Claims:1. A ROM assembly for connecting a rotary operating handle of a panel door with the circuit breaker contained inside the panel, said assembly comprising:
a hollow enclosure;
a shaft having one of its ends coupled to the coupler of the said ROM base assembly placed inside the hollow enclosure and having its other end coupled with the rotary operating handle;
at least one dampeners means mounted in a uniform manner over the said ROM base and adapted to negotiate any variation in the assembly and provide flexibility, comprises:
a ball located on a spring means placed inside a housing ;
a coupler shaft of an appropriate length adapted to create a space between the said ROM base and the said coupler; and
a plate adapted to minimize friction between said spring means and coupled to the other end of the said coupler towards the dampener means;
WHEREIN the dampener means exerts a force on the coupler to maintain the space thereby preventing sagging of the shaft; and
WHEREIN the torque generated by the rotary operating handle is transferred to the circuit breaker
despite any misalignment between door cut-outs of the panel and axes of any of the rotary operating handle, the shaft, the enclosure, the coupler, and the circuit breaker.

2. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said spring means is a compression spring.

3. The assembly as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said dampener means is adapted to exert force, by the said balls on the coupler so as to reorient the shaft corresponding to the rotation of the operating handle assembly mounted on the panel door, thereby facilitating frictionless operation of the knob of the rotary operating handle, which in turn ensures suitable entry of the shaft across the panel door.

4. The assembly as claimed in claim 3, wherein the dampener means is adapted to provide correct indication on the rotary handle of the panel door in accordance with the circuit breaker position.

5. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shaft is rigidly coupled with the coupler of ROM assembly.

6. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shaft is coupled to the rotary operating handle through at least one teeth extending out from the body of the shaft.

7. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shaft is a substantially hollow.

8. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shaft is substantially square shaped.

9. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, optionally comprising multiple dampener means.
, Description:TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention described herein, in general, relates to circuit breakers, and more particularly to a rotary operating mechanism with dampener assembly for circuit breaker, which allows higher mismatch of panel door cut out for handle rotary operating mechanism and the body of rotary operating mechanism.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Low Voltage current limiting circuit breaker and the likes are commonly used to receive, supply, protect and isolate the current supply in an electrical circuit. Circuit breaker typically serves two basic purposes:
1. As a switching device: Switching On/Off during normal operating conditions for the purpose of operation and maintenance; and
2. As a protecting device: Tripping or Isolating by breaking the contacts interrupting the fault current during abnormal conditions such as short-circuit, overload and under voltage.

Circuit breaker consists of one or more electric poles, whose number is determined by the application as single pole circuit breaker, two pole circuit breaker, three pole circuit breaker, four pole circuit breaker and so on. They are designed for use in Switchboards, Control Panels, and Combination Starters in separate enclosures for effective single location distribution and control. Also these are housed inside an enclosure to provide safety to users operating the same. Further these devices get mounted inside a board or panel board for added safety to the operator.

Most often these devices are required to be operated from outside the panel by means of an operating handle that is coupled to the switching device. In the most common type of installation, an operating handle is mounted on the panel door while the switching device is mounted inside the panel door. The mounting device has a shaft coming out that has to be rotated to switch the circuit breaker ON and OFF. When panel door is closed the shaft engages with the handle mounted on the panel door and breaker can be operated by using the handle. When panel door is opened the handle is decoupled with the shaft and no engagement is left with the shaft and handle.

For proper functioning of the handle the shaft assembly has to properly get aligned and adapted to the handle. One common issue for loss of functionality in actual field is the misalignment and sagging of the shaft due to manufacturing and assembly error.

It would be known to a person skilled in the art that misalignment occurs because breaker with/without adaptable means with the shaft is fixed to the breaker & shaft is fastened to coupler rotating on the mechanism. After this door cutouts are made. So finally cutouts do not go in line with the shaft coming from breaker. Sagging is due to self-weight because shaft is fixed rigidly at one of its end & is free at other end.

In prior art documents, US6797903 patent teaches extended rotary handle operator wherein the ROM uses the handle with interlock for ON and off position. However, there is no provision for containing misalignment of panel door.

In prior art documents, US3980845 patent teaches a circuit breaker with rotary operating mechanism with defeat interlock mechanism. However, there is also no provision for containing misalignment of panel door.

In prior art documents, CN100499006C patent teaches a circuit breaker with rotary operating mechanism, the mechanism uses the gear mechanism for achieving rotary operation. However, there is no provision for containing misalignment of panel door.

In prior art documents, 854/MUM/2013 application teaches circuit breaker with rotary operating mechanism which has a connecting Shaft with a flexible head. It discloses a square hollow shaft along with the universal coupler type arrangement.
This arrangement mainly transfers the torque from the rotary handle on the door to the breaker inside the panel, Thereby helping in misalignment of panel door.

However, due to manufacturing and installation variations, often handle axis does not get in line with axis of the mechanism on the breaker. This results in the door not being able to close properly or even if it gets closed large amount of friction is encountered during operation of breaker through handle. This large friction results in higher operating force in terms of the user and also results in wrong indications on the handle.

It thus required to incorporate a feature within the handle assembly or shaft that can take care of such a variation of mounting due to manufacturing / human error.

In addition to the above requirement there are standard requirements of the handle assembly also that call for door interlock when the switching device is in ON condition; have a provision of defeat in ON by usage of a tool; and a feature of auto-restoration to initial state. The above requirements poses a challenge to integrate all the functionalities into a single assembly yet provide the greater degree of flexibility as already mentioned.

Thus, in order to solve the above discussed problems, there is a need for a means or flexibility module on the breaker side so as to address the issue of misalignment and sagging.

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.

According it is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a small, cost effective assembly to compensate for the misalignment and minimize sagging of the shaft with the panel door cut-outs and finally with the rotary operating handle mounted on the panel door.

It is another object of present invention to provide frictionless functioning of the operating knob of the rotary operating handle.

It is another object of the present invention to ensure that the shaft is able to transmit required torque from the rotary operating handle to the circuit breaker inside the panel.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an assembly that can take up variations and ensure flexibility and torque transmission to circuit breaker.

It is still another object of invention to provide indication on the rotary handle of the panel door in accordance with the circuit breaker position.

Accordingly, in the present invention, the foregoing and other objects and advantages are attained by providing a ROM assembly for connecting a rotary operating handle of a panel door with the circuit breaker contained inside the panel, said assembly comprising:
a hollow enclosure;
a shaft having one of its ends coupled to the coupler of the said ROM base assembly placed inside the hollow enclosure and having its other end coupled with the rotary operating handle;
at least one dampeners means mounted in a uniform manner over the said ROM base and adapted to negotiate any variation in the assembly and provide flexibility, comprises:
a ball located on a spring means placed inside a housing ;
a coupler shaft of an appropriate length adapted to create a space between the said ROM base and the said coupler; and
a plate adapted to minimize friction between said spring means and coupled to the other end of the said coupler towards the dampener means;
WHEREIN the dampener means exerts a force on the coupler to maintain the space thereby preventing sagging of the shaft; and
WHEREIN the torque generated by the rotary operating handle is transferred to the circuit breaker
despite any misalignment between door cut-outs of the panel and axes of any of the rotary operating handle, the shaft, the enclosure, the coupler, and the circuit breaker.

The present invention further provides a dampener means comprising a ball placed on a compression spring which is placed inside a housing and configured to exert force by the said balls on the coupler to reorient the shaft according to the position of the rotary operating handle assembly mounted on the panel door, thereby facilitating frictionless operation of the knob of the rotary operating handle, which in turn ensures suitable entry of the shaft across the panel door, and also assists in giving correct indication on the rotary handle of the panel door in accordance with the circuit breaker position.

The present invention provides a simple, small and cost-effective assembly.

Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

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 a typical plan of circuit breaker mounted inside the panel.

Figure 2 illustrates Top view of circuit breaker mounted inside the panel.

Figure 3 illustrates a Top view of circuit breaker mounted inside the panel with misalignment between ROM shaft axis and ROM handle axis.

Figure 4 illustrates Top view of ROM when the circuit breaker is mounted inside the panel with right alignment between ROM shaft axis and ROM handle axis, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 5 illustrates a Top view of ROM when the circuit breaker is mounted inside the panel with misalignment between ROM shaft axis and ROM handle axis, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 6 illustrates a Plan view of dampener assemblies placed on ROM base, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 7 illustrates a Plan view of dampener assemblies placed on ROM base with exploded view of one of the dampener assembly 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 as defined by the claims and their equivalents. 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 and spirit 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.

This present invention relates to a flexible Rotary operating mechanism for circuit breakers which allows higher mismatch of panel door cut out for handle Rotary operating mechanism and the body of rotary operating mechanism. It relates to a ROM assembly for connecting a rotary operating handle of a panel door with the circuit breaker, to prevent loss of functionality due to sagging or misalignment.

Unlike in conventional assemblies, the assembly of the present invention is customized with multiple flexible dampeners are placed on the housing of Rotary operating mechanism (ROM) below the coupler. These dampeners take up the variation in the assembly and ensure flexibility and torque transmission to the circuit breaker.

In conventional panel, as shown in figure 1 and figure 2, the circuit breaker (1) is mounted inside the Panel. A ROM base assembly (2) is placed on the circuit breaker knob. The shaft (3) is attached to coupler (8) which is part of ROM base assembly (2). The other end of the shaft (3) is connected to the ROM handle (4). The ROM handle (4) is mounted on the Panel door (6). Further, the ROM base assembly (2) is mounted on the Circuit breaker (1). During assembly and installation the circuit breaker (2) is mounted on panel base (5) and ROM handle (4) is mounted separately on a hinged panel door (6). Due to manufacturing and installation variations, often handle axis does not get in line with axis of the mechanism on the breaker as shown in figure-3. This may result in panel door (6) not being able to close properly or even if it gets closed large amount of friction is encountered during operation of breaker through handle due to interference of coupler (8) and ROM base (7). This large friction results in higher operating force in terms of the user and also results in wrong indications on the handle.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an assembly comprising at least one flexible dampener means (10) placed on the ROM base (7) of Rotary operating mechanism (ROM) base assembly (1) below the coupler (8); a cam coupler shaft of specific length configured to create a space between the said ROM base and the said coupler; and a plate configured to provide low coefficient of friction to minimize friction between said spring and coupled to the other end of the said coupler towards the dampener, so as to prevent loss of functionality due to sagging or misalignment.

Thus, when the panel door (6) is removed the shaft (3) axis will resume its original position due to presence of spring (12) loaded balls (13) placed uniformly over the ROM base (7) causing uniform force on all directions of the coupler.

In an embodiment, the dampener means are assemblies (10) combined to take up the variation in the assembly and ensure flexibility and torque transmission to the circuit breaker. The dampener assembly (10) consists of Dampener housing (11), spring (12) and ball (13). The dampener housing (11) may be an integral part of the ROM base (7). The spring (12) is placed inside the dampener housing (11) and the ball (13) is placed above the spring (12).

In an embodiment, the ROM base assembly (2) has a space or gap (15) between ROM base and the coupler. This space (15) is achieved by designing the length of cam coupler shaft (14) protruding out of the ROM base (7) while doing ROM base assembly (2). The balls (13) of the dampener assembly are placed above the compression spring (12), which due to spring forces, the balls press the coupler (8) to maintain the space between the coupler and ROM base. Due to this in normal condition, when the ROM is mounted on the circuit breaker, the sagging of shaft due to clearances between components is minimized.

In an embodiment, a plate (9) is placed between the coupler and the ROM base. The plate (9) is made of material of lower coefficient of friction such as brass, PTFE or MoS2 filled nylon material and the like. It is to be noted that these materials are mere examples of some materials having lower coefficient of friction. A person skilled in the art can use any other materials having lower coefficient of friction and still it will be well within the scope of the present invention. The plate (9) reduces the friction between spring (12) loaded balls (13) and coupler assembly. Due to this the force transmission is smooth and the operating force does not increase.

Referring to figure 3 and figure 5, which show the misalignment between axis of panel door (3) and the ROM base assembly (2), the shaft (3) will tilt. Due to tilting of shaft (3), the coupler (8) will have tendency to tilt. The intentional space (15) of the present assembly is designed in such a way that there should be slight clearance between the coupler (8) and ROM base (7). The balls (13) will press the assembly toward the right alignment. A plate (9) is placed between the coupler and the ROM base. The plate (9) is made of material of lower coefficient of friction. The plate (9) reduces the friction between spring (12) loaded balls (13) and coupler assembly. Due to this the force transmission is smooth and the operating force does not increase.

In an embodiment, the multiple dampener assemblies (10) may be placed on the ROM base (7) as shown in figure 6 and figure 7.

In an embodiment, the assembly may comprise of : Circuit breaker; Rotary operating mechanism housing assembly; Shaft; Rotary operating mechanism handle; Panel base; Panel door; Rotary operating mechanism base; Coupler; Plate (for reducing friction); Dampener assembly which consists of Dampener body, Spring, Ball; Cam coupler shaft; and Intentional space between ROM base and coupler.

Apart from the advantages and benefits mentioned above, other advantages and benefits are mentioned below:
• The assembly is a simple construction;
• The present invention uses less number of components;
• The assembly has small and cost-effective components;
• The present invention is capable to compensate for the misalignment of the shaft with the panel door cut-outs and finally with the rotary operating handle mounted on the panel door;
• The ROM provide frictionless functioning of the operating knob of the rotary operating handle;
• The shaft is able to transmit required torque from the rotary operating handle to the circuit breaker inside the panel;
• The present invention provide indication on the rotary handle of the panel door in accordance with the circuit breaker position.

The illustrations of arrangements described herein are intended to provide a general understanding of the structure of various embodiments, and they are not intended to serve as a complete description of all the elements and features of assembly and systems that might make use of the structures described herein. Many other arrangements will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. Other arrangements may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Figures are also merely representational and may not be drawn to scale. Certain proportions thereof may be exaggerated, while others may be minimized. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Thus, although specific arrangements have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific arrangement shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments and arrangements of the invention. Combinations of the above arrangements, and other arrangements not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.