Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

In a vacuum circuit breaker mechanism, a spring-actuated linkage system is used to satisfy the desired opening and closing characteristics of electric contacts. Because the opening dynamics of electric contacts is determined by such a linkage system, the stiffness, free length and attachment points ...

In a vacuum circuit breaker mechanism, a spring-actuated linkage system is used to satisfy the desired opening and closing characteristics of electric contacts. Because the opening dynamics of electric contacts is determined by such a linkage system, the stiffness, free length and attachment points of a spring become the important design parameters. In this paper, based on the energy conservation that the total system energy is constant throughout the operating range of a mechanism, a systematic design procedure of determining the spring design parameters is presented. The proposed procedure is applied to the design of an opening spring for satisfying the specified opening characteristics.