Floating Moveable Contact Circuit Breaker Wear Accommodation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Circuit breakers with traditional moveable contacts face challenges in maintaining consistent contact pressure and adapting to wear over time, leading to potential failure and reduced service life.
Innovation Solution
A circuit breaker design featuring a pivoting arm with a slot for rotation and translation about a pivot member, combined with a biasing member like a flat spring, which maintains contact pressure and accommodates wear by urging the pivoting arm towards the stationary contact, allowing for adjustment and reduced parts and failure points.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional moveable contact is used in a circuit breaker, then the structure is simple, but the contact pressure cannot be maintained consistently and wear cannot be accommodated over time
Solution Approach 1:
The moveable contact is transformed into a pivoting arm that can both rotate about a pivot member and translate along a slot. This dynamic structure allows the contact to self-adjust its position and maintain consistent contact pressure with the stationary contact over time, while accommodating wear through the translation capability along the slot.
Solution Approach 2:
The pivoting arm is divided into functional segments: a rotation portion that engages with the pivot member for rotational movement, and a translation portion that moves along the slot for linear adjustment. This segmentation enables independent optimization of rotational and translational functions to maintain contact pressure.
2Duration of action of moving object
If a pivoting arm with slot and pivot member is used, then contact pressure is maintained and wear is accommodated, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pivoting arm automatically adjusts its own position through the combination of rotational and translational movements. The translation along the slot compensates for wear without requiring external intervention or adjustment mechanisms, enabling the contact to self-maintain optimal contact pressure throughout its service life.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the pivoting arm can rotate and translate, then adaptability to wear is improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rotation and translation functions are merged into a single integrated pivoting arm structure. The slot is formed directly in the pivoting arm body, and the pivot member engages with this slot to provide both rotational and translational capabilities. This merging reduces the number of separate components and simplifies manufacturing compared to using separate rotational and translational mechanisms.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design ensures continued contact pressure and extended service life by accommodating wear and reducing the risk of failure, while simplifying construction and maintaining operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a biasing member like a flat spring, which maintains contact pressure and accommodates wear by urging the pivoting arm towards the stationary contact
Implementation Method 2
The pivoting arm is rotatable about, and translatable relative to, the pivot member to selectively engage and disengage the fixed and moveable contacts
Data Source
AI summary
A circuit breaker includes a housing, a fixed contact mounted in the housing, a pivot member arranged in the housing, and a pivoting arm moveably mounted in the housing. The pivoting arm includes a moveable contact. The pivoting arm is rotatable about and translatable relative to the pivot member to selectively engage and disengage the fixed and moveable contacts.