Mechanical coupling devices for motorized levering-in assemblies, related electrical apparatus and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10211608-B2
Application number	US-201715604955-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 25, 2017
Priority date	May 25, 2017
Publication date	Feb 19, 2019
Grant date	Feb 19, 2019

Abstract

Levering-in systems, particularly suitable for electrical apparatus such as switchgears, have a motor that can drive a drive shaft during a powered operation and include a mechanical coupling assembly that can physically disconnect or decouple the drive shaft from a drivetrain coupled to the motor to allow manual levering-in with a reduced user crank force and/or to inhibit damage to components of the motorized drive system.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A drive system sub-assembly, comprising:
a longitudinally extending drive shaft with a longitudinally extending drive screw;
a driven member attached to a flange that extends externally about the drive shaft; and
a mechanical coupling assembly held by the drive shaft and extending at least partially into the flange,
wherein the mechanical coupling assembly decouples the drive shaft from the flange in a mechanically decoupled state and couples the drive shaft to the flange in a mechanically coupled state.

2. The sub-assembly of claim 1 , wherein the flange comprises a longitudinally extending channel and a wall with a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots, wherein the drive shaft or the drive screw comprises a longitudinally extending channel and a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots, wherein the coupling assembly comprises outer wall segments that project out the slots of the drive shaft or the drive screw and at least partially through the slots of the flange to couple the drive shaft to the flange in the coupled state, and wherein the outer wall segments retract laterally inwardly into the channel of the flange to decouple the flange from the drive shaft in the decoupled state.

3. The sub-assembly of claim 2 , wherein the slots of the flange have a lesser longitudinal extent than the slots of the drive shaft or the drive screw.

4. The sub-assembly of claim 1 , wherein the drive shaft comprises a longitudinally extending cavity that is adjacent the drive screw or the drive screw has a longitudinally extending cavity that is aligned with a longitudinally extending channel of the drive shaft, wherein the cavity holds at least one resilient member in communication with the coupling assembly whereby the at least one resilient member applies a longitudinally extending bias force against the coupling assembly.

5. The sub-assembly of claim 1 , wherein the mechanical coupling assembly comprises a body that slides longitudinally inward and laterally retracts to thereby decouple the drive shaft from the driven member.

6. The sub-assembly of claim 5 , wherein the body comprises first and second cooperating members that hold at least one resilient member therebetween.

7. The sub-assembly of claim 6 , wherein the at least one resilient member comprises a laterally extending coil spring.

8. The sub-assembly of claim 5 , wherein the body of the mechanical coupling assembly comprises first and second cooperating members that each have an outerwall that tapers inward in a longitudinally inward direction, and wherein the first and second cooperating members also comprise a laterally extending channel that holds the at least one resilient member between respective outerwalls.

9. The sub-assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a push rod held in a longitudinally extending channel of the drive shaft, wherein the push rod slidably engages the coupling assembly or is integral therewith to push the coupling assembly longitudinally inwardly to decouple the driven member from the drive shaft in the decoupled state.

10. The sub-assembly of claim 9 , wherein the flange attached to the driven member comprises an outer wall with a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots, wherein the drive shaft comprises a longitudinally extending channel with a length and longitudinally opposing first and second end portions, wherein the second end portion comprises a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots or an adjacent end portion of the drive screw comprises a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots, wherein the push rod has a length that is less than the length of the drive shaft channel, wherein the push rod has an inner end portion with a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots that align with the slots of the drive shaft or the slots of the drive screw, and wherein the coupling assembly is held in an interior channel of the push rod and comprises outer wall segments that project out of the slots of the push rod, the drive shaft or the drive screw, and at least partially through the slots of the flange to couple the push rod and the drive shaft to the flange in the coupled state.

11. The sub-assembly of claim 1 , wherein the flange is affixed to or integral with a circumferentially extending bevel gear as the driven member.

12. The sub-assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a motor for motorized levering-in that is coupled to the driven member in the coupled state and decoupled from the driven member in the decoupled state to thereby allow a manual levering in operation with the driven member decoupled from the motor.

13. An electrical apparatus comprising:
a housing enclosure having at least one interior compartment and a door;
a withdrawable cassette;
a circuit breaker held by the cassette; and
a levering-in drive system in the cassette, the levering-in drive system comprising:
an electric motor;
a longitudinally extending drive shaft with an aligned longitudinally extending drive screw, wherein the drive shaft can be coupled to the electric motor in the cassette for powered levering-in and can be manually hand cranked using a manual levering-in tool extended into a longitudinally extending channel of the drive shaft to turn the drive screw;
a flange attached to a driven member having an open cylindrical channel surrounding a segment of the drive shaft; and
a mechanical coupling assembly in the channel of the drive shaft and at least partially in the cylindrical channel of the flange attached to the driven member that can couple the drive shaft to the flange and decouple the drive shaft from the flange,

wherein the levering-in drive system is configured to move the cassette in a path between a withdrawn position and a levering-in connected position in the interior compartment.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the flange comprises a wall with a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots, wherein the drive shaft or the drive screw comprises a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart slots, wherein the coupler assembly comprises outer wall segments that project out the slots of the drive shaft or the drive screw and at least partially through the slots of the flange to couple the drive shaft to the flange in a mechanically coupled state, and wherein the outer wall segments of the coupling assembly retract laterally inwardly into the channel of the flange to decouple the driven member from the drive shaft in a mechanically decoupled state.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the slots of the flange have a lesser longitudinal extent than the slots of the drive shaft or the drive screw.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the drive shaft comprises a longitudinally extending cavity that is adjacent the drive screw or the drive screw has a longitudinally extending cavity that is aligned with the longitudinally extending channel of the drive shaft, wherein the cavity holds at least one resilient member in communication with the coupling assembly whereby the at least one resilient member applies a longitudinally extending bias force against the coupling assembly.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the mechanical coupling assembly comprises a body with first and second cooperating members that hold at least one resilient member therebetween, and wherein the first and second cooperating members each have an outer wall that tapers inward in a longitudinally inward direction and also each have a laterally extending channel that holds the at least one resilient member between the outer walls.

Assignees

• Eaton Intelligent Power Ltd

Inventors

• Weeks Cory Robert
• Schreiber David Andrew
• Wang Hongbin N
• Gundy Ii Raymond Peter
• Harris Bryant-Douglas

Classifications

• F16H2025/2071

  Disconnecting drive source from the actuator, e.g. using clutches for release of drive connection during manual control · CPC title

• H02B11/167

  truck type (H02B11/127 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F16H2025/2093

  using conical gears · CPC title

• F16H25/20

  Screw mechanisms (with automatic reversal F16H25/12) · CPC title

• H01H71/0264

  Mountings or coverplates for complete assembled circuit breakers, e.g. snap mounting in panel · CPC title