Trip latch assemblies for circuit breakers and related circuit breakers

A circuit breaker, comprising:

• a drive cam held on a cam shaft;
• a follower in communication with the drive cam;
• a linkage attached to (i) the follower and (ii) a main shaft to open and close the circuit breaker;
• and
• a trip latch assembly configured to maintain open and closed energy status of the breaker, the trip latch assembly comprising:
• a first stop cam held on the cam shaft;
• a second stop cam held on the cam shaft axially spaced apart from the first stop cam;
• a trip-open latch held on a trip latch shaft in cooperating alignment with the first stop cam;
• and
• a trip-close latch held on the trip latch shaft in cooperating alignment with the second stop cam,
• wherein the trip latch assembly is configured to latch the drive cam in trip open and trip closed positions and de-latch to release the drive cam and allow the drive cam to rotate to thereby hold and release closing and opening energy of an operator mechanism.

A method of latching/de-latching a circuit breaker in/from open and closed positions, comprising:

• pushing an upper portion of a trip-open latch toward a first stop cam held on a cam shaft with a drive cam and a second stop cam to release the trip-open latch from a stop defined by a hold position on the first stop cam;
• then
• automatically rotating the drive cam a defined amount sufficient to allow a change in energy status of the circuit breaker;
• then
• rotating the second stop cam so that a trip close-latch engages a stop at a hold position on the second stop cam to thereby lock the drive cam in position;
• automatically pivoting the trip-open latch and rotating the first stop cam from the hold position to a recovery positions so as to operate in a self-recovery sequence to be reset for a next trip event;
• and
• automatically pivoting the trip-close latch and rotating the second stop cam from the hold position to a recovery positions so as to operate in a self-recovery sequence to be reset for a next trip event.