Apparatus and method for quenching an arc in a gas flow circuit
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsWalter Hertz, Jan Stroh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and a method for quenching an arc in a gas flow circuit breaker having both a permanent current contact and an arc contact system, wherein the motion of the contacts is made current dependent, thereby delaying or accelerating the duration of the opening of the contacts of the arc contact system as a function of the current so as to shorten the arc duration and correspondingly to increase the quenching capacity of the breaker.
Claims9
In a gas flow circuit breaker including a permanent current contact system and an arc current contact system, each having first and second contacts, the first contact of the permanent current contact system and the first contact of the arc current contact system being electrically connected, and the second contact of the permanent current contact system and the second contact of the arc current contact system being electrically connected, the contacts in each system being supported for movement relative to each other in a manner such that, during opening the contacts of the permanent current contact system are first separated from a normal at rest position, followed by a separation of the contacts of the arc current contact system, between the contacts of which an arc is drawn, a method of improving quenching comprising, controlling the relative velocity of the contacts of said arc contact system as they are separated from each other in dependence on the arc current.
In a gas flow circuit breaker including a permanent current contact system and an arc current contact system, each having first and second contacts, the first contact of the permanent current contact system and the first contact of the arc current contact system being electrically connected, and the second contact of the permanent current contact system and the second contact of the arc current contact system being electrically connected the contacts in each system being supported for movement relative to each other in a manner such that, during opening the contacts of the permanent current contact system are first separated from a normal at rest position followed by a separation of the contacts of the arc current contact system, between the contacts of which an arc is drawn, the improvement comprising means for imparting an additional motion component to at least one of said first and second contacts of said arc current contact system in dependence on the current flowing therethrough, the contact to which additional motion is imparted thereby being a driven contact.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.