CLIAMS:1. A circuit breaker assembly, to be used in Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers, comprising a housing, a fixed terminal to be mounted to at least two holes in a wall of the housing, and an adaptor (11), the assembly CHARACTERIZED IN THAT:
a terminal-housing assembly (5) having:
the fixed terminal (10) comprising a projection or protrusion (1) extending from a bottom surface (2) of the fixed terminal (10);
a groove (6, 13) on a contact surface (7) of the fixed terminal (10); and
a terminal-adaptor assembly having:
the adaptor (11) comprising a projection or protrusion (8, 12) on a contact surface (9) of the adaptor;
wherein the terminal-housing assembly (5) and the terminal-adaptor assembly prevents any possible movement of the fixed terminal with respect to the housing and makes the fixed terminal and the adaptor completely immovable, thereby preventing any misalignment of the fixed terminal and the adaptor.

2. A circuit breaker assembly, to be used in Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers, comprising a housing, a fixed terminal to be mounted to at least two holes in a wall of the housing, and an adaptor (11), the assembly CHARACTERIZED IN THAT:
the fixed terminal (10) comprising a projection or protrusion (1) extending from bottom surface (2) of the fixed terminal (10); and wherein
the projection or protrusion (1) comprises an inner surface (3), and inner surface (3) is configured to couple with the wall (4) of the housing thereby allowing the holes of terminal and the housing to couple with each other resulting in perfect and immobile fitment of the fixed terminal in the wall (4) of the housing to form a terminal-housing assembly (5).

3. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the coupling of the projection or protrusion (1) of the fixed terminal (10) with the housing enables to prevent movement of the fixed terminal with respect to the housing.

4. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claims 2 and 3, wherein the inner surface (3) of the protrusion (1) when touches the housing, the holes of terminal and the housing match each other resulting in perfect and immobile fitment of the fixed terminal.
5. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claims 2 to 4, wherein the protrusion (1) acts as a stopper for the fixed terminal and prevents the movement of the fixed terminal.

6. A circuit breaker assembly, to be used in Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers, comprising a housing, a fixed terminal to be mounted to at least two holes in a wall of the housing, and an adaptor (11), the assembly CHARACTERIZED IN THAT:
the fixed terminal (10) comprising a groove (6, 13) on a contact surface (7) of the fixed terminal (10); and
the adaptor (11) comprising a projection or protrusion (8, 12) on a contact surface (9) of the adaptor; wherein
the protrusion (8, 12) of the adaptor is inserted in to the groove (6, 13) of the fixed terminal forming a terminal-adaptor assembly thereby restricting a movement of the adaptor.

7. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claim 6, wherein the contact surface (9) of the adaptor (11) couples with the contact surface (7) of the fixed conductor (10) and the protrusion (8, 12) on the adaptor fits into the groove (6) of the fixed conductor, thereby restricting the movement completely.

8. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claims 6 and 7, wherein the protrusion (8) in adaptor (11) and groove (6, 13) in the fixed terminal are made offset with respect to the central axis of the fixed terminal and adaptor respectively, thereby prevents wrong terminal-adaptor assembly of the adaptor onto the fixed terminal ensuring correct terminal-adaptor assembly.

9. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claims 6 to 8, wherein the terminal-adaptor assembly makes the fixed terminal and the adaptor completely immovable, thereby preventing misalignment of the terminal-adaptor assembly.

10. The circuit breaker assembly as claimed in claims 6 to 9, wherein the projection or protrusion is provided in a same direction of extrusion, thereby enabling the projection or protrusion as a part of the extrusion process.
,TagSPECI:TECHNICAL FIELD
The present subject matter described herein, in general, relates to electrical protection apparatus, and more particularly to a conductor profile assisting in assembly alignment to be used in circuit breakers.

BACKGROUND

Electrical transmission and distribution employs a device known as Circuit breaker, a kind of which known as “Air Circuit breaker” is customarily used in Low Voltage Power distribution systems. It is used to carry, make and break current in low-voltage, high current applications. Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers are the types of Air Circuit breakers that comprises of a housing-mounted fixed terminal, which being a part of the breaker assembly is movable inside a cradle compartment which contains conducting jaw clusters and there is an intermediate connecting adaptor between fixed terminal and jaw clusters.

Generally, the Air Circuit breakers comprise of the two assemblies- one assembly of a fixed terminal with a housing of the breaker and other assembly of the fixed terminal with the adaptor. The fixed terminal may be mounted on the housing through two vertically drilled holes. The fixed terminal is fixed with the housing on these two holes by hardware and nut arrangement through the holes. There may be an inherent clearance available between the hardware and the hole owing to which the fixed terminal has a natural tendency to move angularly from its original position. The effect of this change in position of the fixed terminal is amplified further due to the presence of the adaptor which may have adverse effects on the performance of the product.

Further, the adaptor in the Air Circuit breakers comprises of limbs mounted on flat surface, of which, the flat surface mates with the corresponding flat surface of the fixed conductor. The arrangement involves fixing of the adaptor and fixed terminal by means of screw and nut arrangement. The screw passes through a hole in the adaptor, then through a hole in the fixed conductor and then it is inserted inside the nut. There is an inherent clearance available between the screw and the hole due to which the adaptor has a tendency to shift from its actual position angularly or horizontally, thereby leading to misalignment between adaptor and fixed terminal.

The consequence of this natural clearance and hence the shift in the position of the adaptor leads to incorrect entry of the adaptor into the jaw clusters in the cradle which further leads to very high increase in the torque required to move the breaker completely inside the cradle compartment and development of unwanted mechanical stresses in the system. High torque may have adverse effects on the product performance which may be a result of inadequate insertion of the adaptor into the jaw cluster which can be a major cause of excessively high heat generation. Also, excess unwanted system stresses may result in damage to critical components of the entire racking arrangement.

Apart from the above mentioned issues, there is a possibility of tilting of terminal with respect to the housing as well as the adaptor with respect to the terminal. In order to avoid the issues, in the prior-art, specialized fixtures are used for alignment, this increases the fixture cost. Further, the force required to rack-in the breaker into the cradle is not consistent and on the higher side of the allowable band, which may create further problems with the racking arrangement.

In the existing circuit breakers the assembly/process time is huge due to manual alignment of adaptor and terminal through specialized fixture, which further increase labour time cost. Due to manual intervention, the possibility of reverse mounting, thereby mistake in the arrangement on breakers is possible and observed. This incurs the need of highly skilled operators for the arrangement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.

An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism or arrangement that prevents any possible movement of the fixed terminal with respect to the housing and makes the fixed terminal and the adaptor completely immovable from its original position, thereby preventing any sort of misalignment.

In one implementation, the possibility of tilting of terminal with respect to the housing as well as the adaptor with respect to the terminal is eliminated by the use of the disclosed mechanism or arrangement in the present invention.

In one implementation, the present invention eliminates specialized fixtures used for alignment currently, thereby saving in fixture cost.

In one implementation, using the present invention, the assembly/ process time is largely reduced due to self-alignment property of adaptor and terminal, which will save labour time cost.

In one implementation, using the present invention eliminates the possibility of reverse mounting of adaptor on the terminal, thereby mistake-proofing the arrangement.

In one implementation, using the present invention makes fixing operator skill free; hence, extra labor cost is saved.

In one implementation, using the present invention, force required to rack-in the breaker into the cradle is consistent and on the lower side of the allowable band.

Accordingly, in one implementation, a circuit breaker assembly, to be used in Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers, comprising housing, a fixed terminal to be mounted to at least two holes in a wall of the housing, and an adaptor (11) is disclosed. The assembly comprises a terminal-housing assembly (5) having the fixed terminal (10) comprising a projection or protrusion (1) extending from bottom surface (2) of the fixed terminal (10); and a groove (6, 13) on a contact surface (7) of the fixed terminal (10). The assembly further comprises of a terminal-adaptor assembly having the adaptor (11) comprising a projection or protrusion (8, 12) on a contact surface (9) of the adaptor. The terminal-housing assembly (5) and the terminal-adaptor assembly prevents any possible movement of the fixed terminal with respect to the housing and makes the fixed terminal and the adaptor completely immovable, thereby preventing any misalignment of the fixed terminal and the adaptor.

In one implementation, a circuit breaker assembly, to be used in Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers, comprising housing, a fixed terminal to be mounted to at least two holes in a wall of the housing, and an adaptor (11) is disclosed. The assembly comprises the fixed terminal (10) comprising a projection or protrusion (1) extending from bottom surface (2) of the fixed terminal (10), and wherein the projection or protrusion (1) comprises an inner surface (3), and inner surface (3) is configured to couple with the wall (4) of the housing thereby allowing the holes of terminal and the housing to couple with each other resulting in perfect and immobile fitment of the fixed terminal in the wall (4) of the housing to form a terminal-housing assembly (5).

In one implementation, a circuit breaker assembly, to be used in Drawout or withdrawable type Air Circuit breakers, comprising housing, a fixed terminal to be mounted to at least two holes in a wall of the housing, and an adaptor (11) is disclosed. The assembly comprises the fixed terminal (10) comprising a groove (6, 13) on a contact surface (7) of the fixed terminal (10), and the adaptor (11) comprising a projection or protrusion (8, 12) on a contact surface (9) of the adaptor, wherein the protrusion (8, 12) of the adaptor is inserted in to the groove (6, 13) of the fixed terminal forming a terminal-adaptor assembly thereby restricting a movement of the adaptor.

The present invention is technically advanced as compared to the other existing prior-art documents in view of a protrusion and groove provided on new or the existing components which leads to skill independent assembly and preventing misalignment of the coupling which is currently not being used anywhere.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 illustrates the fixed conductor of the breaker assembly which is made by extrusion process, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 2 illustrates the surface (3) of the protrusion of fixed conductor mates with the surface of housing, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 3 illustrates a terminal-housing assembly (5), in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 4 illustrates the adaptor which is made by extrusion process in which a protrusion (8) is added on the mating surface (9), in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 5 illustrates the method of assembly wherein the mating surface of the adaptor (11) contacts with the mating surface of the fixed conductor (10) and the protrusion (12) exactly fits into the groove (13) of the fixed conductor, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 6 illustrates the final (overall) assembly of the fixed conductor and the adaptor, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.

Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.

Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same way or in a similar way in one or more other embodiments and/or in combination with or instead of the features of the other embodiments.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

In one implementation, the present invention prevents any possible movement of the fixed terminal with respect to the housing and makes the fixed terminal and the adaptor completely immovable from its original position, thereby preventing any sort of misalignment.

In one implementation, a protrusion is added which projects out from the bottom surface of the fixed terminal. While assembling the fixed terminal inside the housing, this protrusion acts as a stopper for the terminal and prevents its movement in any form. This protrusion is designed such that when it touches the housing, the holes of terminal and the housing exactly match each other resulting in perfect and immobile fitment of the fixed terminal.

In one implementation, figure 1 depicts the fixed conductor of the breaker assembly which is made by extrusion process. A protrusion (1) is added on the bottom surface (2) of the fixed terminal as shown. The protrusion is made in the same direction of extrusion hence this is a part of the extrusion process itself without any secondary process. The surface (3) (figure 2) of the protrusion of fixed conductor mates with the surface of housing (4) (figure 2) to form an assembly (5) as shown in figure 3.This assembly prevents movement of the fixed terminal with respect to the housing.

In one implementation, a protrusion is added which projects out from the contact surface of the adaptor and a groove is added on the contact surface of the fixed conductor. While assembling the adaptor onto the fixed terminal, the protrusion of the adaptor goes in to the groove of the fixed terminal and fits perfectly inside it thereby restricting the movement of the adaptor completely.

In one implementation, the fixed conductor (figure 1) has a groove (6) on the mating surface (7) which is done by simple machining process. Figure 4 depicts the adaptor which is made by extrusion process in which a protrusion (8) is added on the mating surface (9). The protrusion is in the same direction as of the extrusion hence it is a part of the extrusion process itself without any secondary process.

In one implementation, figure 5 depicts the method of assembly wherein the mating surface of the adaptor (11) contacts with the mating surface of the fixed conductor (10) and the protrusion (12) exactly fits into the groove (13) of the fixed conductor. The protrusion in adaptor and groove in the fixed terminal are made offset with respect to the central axis of the terminal and adaptor respectively as shown in figure 5. This prevents wrong assembly of the adaptor onto the terminal ensuring correct assembly every time. Figure 6 depicts the final assembly of the fixed conductor and the adaptor.
In one implementation, the present invention enables to makes the fixed terminal and the adaptor completely immovable from its original position, thereby preventing misalignment

Some of the important features of the present invention, considered to be noteworthy are mentioned below:
1. The present invention provides self-aligning fixing of the terminal with respect to the housing without using specialized fixture.
2. The present invention provides self-aligning fixing for adaptor to terminal without using specialized fixture.
3. The present invention which provides the protrusion added in the fixed terminal is made as a part of the extrusion profile itself and hence no additional process is required for manufacturing the protrusion.
4. The present invention which provides the protrusion on the adaptor is made as a part of the extrusion profile itself and hence no additional process is required for manufacturing the protrusion.

It may be understood by the person skilled in that art that, the coupling, joining, fitting of the two components mentioned in the present invention may be achieved by any of the existing coupling techniques that may include but not limited to nut and bolt arrangement, gluing, pasting, welding, and the like.

Although a conductor profile assisting in an assembly alignment of circuit breakers have been described in language specific to structural features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the embodiments disclosed in the above section are not necessarily limited to the specific features or methods or devices described. Rather, the specific features are disclosed as examples of implementations of the conductor profile assisting in an assembly alignment of circuit breakers.