Ventilating Connector Unit for Compact Circuit Breaker Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional circuit breakers are inefficient and bulky due to lack of compactness, prone to corrosion, and face challenges in heat dissipation and assembly with advanced embedded pole units, which affect dielectric clearances and fault current tests.
Innovation Solution
A ventilating connector unit is introduced between the embedded pole unit and the contact arm structure, providing insulation, heat dissipation, and flexibility, allowing for easier assembly and reduced overhang distance while maintaining dielectric clearances and improving fault current tests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional circuit breakers use air-insulated poles without embedding, then assembly and heat dissipation are easier, but the device becomes bulky and prone to corrosion
Solution Approach 1:
The contact arm structure is nested within the pole unit through the ventilating connector unit, allowing the connector to serve dual purposes as both a structural support and a heat dissipation pathway. This nesting reduces the overall device volume while maintaining assembly ease through the modular design where the connector unit can be independently attached to the pole head.
2Volume of moving object
If embedded poles with plastic or epoxy shells are used, then compactness is improved, but heat dissipation becomes restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The ventilating connector unit incorporates a porous or latticed structure that allows air circulation through its body. This porous design enables heat dissipation via natural convection while maintaining the compact embedded pole configuration, as the porous material provides thermal pathways without requiring additional space.
Solution Approach 2:
The ventilating connector unit utilizes natural convection currents (a pneumatic principle) to facilitate heat dissipation. The connector's design creates air flow pathways that enable hot air to rise and cool air to replace it, providing passive cooling without mechanical fans or additional energy input, thus maintaining compactness while improving heat dissipation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If contact arms have longer overhang distance, then assembly flexibility is improved, but short-time withstand fault current test performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The ventilating connector unit provides a flexible mounting interface that allows dynamic adjustment of contact arm positioning. The connector's structure enables the contact arm to be mounted at optimized positions that balance assembly flexibility with mechanical strength, ensuring that the contact arm has sufficient support length to withstand fault current stresses while maintaining ease of assembly.
4Volume of moving object
If pole center distance is reduced in embedded pole units, then compactness is improved, but dielectric clearance requirements become harder to meet
Solution Approach 1:
The ventilating connector unit introduces a vertical dimension for heat dissipation and electrical insulation. By providing a vertically extended connector structure between the pole head and contact arm, the design increases the dielectric clearance in the vertical direction, allowing reduced horizontal pole center distances while maintaining required insulation clearances for reliability.
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 ventilating connector unit enhances compactness, reduces corrosion, improves heat dissipation, and simplifies assembly, ensuring reliable operation and compliance with dielectric requirements in high-current applications.
Implementation Method 1
the ventilating connector unit enhances compactness, reduces corrosion, improves heat dissipation
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2C
Figure 2D
AI summary
A switching device (200, 300) is provided. The switching device (200, 300) has a contact arm structure (301, 302, or 303) and a pole unit (201, 304A, 304B, or 304C) operably connected to one another by a ventilating connector unit (203) physically disposable there-between.