Surge suppressors are used to protect electronic equipment connected to a power line or data cable from voltage surges. Surge suppressors operate by providing an alternate electrical pathway having lower resistance for voltages exceeding a certain desired threshold. Providing an easier pathway for excess voltages prevents these voltage “surges” or “spikes” from traveling into and damaging electronic equipment connected to the AC circuit or data cable. Typical surge suppressors use Metal Oxide Varistors (MOVs) or Silicon Avalanche Diodes (SAD) to provide this alternate pathway.
In a surge suppression assembly, the MOV or SAD surge suppression circuits are connected to a bus bar. The bus bar provides an electrical coupling between a surge suppression circuit and an external contact such as a power line, a neutral line, or a ground. The bus bars must generally be placed on separate planes in order to secure an electrical coupling between them.
Conventional surge suppressors are generally not expandable to accommodate additional suppression needs. If, for example, a consumer using a conventional surge suppressor develops an increased need for surge suppression, in order to obtain a surge suppressor with a larger suppression capacity, they typically have to buy a completely new surge suppression assembly. Consumers are unable to simply upgrade their current surge suppressors to increase capacity.
Conventional surge suppressors are also bulky and inefficient in their use of box space. Also, existing surge suppression assemblies are not capable of swapping out damaged or destroyed surge suppression modules without disrupting the operation of other surge suppression modules that may currently be operating in the same enclosure.
The present invention addresses this and other problems associated with the prior art.
A surge suppression device includes a bus bar that extends along a length of the surge suppression device. Multiple surge suppression modules each have an attachment device that attaches and detaches to the bus bar without disrupting connections of other surge suppression modules coupled to the same bus bar.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
A top lid 18 of the enclosure 14 is removable for inserting and removing individual surge suppression modules 30 shown in more detail below in subsequent figures. The lid 18 is attached to a bottom section 24 by screws 22. The enclosure 14 is approximately 15 centimeters long, 10 centimeters wide and 3 centimeters high.
The surge suppression device 12 is attached to different data cables 20 to prevent electrical power surges from damaging electrical equipment. In one specific application, the surge suppression module 12 is used to dissipate electrical power surges on telecommunication cables, such as the cables 20A and 20B shown in
A first part of each cable 20A is connected to the front end of the surge suppression device 12 and a second part of each cable 20B is connected to a back end of the surge suppression device 12. Multiple individual surge suppression modules 30 inside the surge suppression device 12 direct power surges detected on either end 20A and 20B of the different cables to ground. This prevents the power surge from reaching and destroying electrical equipment connected to the cables 20A and 20B.
Multiple female connectors 34 (
Slots 40A-40E are shown populated with surge suppression modules 30 and one of the slots 40F is shown empty with no inserted surge suppression module 30. The multiple surge suppression modules 30 insert side-by-side in a co-planar row and extend longitudinally inside the enclosure 14. Any number of the slots 40 can be populated with suppression modules 30. This allows a customer to purchase only the number of surge suppression modules 30 currently required for their particular operation and, if required, expand to add additional cable connections and modules 30 in the future.
Referring to
The clip 42 electrically connects the surge suppression circuitry 62 on the surge suppression module 30 to ground while also securely holding the surge suppression module 30 inside the enclosure 14. In one embodiment, the connectors 34 are RJ-45 female telecommunication connectors used for T1 telecommunication cables. However, other type of connectors can also be used.
The surge suppression arrangement described above allows individual surge suppression modules 30 to be inserted and removed from the slots 40A-40F without disrupting the electrical connections of the other surge suppression modules 30 coupled to the bus bar 32 or disrupting the operation of the data transmission in the cables 20A and 20B connected to those modules (
The bus bar 32 in one embodiment is an elongated rod that includes a first end 48 that extends from one side of the enclosure 14 as shown in
The surge suppression circuitry 62 is configured to direct power surges detected on the cables 20 (
For example, a conductor 68 provides a connection between the T1 cables 20A and 20B attached to connectors 34A and 34B. When a power surge generates a voltage above an over voltage threshold value, the gas tube 66 and SAD 69 each couple the conductor 68 to connector 42 which in this case is coupled to ground 70 via the bus bar 32 (
Thus, a single enclosure 14 contains multiple data cable surge suppression modules 30 that are all individually replaceable without disturbing the operation of other operating surge suppression modules. Thus, the operation of other T1 or E1 data cables 20A and 20B connected to the other the surge suppression modules 30 will not be disrupted when one of the surge suppression modules 30 is replaced.
Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be apparent that the invention may be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. We claim all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims.
This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/885,812, filed Jul. 6, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,397,673 herein incorporated by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10885812 | Jul 2004 | US |
Child | 12132448 | US |