Electrode and plasma gun configuration for use with a circuit protection device
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsGeorge William Roscoe, Dean Arthur Robarge, Robert Joseph Caggiano, Seth Adam Cutler, Thangavelu Asokan, Adnan Kutubuddin Bohori
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A circuit protection device includes a plasma gun configured to emit an ablative plasma along an axis, and a plurality of electrodes, wherein each electrode is electrically coupled to a respective conductor of a circuit and is arranged substantially along a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the axis such that each electrode is positioned substantially equidistant from the axis.
Claims20
A circuit protection device comprising:
- a plasma gun configured to emit an ablative plasma along an axis;
- and
- a plurality of electrodes, each electrode of said plurality of electrodes electrically coupled to a respective conductor of a circuit, said plurality of electrodes arranged substantially along a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the axis such that each said electrode is positioned substantially equidistant from the axis.
An arc initiation system for use with a circuit protection device, said arc initiation system comprising:
- a controller configured to detect an arc event in a circuit and initiate an arc within the circuit protection device;
- a plasma gun operatively coupled to said controller, said plasma gun configured to emit an ablative plasma along an axis;
- and
- a plurality of electrodes, each electrode of said plurality of electrodes electrically coupled to a respective conductor of the circuit, said plurality of electrodes arranged substantially along a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the axis such that said electrodes are substantially equidistant from each other.
A method of assembling a circuit protection device, said method comprising:
- coupling each of a plurality of electrodes to a different portion of an electrical circuit;
- positioning an ablative plasma gun that is configured to emit an ablative plasma along an axis;
- and
- adjusting a position of each of the plurality of electrodes in one of a first direction and an opposite second direction along a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the axis such that each electrode of the plurality of electrodes is positioned substantially equidistant from the axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.