Apparatus for tripping a circuit breaker for vehicles
AssigneeBayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
InventorJosef Krammer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus is provided for protecting high-voltage electrical connections, in particular in vehicles. A fuse for interrupting a line includes a conduction coil, which is designed to have a conduction current on the line flowing through the conduction coil and to thereby generate a magnetic field. Furthermore, the includes a control coil, which is magnetically coupled to the conduction coil, and a circuit breaker, which is designed to interrupt the line depending on a field intensity of the magnetic field. In addition, the fuse includes a control unit, which is designed to determine a control current through the control coil in order to vary the field intensity of the magnetic field, and thus to cause or suppress an interruption of the line by way of the circuit breaker.
Claims11
A fuse for interrupting a line, the fuse comprising:
- a line coil that is configured to carry a line current on the line and to thereby generate a magnetic field;
- a control coil that is magnetically but not electrically coupled to the line coil;
- a circuit breaker, which is magnetically coupled to the control coil and the line coil and that is configured to be opened by the magnetic field to interrupt the line based on a field strength of the magnetic field;
- and
- a control unit that controls a control current through the control coil in order to alter the field strength of the magnetic field, so as to:
- (a) prevent the circuit breaker from opening to interrupt the line by compensating for changes in the magnetic field of the line coil caused by the line current, and
- (b) cause the circuit breaker to open to interrupt the line by ceasing to compensate for changes in the magnetic field of the line coil caused by the line current,
- wherein the circuit breaker is not controlled via an electrical signal received by the circuit breaker from the control unit.
An apparatus for identifying a fault current through a load, the apparatus comprising:
- a first fuse on a line that leads to the load, wherein the first fuse is configured to determine a first control current;
- a second fuse on a line that leads away from the load, wherein the second fuse is configured to determine a second control current;
- and
- a comparison unit that is configured to compare the first and second control currents and to take the comparison as a basis for identifying a fault current,
- wherein each of the first and second fuses comprises:
- a line coil that is configured to carry a line current on the line and to thereby generate a magnetic field;
- a control coil that is magnetically but not electrically coupled the line coil;
- a circuit breaker, which is magnetically coupled to the control coil and the line coil and that is configured to be opened by the magnetic field to interrupt the line based on a field strength of the magnetic field;
- and
- a control unit that is configured to control the control current through the control coil in order to alter the field strength of the magnetic field, so as to:
- (a) prevent the circuit breaker from opening to interrupt the line by compensating for changes in the magnetic field of the line coil caused by the line current, and
- (b) cause the circuit breaker to open to interrupt the line by ceasing to compensate for changes in the magnetic field of the line coil caused by the line current,
- wherein the circuit breaker is not controlled via an electrical signal received by the circuit breaker from the control unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.