US 4,233,641 AGranted

Line protector for a communications circuit

AssigneeReliable Electric Company

InventorBertram W. Baumbach

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Abstract

A line protector for a communications circuit comprises an insulating base having a ground pin and two pairs of line pins, one pair for each side of the line, projecting through the base. Each pair of line pins has a contact electrically connected thereto and projecting away from the base. The ground pin also has a contact projecting away from the base and spaced from the line pin contacts. A metal oxide varistor having opposed faces provides surge voltage protection for each side of the line. The line pin contacts are bonded to one face of the varistor while the ground pin contact is bonded to the other face of the varistor. Electrically conductive spring clips span the varistor and are pressed toward its opposite faces and in electrical contact with the ground pin contact. An insulating sheet is interposed between the clips and the line pin contacts to prevent one or more of the clips from grounding the line except in such surge condition that heats the varistor sufficiently to melt the insulation.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A line protector comprising an insulating base, line pins projecting through said base for connection to a line to be protected, and a terminal for connection to ground;

a surge voltage arrester of the semi-conductor type that has a resistance that decreases as increasing voltage is applied thereacross and which heats excessively in an overcurrent surge condition on the protected line, said arrester comprising opposed surfaces forming terminal portions one of which is in electrical connection with said ground terminal, the other terminal portion being in electrical connection with the line pins, and means forming a normally open shunt circuit between said opposed terminals but operable to close and thereby ground the line in the event of a surge condition on the line that causes said overcurrent condition, said shunt circuit comprising resilient electrically conductive means biased toward at least one of said terminal portions, a dielectric member in thermally conducting relation with said surge arrester, said resilient means being prevented from contacting said one terminal portion by said dielectric member except when an overcurrent condition that heats the semi-conductor a sufficient amount to melt said dielectric member.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.