Permanent magnet contactor
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsCharles Honick, Dylan Erb, John Sturza, Abdul Lateef, Philip Michael Gonzales
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A power system is disclosed. The system may include an electrical contactor including a pair of plates arranged to scissor between open and closed positions. The plates may have magnets embedded therein such that in the closed position, a subset of the magnets having opposite polarity are aligned to encourage touching of electrical contacts of the plates, and in the open position, a subset of the magnets having same polarity are aligned to encourage separation of the electrical contacts.
Claims19
A power system comprising:
- an electrical contactor including a pair of plates arranged to scissor between open and closed positions, the plates having magnets embedded therein such that
- in the closed position, a subset of the magnets having opposite polarity are aligned to encourage touching of electrical contacts of the plates, and
- in the open position, a subset of the magnets having same polarity are aligned to encourage separation of the electrical contacts.
An electrical contactor comprising:
- a pair of plates arranged to scissor between open and closed positions, the plates having magnets and electrical contacts embedded therein such that
- responsive to a subset of the magnets of same polarity being brought into alignment, the plates repel to separate the electrical contacts, and
- responsive to a subset of the magnets of opposite polarity being brought into alignment, the plates attract to connect the electrical contacts.
A method of operating an electrical contactor comprising:
- opening the electrical contactor by,
- moving a rotating plate, pivotally connected to a fixed plate by a pin defining an axis, in a first direction transverse to the axis;
- and
- displacing the rotating plate in a second direction, along the axis, by a magnetic force exerted between a first magnet disposed within the rotating plate and a second magnet disposed within the fixed plate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.