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AssigneeBBC Brown, Boveri & Company, Limited
InventorsLutz Niemeyer, Klaus Ragaller
Estimating the term…
An electrical power switch operating with a pressurized gas for actuating the switch contacts and also providing a quenching action in which the arc is lengthened and extinguished includes a container in which the pressurized gas is stored, the outlet from this container being located adjacent the junction area between a plurality of contact fingers in fixed position and a movable contact member that also includes a valve member for closing off the gas outlet from the container when the switch contacts are closed. When the movable contact is released for initiating an opening operation of the contacts, the pressure of the gas stored in the container forces the valve open thus releasing the gas for blasting the arc drawn between the contacts. The gas enters an annular chamber surrounding the junction line of the contacts which includes two half-turn helical travel rails of different radius and opposite winding sense to which the feet of the arc are transferred from the contacts and travel downward and into a group of circumferentially spaced nozzles in which the arc is further lengthened.
In an electric power switch which provides for lengthening of the circuit-breaking arc by blasting it with a pressurized gas the improvement characterized by the following features in combination:
In an electrical power switch structure the combination comprising a contact enclosing chamber made from insulating material, stationary and movable contact members located within said chamber, a tank on said switch structure for storing a pressurized arc-quenching gas and which has a cubic capacity sufficient for at least one circuit-breaking operation, means actuated by said quenching gas for effecting movement of said movable member away from said stationary contact member, means forming an annular space within said chamber surrounding said movable contact member, said annular space being provided with travel rails for the feet of the arc and which is lengthened under the influence of the flow of pressurized gas from said storage tank into said space when said movable contact member is disengaged from said stationary contact member, and a circumferential array of nozzles formed in the body of said chamber and which lead from said annular space to the exterior of the switch for subsequent additional lengthening of the arc.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.