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US 5,206,614 AGranted
Line conductor gasket
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorArthur D. Carothers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A molded gasket for a line conductor in a circuit breaker acts as a gas seal to prevent ionizing gases resulting from a circuit interruption from flashing over and causing phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground faults. The molded gasket includes provisions for sealing the line conductor at the interfaces with the circuit breaker housing as well as providing a barrier for the movable contact arm assembly.
Claims22
A molded case circuit breaker comprising:
- a housing which includes a base portion, said base portion including a first wall with an opening and a second wall;
- one or more pairs of separable main contacts disposed in said base portion;
- a line conductor defining a terminal portion for connection to an external electrical circuit, coupled to one of said separable main contacts, said line conductor received in said opening in said first wall defining a first interface and disposed adjacent said second wall defining a second interface;
- a load conductor coupled to the other of said separable main contacts;
- an operating mechanism, operatively coupled to said one or more pairs of separable main contacts;
- and
- a first molded gasket for providing a gas seal between said line conductor and said first interface.
4 more elements
A molded case circuit breaker comprising:
- a housing, which includes a base portion, said base portion including a first wall with an opening and a second wall with one or more apertures;
- one or more pairs of separable main contacts disposed in said base portion;
- a movably mounted contact arm for carrying one of said main contacts in said pair;
- a first conductor electrically coupled to one of said operable main contacts;
- a second conductor coupled to the other contact in said pair of separable main contacts, said second conductor received in said opening in said first wall defining a first interface, said second conductor provided with one or more apertures adapted to be aligned with said apertures in said second wall to receive fasteners to secure said second conductor to said second wall defining a second interface;
- an operating mechanism, operatively coupled to said movably mounted contact arm;
- and
- a molded gasket which includes a wall opening seal portion for sealing said first interface.
5 more elements
A process for providing a gas seal for a line conductor in a molded case circuit breaker comprising the steps of:
- (a) defining interfaces relative to the line conductor that require sealing to prevent ionizing gases resulting from a circuit interruption from flashing over;
- and
- (b) molding a gasket from a non-conductive material that is adapted to seal said interfaces when the line conductor is installed in the circuit breaker.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.