Circuit breaker
AssigneeAiken Industries, Inc.
InventorsWilliam P. Riendeau, Robert R. Blevins, Joseph L. Abell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A double break, trip free circuit breaker is disclosed which is compensated for variations in ambient temperature. A biased rocker arm carries a contact bridging bar at one end and engages a heater/bimetal or electromagnetic back at the other. A segmented reset plunger allows for a manual trip capability in addition to circuit breaking even when the plunger is held in the reset position. High current handling capabilities result from the separating of the heater/bimetal circuit from the main current flow path.
Claims10
A double break circuit breaker having ambient compensation and automatic overload current protection comprising:
- a hollow casing;
- a reset means having a longitudinal axis disposed in said casing for linear movement between an inward and an outward position;
- biasing means in said casing for urging said reset means in said outward direction;
- a rocker arm pivotally supported on said reset means for rotation about an axis perpendicular to the direction of movement of said reset means;
- contact means, disposed in said casing, for providing an electrical path through said circuit breaker when bridged;
- a contact bridging bar, mounted on one end of said rocker arm, for bridging said contact means and providing an electrical path through said circuit breaker, said contact bridging bar having a longitudinal axis parallel with the axis of rotation of said rocker arm and being loosely mounted in said rocker arm and freely rotatable about said longitudinal axis;
- a trip latch disposed in said casing and engageable with the other end of said rocker arm;
- and
- means for causing said trip latch to release said rocker arm so as to move said contact bridging bar away from said contact means in response to an electric current through the circuit breaker exceeding a predetermined value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.