Circuit breaker with latch and toggle mechanism operating in perpendicular planes

Abstract

The toggle mechanism of a circuit breaker is connected at one end to the pivoted contact arm and at the other end to a pivoted latch lever which is engaged to latch the toggle mechanism by a latch member pivoted for movement in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the toggle mechanism. The latch member serves as an armature for a trip motor energized by a trip circuit responsive to an arc fault and/or a ground fault to unlatch the toggle mechanism and trip the circuit breaker open. The latch member is also tripped by a helical bimetal responsive to persistent overcurrents and coupled to the latch member through an ambient compensator bimetal cantilevered from the latch member. A flexible shunt connected between the helical bimetal and contact arm passes through an extension of the magnetic circuit of the trip motor to generate a magnetic field of sufficient strength to trip the latch member instantaneously in response to a short circuit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.