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US 5,353,185 AGranted
Immersion detection circuit interrupter
AssigneeRocom Electric Company Ltd.
InventorLawrence E. Bodkin
Life of this patent
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AssigneeRocom Electric Company Ltd.
InventorLawrence E. Bodkin
Estimating the term…
A sensing conductor (62) within an appliance housing (56) and a detection circuit (59, 60, 61, 63) preferably within the housing, cause a low resistance shorting of an appliance circuit (57, 58) in response to immersion in water, and an interrupter device (4, 5, 6, 27), preferably located in the plug (65) of the cord set, reacts to the resulting overcurrent by opening two fuses, one in each side of the line (2, 16; 3, 17). An overcurrent opens one fast acting fuse link (27) in the normally ungrounded side of the line (3, 17) and such fuse link (5) in the normally grounded neutral side of the line (2, 16). The fuse link (27) is directly assisted in opening by a spring element (4) so as to have a slight precedence in opening, over fuse link (5) which is indirectly assisted in opening by spring (4), through an insulating coupling block (6), to achieve an initially sequential but substantially overlapping and simultaneous opening, thus disconnecting both sides of the line.
In a power circuit including at least two conductors for conducting electrical power from a line source to an appliance circuit, within a housing, and having an electrical shock protection device, including a sensor and having automatic means connected to said conductors to initiate an overcurrent in response to an immersion of the appliance circuit in water or other conductive liquid, and further including an interrupting means, the improvement in which said interrupting means comprises at least two fuse links respectively in said at least two conductors, and force means for opening both of said fuse links in a substantially concurrent manner when the overcurrent is initiated to disconnect said appliance circuit from the line source.
In a power circuit including only two conductors for conducting electrical power from a line source to an appliance circuit within an appliance housing, the power circuit having an electrical shock protection device including a sensor and an automatic means connected to the two conductors to initiate an overcurrent in response to an immersion of the appliance circuit in water or other conductive liquid, the power circuit further including an interrupting means, the improvement in which said interrupting means comprises only two fuse links being respectively in series with said two conductors, and force means for opening both of said fuse links in a substantially concurrent manner when the overcurrent is initiated to disconnect said appliance circuit from the line source, an electrical plug having a casing and being connected to said two conductors, said two fuse links being located within said casing, said automatic means being located within said housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.