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US 2019/0180966 A1Published application
Plug-on neutral circuit breakers with lockouts and related loadcenters and methods
AssigneeEaton Corporation
InventorJeffrey Scott Gibson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Plug-on neutral circuit breakers include a housing, a plug-on neutral clip with legs extending out from the housing and a mechanical coupler of a lockout latch assembly in the housing coupled to a latch link and the plug-on neutral clip to move the mechanical coupler in response to a change in position of the plug-on neutral clip between first and second positions associated with partially and fully installed orientations to thereby provide a lockout state when not in the second position.
Claims20
A circuit breaker comprising:
- a housing;
- a plug-on neutral clip held by the housing, wherein the plug-on neutral clip comprises a crown held in the housing and first and second legs that extend out from the housing, and wherein the plug-on neutral clip is held by the housing to be able to slidably move between a first position associated with an uninstalled, partially installed or improperly installed circuit breaker orientation and a second position associated with a properly fully installed circuit breaker orientation;
- and
- a mechanical coupler in the housing coupled to the plug-on neutral clip and configured to provide a lockout state of the circuit breaker and only allow conduction through a breaker mechanism in the housing when the plug-on neutral clip is in the second position to thereby block the breaker mechanism from conduction in the lockout state of the circuit breaker when in the first position.
1 more element
A method for lockout of a plug-on neutral circuit breaker, comprising:
- providing a load center with a plug-on neutral bar;
- providing a circuit breaker with a plug-on neutral clip and an onboard mechanical coupler that is coupled to the plug-on neutral clip;
- attaching the plug-on neutral clip to the neutral bar;
- and
- moving the mechanical coupler between (i) a lock out state to force a no latch condition for a breaker mechanism of the circuit breaker preventing conduction when the circuit breaker is uninstalled or partially installed based on a first position of the plug-on neutral clip when attached to the neutral bar and (ii) an operative state allowing conduction based on a second position of the attached plug-on neutral clip associated with proper installation.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.