Claims:1. An improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers, comprising:

a top assembly comprising
at least one multipolar moving plunger (3) operably held against a spring force (25) provided by spring means (28), said spring force (25) being higher than a trip force required to trip the circuit breaker;

a bottom assembly comprising
magnet means (6) positioned substantially in between a plurality of multi-polar fixed frames (5), such that air gaps are maintained on either side of the magnet means (6) and in between the multi-polar fixed frames (5);
at least one diverter (7) positioned below to enclose the fixed frames (5) and the magnet means (6); and

a plurality of multi-polar flux generation coils (4) located in between the top assembly and the bottom assembly,

wherein the coils (4) generate flux in different directions such that supportive and repulsive magnetic flux is generated in the magnetic circuit of the flux repulsion device according to the direction of excitation of the coils to latch or de-latch the plunger (3),

wherein the magnet means (6) is positioned to establish plurality of magnetic flux paths (8, 9) through the fixed frames (5), the moving plunger (3) and the diverter (7).

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the air gaps (26) are adapted to vary the performance of the device.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said magnet means (6) is a rare earth magnet.
4. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thickness of the diverter (7) is varied by adding another layer of diverter (10) using external means (11), to essentially vary the cross section in the stable flux path (9).

5. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diverter (7) is substantially placed from the multi-polar fixed frames (5) by a non-magnetic screw (13) such that an appropriate air-gap (27) is maintained, to increase the operating flux.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein two multi-polar moving plungers (14, 15) are operably positioned on top and bottom of the multi-polar fixed frames (5).

7. The device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the plungers (14,15) have similar or dissimilar magnetic, chemical and physical properties.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the device parameters are adapted to vary by calibration screw means (16, 17).

9. The device as claimed in any of the preceding claims, the device has a built-in mechanical assembly tolerance compensation (18).

10. The device as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the moving plunger (3) is operably coupled to extended tripping means (19).

11. The device as claimed in any of the preceding claims can be operated in multiple modes.
12. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the air gaps (26) are maintained in order to avoid shock and vibration that is generated while operating the device reach the permanent magnet (6).
, Description:FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention pertains to a trip actuating device of circuit breakers in general, and, more particularly, to a customizable Multi-modal Flux Repulsion and Manipulation magnetic trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers.

BACKGROUND

The current technology demands different trip actuators for various faults in the circuit breaker. This not only complicates the space available inside the circuit breaker but also leads to a demanding design control over too many components and assemblies considering the sensitivities and seriousness involved in the failure of such systems to act in case of a fault condition.
Reference has been made to US 6,763,789 B1, disclosing a system and method for increasing force density of a valve actuator particularly suited for use in actuation of intake and/or exhaust valves of an internal combustion engine include at least one electromagnet having a coil wound about a core, and an armature fixed to an armature shaft extending axially through the coil and the core, and axially movable relative thereto. The actuator includes a flux generator, such as at least one permanent magnet positioned between the coil and the armature, oriented so that magnetic flux of the generator travels in a direction opposite to magnetic flux produced by the coil through the core during coil energization to reduce saturation of the core, but in the same direction as the magnetic flux produced by the coil through the armature, to increase an attractive force between the armature and the electromagnet, resulting in an actuator with an increased force density.
Reference has been made to US6002184A describing a new class of actuators and mechanisms use opposing repulsive magnetic forces. The repulsive forces are typically generated between a stationary magnet and a moving magnet, where the moving magnet is coupled to the mechanism output member. The mechanisms are generally configured such that the repulsive force from one electromagnet is opposed by a repulsive force from another electromagnet, where the opposing forces are simultaneously applied to the mechanism's output member. This configuration is similar in certain aspects to the way biological flexor and extensor muscles are configured in a musculoskeletal system. The opposing configuration allows for open loop control of position and stiffness. The actuator mechanism may have both rotary and linear motion output, and may have either a single degree of freedom or multiple degrees of freedom. Permanent magnets can be used to create a baseline repulsive force without electric power, and electromagnets can modulate the repulsive force magnitude. The actuator can provide high fidelity motion and force output, and is well suited for human interface devices, such as force feedback joysticks. Other applications include adjustable stiffness devices, and high bandwidth mechanisms.
Reference has been further made to US 6,791,442 disclosing a device utilizing a permanent magnet latching assembly incorporating high-energy, permanent magnets of rare earth or other relatively fragile permanent magnet materials, and to provide a mechanical structure that protects such materials from damaging impact when subjected to motion of a solenoid plunger. The proposed invention mentions the isolation of permanent magnet from any mechanical impact and use of rare earth materials.
Yet another reference has been made to US 5,614,878 disclosing two pole remote controlled circuit breaker, in which the solenoid is provided with two coil windings. The first coil winding is a low resistance high current (approximately 3 amp) winding which produces a strong magnetic force to pull plunger from its rest (extended) position to its activated (retracted) position where the plunger is withdrawn into the body of the solenoid. The second coil winding is a high resistance winding which, when connected in series with the low resistance winding, results in reduced power consumption for maintaining contacts in an open position. The switching from the low resistance high current winding to the high resistance winding connected in series with the low resistance winding is accomplished by a solenoid switch which is activated/deactivated by a switch lever.
Yet another reference has been made to US 7,570,140 relating to a circuit breaker includes separable contacts, an operating mechanism structured to open and close the separable contacts, and a magnetic trip mechanism cooperating with the operating mechanism to trip open the separable contacts. The magnetic trip mechanism includes a support structure including a slotted support portion therein, and a plunger assembly. The plunger assembly includes a movable core resting in the support portion of the support structure, and a plunger member including a first portion cooperating with the operating mechanism, a second portion coupled to the movable core, and a third portion engaging the support structure.
Yet another reference has been made to US 4,691,182 disclosing a circuit breaker structure having an adjustable magnetic trip unit characterized by an insulating housing containing a circuit breaker mechanism having separable contacts and containing a trip unit comprising a magnetic device responsive to overload current conditions for separating the contacts, the magnetic device having an armature and a calibrating screw for calibrating an air gap between the armature and an associated magnet, the trip unit also including a cam for varying the tension of the spring and the cam having spaced indexing indentations and an associated ball in the frame for rolling engagement with the cam surface and for seating in any indentation to provide positive settings of the spring tension.
Reference has also been made to US 5,206,618 disclosing a magnetic latch including a coil, a frame receiving magnetic flux from the coil when energized, a latching member mounted in the frame and rotatably movable between first and second positions with the latching member providing a magnetic flux bridge between flux carrying means of the frame by contacting the flux carrying means with the latching member is in a first position, a magnet providing magnetic flux carried by the flux carrying means and a portion of the latching member for magnetically retaining the latching member is a first position with the coil is de-energized and a spring biasing the latching member towards a second position with force sufficient to overcome magnetic retention of the latching member at the first position when the coil is providing magnetic flux to the flux carrying members of the frame in the direction opposite of that of flux provided by the magnet.
Yet another reference has been made to 495/MUM/2010 relating to an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers. The tripping device comprising plurality of fixed core members, moving core is located substantially coaxial to said fixed core members, magnet means placed in between said fixed core members such that appropriate air gap is maintained in the space between the fixed cores and magnet means. The magnet means is establishing plural flux paths comprising first flux path and second flux path whereby said moving core being attracted towards said core members by flux content in the said first flux path. plurality of identical coils wounded around said core members and connected serially to each other; wherein pair of adjacent identical coils being positioned with one coil facing toward top direction and another coil adjacent to former being located in a tilted direction such that the current in both the coils flows in opposite directions so as to establish flux opposing the flux prevailing in the said flux paths produced by the magnet means thereby reducing the resultant flux flowing through the moving core adapted to de-latch the said moving core from the fixed core members.
Thus there is a need for an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers providing multi-modal flux repulsion able to operate in multiple modes with a single device configuration.

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 an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers.
An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-modal flux repulsion and manipulation trip device for circuit breakers.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, is to provide an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers, comprising a top assembly comprising at least one multipolar moving plunger operably held against a spring force provided by spring means, said spring force being higher than a trip force required to trip the circuit breaker, a bottom assembly comprising magnet means positioned substantially in between a plurality of multi-polar fixed frames, such that air gaps are maintained on either side of the magnet means and in between the multi-polar fixed frames, at least one diverter positioned below to enclose the fixed frames and the magnet means and a plurality of multi-polar flux generation coils located in between the top assembly and the bottom assembly, wherein the coils generate flux in different directions such that supportive and repulsive magnetic flux is generated in the magnetic circuit of the flux repulsion device according to the direction of excitation of the coils to latch or de-latch the plunger, wherein the magnet means is positioned to establish plurality of magnetic flux paths through the fixed frames, the moving plunger and the diverter.

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 the embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent in the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates a general arrangement or high sensitive mode configuration of a trip actuating device in accordance to the invention.
Figure 2 illustrates a reluctance path in the magnetic circuit of a trip actuating device in accordance to the invention.
Figure 3 illustrates coil excitation patterns with respect to the excitation patterns of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 4 illustrates assisted de-latching configuration of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 5 illustrates heavy duty mode configuration of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 6 illustrates no-energy mode configuration of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 7 illustrates selective calibration mode configuration of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 8 illustrates mechanical assembly tolerance feature of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 9 illustrates extended trip actuator with mechanical assembly tolerance compensation feature of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 10 illustrates orientation spring configuration of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
Figure 11 illustrates holding force controller configuration of a trip actuating device accordance to the invention.
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
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure 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 various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be 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 present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure 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. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
All terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which various embodiments belong. Further, the meaning of terms or words used in the specification and the claims should not be limited to the literal or commonly employed sense, but should be construed in accordance with the spirit of the disclosure to most properly describe the present disclosure.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular various embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of various embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" used herein specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, members, components, and/or groups thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, members, components, and/or groups thereof. Also, Expressions such as "at least one of," when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list.
The present disclosure will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various embodiments of the present disclosure are shown. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the various embodiments set forth herein, rather, these various embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the present disclosure. Furthermore, a detailed description of other parts will not be provided not to make the present disclosure unclear. Like reference numerals in the drawings refer to like elements throughout.
The subject invention lies in providing a multi-modal flux repulsion and manipulation trip device.
According to one implementation of the invention an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers, comprising a top assembly comprising at least one multipolar moving plunger (3) operably held against a spring force (25) provided by spring means (28), said spring force (25) being higher than a trip force required to trip the circuit breaker, a bottom assembly comprising magnet means (6) positioned substantially in between a plurality of multi-polar fixed frames (5), such that air gaps are maintained on either side of the magnet means (6) and in between the multi-polar fixed frames (5), at least one diverter (7) positioned below to enclose the fixed frames (5) and the magnet means (6), and a plurality of multi-polar flux generation coils (4) located in between the top assembly and the bottom assembly, wherein the coils (4) generate flux in different directions such that supportive and repulsive magnetic flux is generated in the magnetic circuit of the flux repulsion device according to the direction of excitation of the coils to latch or de-latch the plunger (3), wherein the magnet means (6) is positioned to establish plurality of magnetic flux paths (8, 9) through the fixed frames (5), the moving plunger (3) and the diverter (7).
An embodiment of the invention describes an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers, also referred to as multi-modal flux repulsion and manipulation device herein afterwards, working on the principle of strategic repulsion of magnetic flux inside a magnetic circuit such that the stable magnetic operating point is misaligned for a temporary period allowing the actuator to pop the plunger (3) of the device.
The multi-polar moving plunger (3) of the device is held against a spring force (25). The spring force is the selected carefully that it is higher than the trip force required by the mechanism of the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker mechanism in turn holds the electrical contacts of the circuit breaker to conduct current with least resistance. Thereby increasing the efficiency of the circuit breaker.
The holding of multi-polar moving plunger (3) is facilitated by a rare earth permanent magnet (6) placed strategically such that it supports both latching and de-latching of the multi-polar moving plunger (3) under different conditions.
In another embodiment of the invention, method of the different conditions in the flux repulsion device is facilitated by the multi polar flux generation coil means as shown in the figure 3. The coil generates flux in strategically different directions in order to create supportive and repulsive magnetic flux in the magnetic circuit of the flux repulsion device according to the direction of excitation of the coils.
The rare earth permanent magnet (6) is placed in the circuit such that the flux from the magnet take multiple paths formed by the following components multi-polar fixed frames (5), multi-polar moving plunger (3) and diverters (7). The general arrangement of the device in both latched and de-latched condition is shown in the figure 1.
Another embodiment of the invention shows the reluctance path of the device as shown in figure 2, wherein an operating flux path (8) and a stable flux path (9) represent the device’s active reluctance path in passive conditions and the coil path (21) represents active condition of coil energization. The flux from the magnet takes two different paths, one through the multi-polar fixed frames (5), multi-polar moving plunger (3) and back to magnet (6) and the other through the short circuit path of multi-polar fixed frames (5), diverter (7) and back to magnet (6).
In another embodiment of the invention, the flux share is based on the number of parallel paths it creates in the magnetic circuit. These parallel paths will have different reluctances w.r.t. each other. Thus the flux shares in the magnetic circuit according to the reluctance ratio of the parallel paths.
In another embodiment of the invention, the magnetic circuit have intentional strategic air gaps (26) placed around the magnetic circuit in order to achieve functional, physical and modal advantages of the magnetic circuit.
In an implementation of the invention, there are two air gaps (26) around the rare earth permanent magnet (6). These air gaps (26) can be adjusted to adjust the performance of the device.
In another embodiment of the invention, in the short circuited parallel path (9), the maximum flux condition is reached because of the local saturation of the component ‘diverter’ (7). The diverter (7) is intentionally saturated such that the device’s flux in the operating flux path is controlled. The diverter (7) forms the non-functioning path or the stable flux path (9) of the device. This allows the rare earth permanent magnet (6) to share its flux into the later said flux paths.
In another embodiment of the invention, the multi-polar flux generation coils (4), as shown in figure3, will generate repulsion flux during de-latching of the multi-polar moving plunger (3). This repulsion flux will oppose the exiting permanent magnet’s (6) flux in the circuit. This opposition will force the operating flux (i.e., flux flowing through the multi-polar fixed frames (5), multi-polar moving plunger (3) and back to magnet (6)) to flux on an alternate path.
This opposed flux cannot flow through the secondary path because the secondary path is the constant flux flow path (9) which is already saturated by the permanent magnet’s (6) flux.
This forces the operating flux to flow through the air instead of available low reluctance paths. This reduced flux in the operating path of the device cannot able to withstand the spring force (25) it was holding against and hence de-latching happens.
In an embodiment of the invention, the device has five operating modes, high sensitive mode, assisted de-latching mode, heavy duty mode, No-energy mode and selective calibration mode.
In an embodiment of the invention, in the high sensitive mode, the device is in the normal operating configuration. i.e., the arrangement of the components is same as the one in figure 1. The device will consume low electrical energy to operate and de-latch to trip the mechanism of the circuit breaker.
In an embodiment of the invention, another method of de-latching, assisted de-latching, as shown in the figure 4, describes an external input from other sensing device will manipulate the reluctance of the trip actuator’s magnetic circuit. The coil is continuously energized through its terminals (24) weakening the holding force of the device. Upon input from the external sensor, the device de-latches due to drop in reluctance. The thickness of the diverter component that is saturated in the second path is increased by adding the parallel path by adding another layer 2 of diverter (10) component using external input means (11) to it thereby increasing the effective cross section of the component in the stable flux path (9) (i.e., multi-polar fixed frames (5), diverter (7) and back to magnet (6)).
The increase of cross section allows more amount of flux to flow through the secondary path (9) thereby effectively reducing the operating magnetic flux and making the device to de-latch. The device will be back to the normal operating condition to latch the multi-polar moving plunger (3) once the thickness increase of the diverter (7) component is reversed. This configuration is shown in the figure 4
In an embodiment of the invention, in the heavy duty mode, the device’s diverter (7) is kept at a distance by the non-magnetic calibration screw (13) as shown in the figure 5. This will increase the gap between the multi-polar fixed frames (5) and the diverter (7). Thus increasing the energy required to de-latch the device as well as the holding force of the device. Since two air gaps (27) on either side of the diverter (7) is created using the non-magnetic calibration screw (13), the reluctance of the path increases and allows more flux to flow in the primary operating path. This will increase the force of holding in the primary path. This mode of the device is used when there is a shaky environment such as rolling stones, etc.,
In an embodiment of the invention, in No-energy mode, there is no involvement of repulsion flux in the de-latching of the device. Here, the input terminals of the multi polar flux generation coils (4) are used as an output coil optionally. There will be two multi-polar moving plunger (14, 15) one on top of the assembly and the other on bottom of the assembly as shown in figure 6.
In an embodiment of the invention, both plungers may either have similar magnetic, chemical & physical properties or dissimilar magnetic, chemical and physical properties. These similarities or dissimilarities are intentionally chosen such that when bottom side multi-polar moving plunger (14, 15) is latched, the main operating top side multi-polar moving plunger (14) de-latches because of the sudden drop in the flux density in the component. This method is selected for those kind of measurement which works based on the location of the physical magnetic components.
This increase in the flux in the secondary path switches the device from latched condition to de-latched condition. This trips the circuit breaker and clears the fault condition. Upon reset of the device, the plungers (14, 15) will be taken back to the respective locations preparing the device for the next operation without energy expenditure.
In an embodiment of the invention, in the selective calibration mode, the device can be fine-tuned for various tripping voltages, tripping forces and holding forces using two non-magnetic calibration screw means (16, 17). The arrangement of the same is shown in the figure 7. In this mode, user can sensitively calibrate the device parameters by adjusting the two non-magnetic calibration screws.
In an embodiment of the invention, the device additionally has a built-in feature of mechanical assembly tolerance compensation (18) that will work as illustrated in figure 8, thus allowing the circuit breaker manufacturer to let off critical design of components in order to speed up and reduce cost of implementation of the device integration schemes.
In an embodiment of the invention, the device also allows the use of extended tripping means (19) and displaced main operating spring force (20) based on the location of mechanical actuation in the mechanism of the associated circuit breaker. The spring is held in a position such that the natural holding plane has least effect on the displaced spring force in the device. The mechanical assembly tolerance compensation feature is achieved in the case of extended tripping means as shown in figure 9.
In an embodiment of the invention, the multi-polar moving plunger (3) is balanced in unison with the mating surface of the multi-polar fixed frames (5) with the help of the specially designed conical spring (28) for maintaining the orientation of the multi-polar moving plunger (3) during operations that utilize the feature of mechanical assembly tolerance compensation.
Some of the non-limiting advantages of the present invention are:
a) Multiple modes of operation with a single device configuration.
b) Dual static operating states. One in latched condition and de-latched condition. The coil enables shifting of the device from one static operating state to the other.
c) Assisted de-latching mode as illustrated in the figure-4 will help the tripping device to act as a physical logical AND gate in the electromechanical world enabling the device to trip only when two checkpoints for tripping is true in the system and is available for user to configure.
d) The force outputs, coil inputs and the travel are user configurable using the features explained in the heavy duty calibration and selective calibration.
e) No energy mode enables the trip device to operate based on the proximity of moving component of the mechanism of the circuit breaker to trip. This is energy free. i.e., it does not require coil excitation to trip the circuit breaker. This enables the trip device to use as a mechanical and electrical interlocking device for the circuit breakers.
f) Mechanical compensation feature enables the assembly tolerance compensation in the sub-assemblies thereby reducing the cost, time and efforts required to develop the components of the sub-assemblies associated with the circuit breaker.
g) Extended trip actuator allows the user to modify the trip device trip lever according to the convenient trip feature of the mechanism.
h) Use of orientation spring inside the trip device assembly makes the device suitable for any mounting position as it keeps the moving plunger (even not linked to the pull or push forces of the assembly springs) not prone to the effects of gravity.

Although an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers unit has been described in language specific to structural features, it is to be understood that the embodiments disclosed in the above section are not necessarily limited to the specific methods or devices described herein. Rather, the specific features are disclosed as examples of implementations of an improved trip actuating device for use in circuit breakers.