Arc suppression pre-charge circuit
AssigneeYazaki North America, Inc.
InventorsYuanyuan Wu, Kenneth Russel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An arc suppression pre-charge circuit includes a source for providing energy to a load and a main contactor selectively closed to provide energy from the source to the load, wherein the main contactor provides an alternate current path from the source to the load and bypasses a pre-charge branch of the circuit when the main contactor is closed. The pre-charge branch includes a voltage-controlled resistor and a control circuit configured to control a resistance of the voltage-controlled resistor.
Claims20
An arc suppression pre-charge circuit comprising:
- a source for providing energy to a load;
- a main contactor selectively closed to provide energy from the source to the load, wherein the main contactor provides an alternate current path from the source to the load and bypasses a pre-charge branch of the circuit when the main contactor is closed;
- and
- the pre-charge branch, comprising:
- a voltage-controlled resistor;
- and
- a control circuit configured to control a resistance of the voltage-controlled resistor.
An arc suppression pre-charge device comprising:
- a housing;
- an arc suppression pre-charge circuit at least partially disposed in the housing, the arc suppression pre-charge circuit comprising:
- a source for providing energy to a load;
- a main contactor selectively closed to provide energy from the source to the load, wherein the main contactor provides an alternate current path from the source to the load and bypasses a pre-charge branch of the circuit when the main contactor is closed;
- and
- the pre-charge branch of the circuit, comprising:
- a voltage-controlled resistor;
- and
- a control circuit configured to control a resistance of the voltage-controlled resistor.
A method of using an arc suppression pre-charge circuit, the method comprising:
- initiating operations of the arc suppression pre-charge circuit;
- in response to determining that pre-charge conditions of a load are not met, applying a voltage to a gate of a voltage-controlled resistor via the arc suppression pre-charge circuit, the voltage applied to the gate causing current to flow through a pre-charge branch of the pre-charge circuit along a bypass path to the load, instead of through a main contactor to the load.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.