Shield apparatus and circuit interrupter
AssigneeEaton Intelligent Power Limited
InventorsSujit Patwardhan, James G. Maloney
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A shield apparatus and a resultant circuit interrupter are disclosed, wherein the shield apparatus includes a shield apparatus base and a protection apparatus, with the protection apparatus including a shield that helps to direct an electrical arc along a flow path through a number of passages and that will help to enable dissipation of the arc and the plasma generated thereby. The shield apparatus is mountable to a portion of the housing of the circuit interrupter within its interior, and the shield is situated adjacent at least a first passage.
Claims19
A shield apparatus usable with a circuit interrupter, the circuit interrupter having a housing and further having a set of separable contacts and an operating mechanism situated on the housing, the set of separable contacts including a stationary contact and a movable contact that are switchable between a CLOSED position and an OPEN position, the operating mechanism including a spring and a contact arm, the movable contact being situated on the contact arm, the contact arm being movable to switch the set of separable contacts between the CLOSED and OPEN positions, the shield apparatus comprising:
- a shield apparatus base structured to be situated on the housing;
- and
- a protection apparatus situated on the shield apparatus base, the protection apparatus comprising a shield that extends away from the shield apparatus base, at least a part of the shield being situated between the stationary contact and the spring in the OPEN position of the set of separable contacts.
A circuit interrupter comprising:
- a housing;
- a set of separable contacts situated on the housing and comprising a stationary contact and a movable contact that are switchable between a CLOSED position and an OPEN position;
- an operating mechanism situated on the housing and comprising a spring and a contact arm, the movable contact being situated on the contact arm, the contact arm being movable to switch the set of separable contacts between the CLOSED and OPEN positions;
- a shield apparatus comprising a shield apparatus base and a protection apparatus;
- the shield apparatus base being situated on the housing;
- and
- the protection apparatus being situated on the shield apparatus base, the protection apparatus comprising a shield that extends away from the shield apparatus base, at least a part of the shield being situated between the stationary contact and the spring in the OPEN position of the set of separable contacts.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.