Flexible seal for circuit breaker arc gas exhaust system

Abstract

A seal apparatus having a seal member and a plurality of fasteners is mounted on an arc hood of a cassette in a switchgear cabinet and resists leakage of arc gases through a gap between the arc hood and a circuit breaker mounted in the switchgear cabinet. The seal member is flexibly received against the circuit breaker in a racked position and is preferably at least nominally deflected thereby to resist the flow of arc gases in a leakage direction through the gap. The seal member thus resists the arc gases from coming into contact with a plurality of line conductors at the rear of the circuit breaker until the arc gases have at least somewhat cooled, deionized, and/or slowed. The seal apparatus thereby resists arc gases from inducing arcing between adjacent line conductors, whereby the circuit breaker can be operated at substantially higher voltages.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.