FORM 2
The Patents Act 1970
(39 of 1970) &
The Patent Rules 2003 PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and rule 13)
TITLE OF THE INVENTION:
ACCESSORY INDICATION SYTEM FOR AIR CIRCUIT BREAKERS
APPLICANT:


LARSEN & TOUBRO LIMITED
L&T House, Ballard Estate, P.O. Box No. 278,
Mumbai, 400 001, Maharashtra . INDIA.
PREAMBLE OF THE DESCRIPTION:

THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION PARTICULARLY DESCRIBES THE INVENTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS TO BE PERFORMED




A) TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention generally relates to circuit breakers such as circuit breakers and particularly to accessories such as volt metric release like closing, shunt and under voltage releases, mounted on the circuit breakers. The present invention more particularly relates to indicator systems for the accessories mounted on the circuit breakers like air circuit beakers.
B) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Circuit breakers are mechanical switching devices capable of making, carrying, and breaking currents under normal circuit conditions. The circuit breakers also make contacts to carry currents for a specified time, and breaking currents under specified abnormal conditions. Basically, a circuit breaker comprises a pair of separable contacts, an operating mechanism for effecting separation of the contacts, and a tripping mechanism which automatically releases the operating mechanism upon the occurrence of an overload or fault condition. In an air circuit breaker, the movable contact is mounted on a contact arm that is pivoted to open the contacts by a spring powered operating mechanism triggered by a trip unit which is responsive to an overcurrent condition in the protected circuit.
[0003] Various accessory devices are used with air circuit breakers to provide auxiliary function along with overcurrent protection. One such accessory is the bell alarm accessory that provides local and remote indication as to the occurrence of circuit interruption. The circuit breakers are equipped with a wide variety of accessories. The shunt trips are installed in the circuit breakers to accommodate the tripping of circuit breaker from remote location initiated manually or automatically. Accessory switches are installed in power circuit breakers to sense when the breaker is closed or open. The accessory switches also judges whether the circuit breaker was manually opened or tripped open, during the open condition of the circuit breakers. The contacts of these accessory switches are wired into external circuits to effect indicating and control functions.
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[0004] All circuit beakers with automatic fault detection and remote actuation system have one or more accessories provided to perform several functions. The volt metric releases like closing, shunt and under voltage releases are mounted on or near breaker operating mechanism, and positioned at a significant depth from the front facia. These releases are operated through external connections supplied at secondary isolated contacts.
[0005] The outward appearance and the internal functioning of the circuit breaker and various accessories may differ. Many accessories may be nearly identical in outward appearance. A skilled professional or electrician should eventually be able to differentiate accessories and their location for placement within a circuit breaker frame. The technician has to physically check the presence and the rating of the accessories mounted in the circuit breakers, which may be frustrating and lead to confusion. This confusion may also lead to the inability to properly place the accessories within the circuit breaker frame.
[0006] The prior art patent No. US6366188 disclose an accessory and recess identification system for circuit breakers. It includes an identification system for identifying correct placement of various circuit breaker accessories within recesses of a circuit breaker molded frame.
[0007] The prior art patent No. US6005208 discloses industrial draw-out circuit breaker electrical connection indication. The front cover of the draw-out circuit beaker is provided with a viewing window that allows visual access to an indicator flag for the purpose of identifying the true status of the electrical power connectors with in the circuit breaker namely TEST, DISCONNECT and CONNECT which are separately visible on the indicator flag.
[0008] Thus the user has to open the circuit breaker in order to know the rating and the features of the internal accessories in the currently available circuit breakers. None of the currently available accessories indication systems provide a remote or external indication of the accessories mounted on the circuit breakers easily and simply. It was very difficult to identify the equipments such as internal accessories or subcomponents inside the circuit breakers.
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[0009] Hence there is a need to develop an accessory indication system to enable the operator or user to provide a visual display or indication to identify the type, rating and the features of the accessories mounting on the circuit breakers easily and quickly, without opening the circuit breaker.
C) OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The primary object of the present invention is to develop an accessory indication system to provide a visual indication of the accessories actually mounted on the circuit breakers easily, quickly and efficiently without opening the circuit breakers.
[0011] Another object of the present invention is to develop an accessory indication system to provide a visual indication regarding the type and rating of the accessories actually mounted on the circuit breakers easily and efficiently without opening the circuit breakers.
[0012] Yet another object of the present invention is to develop an indication system in all the equipments to provide a tag or label in the front face of the equipments to indicate the rating and the features of the accessories actually mounted on the equipments.
[0013] Yet another object of the present invention is to develop an accessory Indication system provided with a fool proof system to identify each accessory mounted on the circuit breaker.
[0014] Yet another object of the present invention is to develop an accessory indication system to indicate the rating of the releases (accessories) of a plug-in type circuit breaker, at its front Facia / cover.
[0015] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an accessory indication system for all equipments which needs the display of the inner mounted devices or components at its front face or cover easily, quickly and efficiently.
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[0016] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
D) SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0017] The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.
[0018] The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.
[0019] The various embodiments of the present invention provide an accessory indication system to show the type, rating and features of the actual accessories mounted on the circuit breakers easily, efficiently and simply. The accessory indication system is used in all equipments to indicate the type, rating and features of the internal accessory or subcomponent mounted on the equipment on the face or interface side. The indication system provides a fool proof way to indicate the ratings, type and features of the actual accessories mounted on the circuit breakers.
[0020] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the accessories in the circuit breakers are individually identified and exhibited with unique fool-proof plug and slide combination. The indication system has an indicator plug mounted on the accessory mounted on a base plate in a circuit breaker. An indicator plug locking frame is mounted on the indicator plugs to lock the indicator plugs mounted on the accessories. A tag mounting frame is installed over the indicator plugs and provided with slots to hold a tag indicating the type and the rating of the accessories mounted on circuit breaker. The indicator plug and corresponding tag are connected with flexible wires. The tag has unique profile so that the indicator tag is fit only into the corresponding slit or guide groove of the mounting frame.
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[0021] The indicator tags include front face and the back face. The front face of the Indicator tag is visible from outside so that the indicator tag is seen from the front face of the breaker. The back face includes a profile having a groove to carry the wire which connects the Indicator slide to its corresponding accessory.
[0022] The indicator plug has a unique profile so that it is mounted only on the respective accessory and not on any other accessory thereby proving a fool proof way to indicate the actual accessory mounted on the circuit breaker. The length of the wire connecting the indicator tag and the indicator plug is fixed individually for each indicator tag such that no tag is mounted on the wrong window. The indicator plug has guides to hold the wire coming from the indicator tag. The indicator plug has positioning holes to receive the pips protruding out of the top surface of an accessory mounted on a base plate in a circuit breaker. The indicator plug has a curved profile to align the plug along the indicator plug holding and locking frame so that the position of the indicator plug remains fixed.
[0023] The indicator plug holding and locking frame is mounted on the indicator plugs to lock the indicator plugs mounted on the accessories at their respective positions. The indicator plug holding and locking frame has holes to receive the pips of the accessories to snap fit on the pips. The locking frame has mounting holes to enable the mounting of the locking frame over the accessories so that the locking frame is aligned with the indicator plugs to lock the indicator plugs installed on the accessories.
[0024] The indicator mounting frame has a horizontal arm and a vertical arm provided with slots having guide grooves and insertion holes to holds the indicator tags with snap fit arrangement. The indicator mounting frame has a projection provided at the end of the horizontal arm to prevent the mounting frame from being rotated about the mounting axis under the influence of shocks. The indicator mounting plugs are designed in such way that they have matching holes to receive the pips protruding out of the top surface of the accessories.
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[0025] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the indicator tags shows the type of accessory present inside the circuit breaker with the help of a label pasted on its front face.
[0026] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
E) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0027] The other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:
[0028] FIG .1 illustrates a perspective back side view of an indicator tag used in the accessory indication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0029] FIG .2 shows a front side plane view of the indicator tags with different snap fit profiles, used in the accessory indication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention..
[0030] FIG .3 illustrates a top side perspective view of the Indicator mounting frame used in the accessory indication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0031] FIG .4 shows the perspective views of the two different types of indicator plugs used in the accessory indication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0032] FIG .5 shows the top side plan views of perspective views of the different types of indicator plugs used in the accessory indication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
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[0033] FIG .6 shows the top side perspective view of the indicator plug holding and locking frame used in the accessory indication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0034] FIG .7 shows the different perspective views of the accessories mounted inside the circuit breaker.
[0035] FIG.8 shows the front side view of the accessories indication system according to one embodiment of the invention and mounted on a circuit breaker.
[0036] FIG.9 shows the overall assembly of accessory indication system according to one embodiment of the invention.
[0037] FIG. 10 shows the back side view of the accessory indication system according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0038] Although specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others. This is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.
F) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0039] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which the specific embodiments that may be practiced is shown by way of illustration. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and it is to be understood that the logical, mechanical and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the embodiments. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense.
[0040] The various embodiments of the present invention provide an accessory indication system to show the type, rating and features of the actual accessories mounted on the circuit breakers easily, efficiently and simply. The accessory
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indication system is used in all equipments to indicate the type, rating and features of the internal accessory or subcomponent mounted on the equipment on the face or interface side. The indication system provides a fool proof way to indicate the ratings, type and features of the actual accessories mounted on the circuit breakers.
[0041] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the accessories in the circuit breakers are individually identified and exhibited with unique fool-proof plug and slide combination. The indication system has an indicator plug mounted on the accessory mounted on a base plate in a circuit breaker. An indicator plug locking frame is mounted on the accessories and aligned with indicator plugs to lock the indicator plugs mounted on the accessories. A tag mounting frame is installed over the indicator plugs and provided with slots to hold a tag indicating the type and the rating of the accessories mounted on circuit breaker. The indicator plug and corresponding tag are connected with flexible wires. The tag has unique profile so that the indicator tag is fit only into the corresponding slit or guide groove of the tag mounting frame.
[0042] The indicator tag acts as an interface which indicates the rating of the releases or accessories of a plug-in type breaker, to its front Fascia / cover. The indicator tags include front face and the back face. The Front face carries a label which contains the description about the type of accessory actually mounted inside the circuit breaker assembly. The front face of the Indicator tag is visible from outside so that the indicator tag is seen from the front face of the breaker. The back face includes a profile having a groove to carry the wire which connects the Indicator tag to its corresponding accessory. The wire which helps in holding the indicator slide and indicator plug together. The tag has snap fit profiles provided at the bottom portion. The snap fit profiles are inserted into the holes provided at the indicator tag mounting frame. The position of the snap fit profiles of the tags to be attached to different accessories are mutually different thereby preventing it from being positioned into the wrong slit of the indicator tag mounting frame. Thus fool proofing with respect to positioning of the indicator slides is achieved.
[0043] The indicator plug has a unique profile so that it is mounted only on the respective accessory and not on any other accessory thereby proving a fool proof way to indicate the actual accessory mounted on the circuit breaker. The length of the wire
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accessories at their respective positions. With respect to the FIG.6, The indicator plug holding and locking frame 20 has holes 12 to receive the pips of the accessories to snap fit on the pips. The locking frame 20 has mounting holes 13 to enable the mounting of the locking frame over the accessories so that the locking frame is aligned with the indicator plugs to lock the indicator plugs installed on the accessories. Thus there is no chance of any wrong indicator plug being mounted over the accessory.
[0053] FIG .7 shows the top perspective views of the accessoriesl6 mounted inside the circuit breaker. With respect to FIG. 7, the accessory 16 has pips 14 protruding out from the top surface. The pips 14 are inserted into the holes provided on the indicator plugs to mount the indicator plugs on the accessories. These pips 14 are used to ensure that only the indicator plug corresponding to that accessory fits onto it. The accessory 16 has projections 15 extended out of the bottom surface to mount the accessory on the mounting plate. The accessories 16 are installed on a base plate. An indicator plug holding and mounting frame is also mounted on the accessory 16 by inserting the pips 14 through the holes provided in the indicator plug holding frame.
[0054] FIG .8 shows the front side view of the accessories indication system 100 according to one embodiment of the invention and mounted on a circuit breaker. With respect to FIG.8, the indicator tags 50 mounted on the indicator tag support frame has five indicators. Three of the indicators exhibit the type of accessories mounted inside the circuit breaker. The accessory indication system with the indicator tags provides an interface to indicate the type and the rating of the accessories of the circuit breaker on the front cover. Thus the type and ratings of the accessories inside the circuit breakers are individually identified on the front cover of the indicator slide.
[0055] FIG.9 shows the overall assembly of accessory indication system according to one embodiment of the invention. With respect to FIG.9, The indication system has indicator plugs 50 mounted on the accessory 16 mounted on a base plate in a circuit breaker. An indicator plug locking frame 20 is mounted on the accessories 16 and aligned with indicator plugs 30 to lock the indicator plugs 30 mounted on the accessories 16. A tag mounting frame 40 is installed over the indicator plugs 30 and provided with slots to hold a tag 50 indicating the type and the rating of the
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accessories mounted on circuit breaker. The indicator plug 30 and corresponding tag 50 are connected with flexible wires. The tag 50 has unique profile so that the indicator tag 50 is fit only into the corresponding slit or guide groove of the tag mounting frame 40.
[0056] FIG. 10 shows the back side view of the accessory indication system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention. With respect to FIG. 10, the accessory indication system 100 has three indicator tags 50 mounted on the indicator tag mounting frame. The back side view of the indicator tags are shown in FIG. 10. The indicator tags are attached to the indicator plugs mounted on the accessories 16 installed on a base plate through the connecting wires.
[0057] Thus the various embodiments of the present invention provide an accessory indication system for air circuit breaker. The accessory indication system provides the indication of the type and rating of the actual accessories present inside a circuit breaker. The accessory indication system is used in all equipments in which internal accessories or subcomponent must be described on the face or interface side for specification of its rating and features.
[0058] The accessory indication system with the indicator tag provides an interface which indicates the type and the rating of the accessories of the circuit breaker on the front cover. Hence the accessories in the circuit breakers are individually identified and exhibited with unique fool-proof plug and slide combination. The indicator slides with snap fit profiles are fitted in to the holes of the indicator mounting frame.
[0059] At the bottom portion of the indicator slide a snap fit arrangement is provided which is inserted into the holes of the indicator mounting frame. The position of the snap fit profiles for each individual indicator slide is different thus preventing it from being positioned into the wrong slit of the indicator mounting frame. Thus fool proofing with respect to positioning of the indicator slides has been achieved. Thus every slit in the indicator mounting frame is reserved for the corresponding indicator slide and no other slide can be fitted into it.
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[0060] The fool proof way of providing the indication of the actual accessories mounted inside the circuit beaker assembly is achieved in three ways. Firstly, the indicator tag is provided with different snap fit profiles at the bottom portion so that an indicator tag is fit only into the corresponding slot/ guide groove of the indicator tag mounting frame. Secondly, the indicator plug is provided with a curved profile at one side so that an indicator plug is fit only into the corresponding accessory. Thirdly, the length of the wire connecting the indicator tag and the indicator plug is fixed individually for each indicator tag such that no slide can reach up to the wrong window.
G) ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
[0061] Thus the various embodiments of the present invention provide an accessory indication system for air circuit breaker. The accessory indication system provides the indication of the type and rating of the actual accessories present inside a circuit breaker. The accessory indication system is used in all equipments in which internal accessories or subcomponent must be described on the face or interface side for specification of its rating and features.
The detailed scope of the monopoly claimed for the invention shall be ascertained and provided at the time of filing of the Complete Specification. Dated this 29th of September, 2008

Rakesh Prabhu.
Patent Agent, ALMT Legal,
No.2, Lavelle Road, Bangalore-560 001, INDIA
To,
The Controller of Patents, The Patent office, Mumbai
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