrong connection slot.
The problem in the above-described arrangement is that current and voltage transformers require different mating connectors. Another problem is the cost caused by the coding of modules. For example, if an as sembly comprises six transformer slots having current or voltage transformers, the number of combinations is large, requiring an expensive mechanical coding system including set-ups and maintenance.
The object of the invention is thus to provide a plug-in unit assembly comprising instrument transformers so as to solve the above problems. The object of the invention is achieved with an assembly, which is characterized in what is stated in the independent claim. Preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.
The invention is based on the current and voltage transformers using a similar connector, whereby the desired shorting of the current circuits when the plug-in unit is being extracted takes place on the basis of the coding of the instrument transformers of the plug-in unit.
The advantage of the plug-in unit assembly of the invention is that the current and voltage transformers are connectible to an identical connector. The use of an identical connector for both current and voltage transformers also enables lower costs.
In the following, a preferred embodiment of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
a to 6c show the structure of the short-circuit element of the assembly of
The assembly of
For each instrument transformer 3 and 4, the connector assembly 10 comprises a short-circuit element 5 having a basic state and two operational states. The short-circuit elements 5 are configured to operate together with the instrument transformers 3 and 4 such that the operational state of each short-circuit element 5 is determined based on whether it is an instrument transformer to be connected to the short-circuit element 5 when in its initial position, a current transformer 3 or a voltage transformer 4. When a current transformer 3 is connected to a short-circuit element 5 in the basic state, the short-circuit element 5 switches to an operational state wherein it shorts the current circuit when the plug-in unit 2 is being extracted, and wherein it opens the current circuit when the plug-in unit 2 is being inserted such that the current circuit circulates via the current transformer 3. Correspondingly, when a voltage transformer 4 is connected to a short-circuit element 5 in the basic state, the short-circuit element 5 switches to an operational state wherein it does not short the voltage circuit in any situation. Different types of instrument transformers rotate the short-circuit elements 5 in different directions from their basic state in accordance with
The assembly of
To prevent a plug-in unit 2 having the wrong type of instrument transformer combination from being connected, the short-circuit elements 5 of
Alternatively, it is possible to achieve the plug-in unit assembly comprising instrument transformers according to the invention, wherein the plug-in unit 2 to be connected to the case assembly 1 for the first time does not code the case assembly 1, whereby the case assembly 1 also allows plug-in units 2 comprising different instrument transformer combinations to be connected thereto in the future. Such an arrangement may prove useful in special cases, wherein a given case assembly 1 is to be used with plug-in units 2 comprising a plurality of different instrument transformer combinations without the need to make changes in the connector assembly 10 of the case assembly 1 when switching to use the following plug-in unit 2. It is evident that in such solutions, the case assembly 1 has to be capable of identifying the types of the instrument transformers of the plug-in unit 2 each time the plug-in unit 2 is inserted into the case assembly 1, and to short the contacts corresponding to the current transformers 3 when the plug-in unit 2 is being detached.
Furthermore, it is possible to achieve the plug-in unit assembly comprising instrument transformers according to the invention, which is a kind of hybrid of two of the above-presented alternatives. Such an assembly operates otherwise essentially in the same way as the above-presented first assembly, but it additionally comprises special means for decoding the coding of the case assembly 1. An assembly provided with decoding means thus operates such that when the plug-in unit 2 is connected to the case assembly 1 for the first time, the connector assembly 10 of the case assembly 1 is coded to correspond to said plug-in unit 2, after which an other type of plug-in unit 2 can no longer be connected to the case assembly 1 without first decoding the coding of the connector assembly 10 by using the decoding means. After the decoding, a plug-in unit 2 provided with any kind of instrument transformer combination can be connected to the case assembly 1.
In the assemblies shown in
The contacts of the pair of contacts 11 are naturally connected to contacts on the outer surface of the case assembly 1 in an electrically conductive manner, the contacts being configured for coupling to the desired voltage or current circuit.
The connector assembly 10 of the plug-in unit assembly of the invention comprising instrument transformers may comprise means for ensuring that the short-circuit elements 5 remain in their desired operational states. Such means are arranged specifically to prevent the unintentional transition of the short-circuit elements 5 from the desired operational states. Alternatively, the means for ensuring that the short-circuit elements 5 remain in the desired operational states may comprise means that are partly or entirely separate from the connector assembly 10.
a to 6c show the structure of the short-circuit element 5 of the assembly of
The body 6 of the short-circuit element 5 of
The short-circuit element 5 shown in
It is evident that to achieve the desired shorting properties, the short-circuit bit 8, or at least a given part of its surface, has to be electrically conductive.
The short-circuit element 5 connected to the voltage transformer 4 must not short the corresponding pair of contacts 11 in any situation. In the embodiment presented, said property is accomplished such that in an operational state corresponding to the voltage transformer 4, the short-circuit element 5 is rotated to a position where the cavity 12 of the short-circuit element 5 and the short-circuit bit 8 therein are directed away from the direction enabling shorting.
As was stated above, the short-circuit elements 5 are to short the pairs of contacts 11 corresponding to the current circuits only when no plug-in unit 2 is connected to the case assembly 1. In the embodiment presented, this property is implemented in such a manner that in an operational state corresponding to the current transformer 3, the short-circuit element 5 is rotated in a position where the spring means 7 pushes the short-circuit bit 8 substantially towards the imagined midline of the pair of contacts 11, and the coil body structure of the current transformers 3 is arranged such that when the current transformer 3 is connected to the connector assembly 10, its coil body structure pushes the short-circuit bit 8 deeper into the cavity 12 such that the short-circuit bit 8 reaches a position wherein it does not short the contacts of the pair of contacts 11. Correspondingly, in a situation wherein the plug-in unit 2 is detached from the case assembly 1 and the coil body structure of the current transformer 3 does not push the short-circuit bit 8 inwards, the short-circuit bit 8 of the short-circuit element 5 extends into a position wherein it shorts the contacts of the pair of contacts 11 corresponding to said short-circuit element 5.
In the short-circuit element 5 shown in
It is evident that the implementation of the short-circuit element 5 may deviate from the one shown in
In the embodiment presented, the coding of the instrument transformers 3 and 4 is implemented by the coil body structures of the current transformers 3 and voltage transformers 4 being different. More exactly expressed, the coil body structure of the instrument transformers 3 and 4 of the embodiment presented comprises a coding bracket 13 having a front edge shaped like a bevelled rectangle. In the solution of the embodiment presented, the current transformers 3 and voltage transformers 4 are coded to differ from each other by bevelling the front edges of their coding brackets 13 at corners on different sides.
The instrument transformers may naturally be coded in another manner than the one presented above. An alternative manner of implementation is to provide those connector means with which each current transformer is connected to the connector assembly 10 with a structure enabling identification.
In the embodiment presented, the instrument transformers 3 and 4 are arranged to be placed in the plug-in unit 2 such that the front edge of the coding bracket 13 encounters the rotating means 9 of the short-circuit element 5 when the plug-in unit 2 is being inserted into the case assembly 1.
As
As was mentioned above, in the embodiment presented, when rotated to their operational state, the short-circuit elements 5 of the case assembly 1 prevent the insertion of a plug-in unit 2 having the wrong kind of instrument transformer combination into the case assembly.
It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that the basic idea of the invention can be implemented in a variety of ways. The invention and its embodiments are thus not limited to the above examples, but may vary within the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20021999 | Nov 2002 | FI | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/FI03/00836 | 11/6/2003 | WO | 00 | 3/24/2005 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2004/042751 | 5/21/2004 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4963820 | Medlin | Oct 1990 | A |
5834932 | May | Nov 1998 | A |
5923526 | Kangas | Jul 1999 | A |
6329810 | Reid | Dec 2001 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
0 420 534 | Apr 1991 | EP |
0 503 456 | Sep 1991 | EP |
2745911 | Sep 1997 | FR |
2 276 728 | Oct 1994 | GB |
9947935 | Sep 1999 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050162252 A1 | Jul 2005 | US |