# US 11,079,435 B2 · Method and device for diagnosing wear of an electrical switching unit, and electrical unit comprising such a device > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,079,435 B2 - Document ID: US11079435B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/380,225 - Filed: 2019-04-10 - Published: 2019-12-05 - Granted: 2021-08-03 - Earliest claimed: 2018-06-01 - Assignees: Schneider Electric Industries SAS - Applicants: Schneider Electric Industries SAS - Inventors: Remy Orban; Jose Desforges - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11079435B2 ## CPC - G01R 31/3274: {Details related to measuring, e.g. sensing, displaying or computing; Measuring of variables related to the contact pieces, e.g. wear, position or resistance (measuring contact resistance G01R27/205)} - G01R 31/3278: {of relays, solenoids or reed switches (measuring contact resistance G01R27/205; high voltage magnetic switches G01R31/3271, G01R31/333; testing electric windings G01R31/72; monitoring of fail safe circuits H01H47/002)} - G01R 31/50: Testing of electric apparatus, lines, cables or components for short-circuits, continuity, leakage current or incorrect line connections (testing of sparking plugs H01T13/58) - H01H 1/0015: {Means for testing or for inspecting contacts, e.g. wear indicator (measuring circuits G01R31/3274)} - H01H 47/002: {Monitoring or fail-safe circuits} - H01H 50/44: Magnetic coils or windings - H01H 50/54: Contact arrangements - H01H 2071/044: {Monitoring, detection or measuring systems to establish the end of life of the switching device, can also contain other on-line monitoring systems, e.g. for detecting mechanical failures} - G01R: MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES (indicating correct tuning of resonant circuits H03J3/12) - H01H: ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES (contact cables H01B7/10; electrolytic self-interrupters H01G9/18; emergency protective circuit arrangements H02H; switching by electronic means without contact-making H03K17/00) ## Abstract A method for diagnosing the wear status of an electrical switching unit including a phase for monitoring the electrical unit. The monitoring phase uses: learning data previously loaded and representative of the type of electrical unit, and initialization data corresponding to the unit to be monitored and stored in memory during an initialization phase. The monitoring phase includes the measurement and the acquisition of a measurement curve upon the opening of the electrical unit, the determination of values of local descriptors with little sensitivity to the temperature from the measurement curve as a function of values of the measurement curve, of initialization data, and of learning data, the determination of a global status class as a function of the positioning values. The device and the electrical unit implement the method. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for diagnosing the wear status of an electrical switching unit ming a device for diagnosing the wear status of the electrical switching unit connected to an electromaqietic coil for actuating contacts of the electrical switching unit ihiding a processing circuit having a local diagnostic processing module coupled directly to the electrical switching unit and connected to an external processing module remote from the electrical switching unit, the method comprising: monitoring said electrical unit, wherein said monitoring uses: learning data previously loaded and corresponding to a type of product representative of said electrical unit, and initialization data corresponding to said unit to be monitored and stored in memory during an initialization phase, and wherein said monitoring further comprises: acquiring a measurement curve upon the opening of said electrical unit, determining values of local descriptors from said measurement curve as a function of values of said measurement curve, of stored initialization data, and of first loaded learning data, at least one of said local descriptors being a descriptor with a type of sensitivity to the differences in temperature and dependent on points of said measurement curve, determining positioning of the values of local descriptors with the type of sensitivity to the temperature of the measurement curve with respect to second learning data, and determining a global status class as a function of said positioning values of the values of local descriptors and of the measurement curve with respect to said second learning data. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein a first descriptor corresponds to a curve surface or to an integral or integration starting at a first point of the curve, the measurement depending on a first noteworthy point of said curve, the measurement corresponding to a first change in direction of the variation of the signal or of change in sign of the derivative of said measurement signal, said first noteworthy point being representative of the start of the movement of a mobile part of the electrical unit. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The diagnostic method according to claim 2, wherein the integral of the signal starts at a time t1 in the range between 0 and 10 ms prior to the occurrence of said first noteworthy point. ### Claim 4 (depends on 2) The diagnostic method according to claim 2, wherein the integral of the signal ends when the signal of the coil voltage curve is zero volts. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The diagnostic method according to claim 2, wherein the integral of the signal lasts between 30 ms and 40 ms. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein a second descriptor corresponds to a positioning of to a difference of a second noteworthy point with respect to an aitia reference curve or line for said second noteworthy point of a new unit defined over a range of temperature, said second noteworthy point corresponding to a variation in value such that the change m sign of the variation of a signal on the measurement curve, said signal decreasing then increasing in relative value around the second noteworthy point. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein at least one descriptor with little sensitivity to the temperature has a difference in value of less than 5% between −20° C. and 80° C. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein loaded learning data are representative of curves of behaviour of descriptors representative of predefined Characteristics of said electrical signal during the lifetime of said electrical units. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein said descriptor behavior curves are loaded in a straight-line segment definition format order to reduce the memory space required by said learning data. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein values of said loaded descriptor behaviour curves are associated with status or wear classes of units to be monitored. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The diagnostic method according to claim 1, comprising: a prior learning phase for collecting, during a number of predetermined manoeuvres, learning data representative of at least two curves of behaviour of descriptors representative of predefined characteristics of said electrical signal over the life of said electrical unit, storing in memory said learning data, the loading of said learning data, and the use of the learning data in said phase for monitoring said electrical unit. ### Claim 12 A device for diagnosing the wear status of an electrical switching unit connected to an electromagnetic coil for actuating contacts of said electrical switching unit, the diagnostic device comprising: a processing circuit for implementing a diagnosis of the wear status of an electrical switching unit implemented by monitoring said electrical unit, wherein said monitoring uses: learning data previously loaded and corresponding to a type of product representative of said electrical unit, and initialization data corresponding to said unit to be monitored and stored in memory during an initialization phase, and wherein said monitoring includes: acquiring measurement curve upon the opening of said electrical unit, the determination of values of local descriptors from said measurement curve as a function of values of said measurement curve, of stored initialization data, and of first loaded learning data, at least one of said local descriptors being a descriptor with low sensitivity to the differences in temperature and dependent on points of said measurement curve, determining the positioning of the values of local descriptors with low sensitivity to the temperature of the measurement curve with respect to second learning data and determining a global status class as a function of said positioning values of the values of local descriptors and of the measurement: curve with respect to said second learning data, wherein the processing circuit thither comprises a local diagnostic processing module coupled directly to said electrical switching unit and connected to an external processing module remote from said electrical switching unit. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) An electrical unit comprising high-power electrical contacts actuated by a control electromagnetic coil and the device for diagnosing the wear status of the electrical switching unit connected to said electromagnetic coil for actuating said contacts and implementing the diagnostic method according to claim 1.