Current limiting shunt for current limiting circuit breakers
US5859578A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 4, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jan 12, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 4, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01H2033/163
- WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A compact current limiting circuit breaker is equipped with a current limiting shunt for effective over-current circuit interruption. The circuit breaker trip unit responds to long time, short time and instantaneous over-current conditions by opening a set of contacts to isolate the protected circuit. Upon contact separation an arc is drawn, with the endpoints of the arc being initially rooted on the pair of open contacts. Further opening of the contacts commutates the arc into the current limiting shunt to redirect the current away from the trip unit and suppress the arcing current until the circuit breaker contacts are sufficiently open to isolate the protected circuit.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.