Monitored adaptable emergency off-switch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10366845-B2
Application number	US-201715455164-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2017
Priority date	Sep 11, 2014
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

An emergency off-switch for triggering an emergency switch-off function has an actuator and two electrical contact points that can be disconnected from one another by the actuator. The emergency off-switch has an active operating state in which the emergency switch-off function can be triggered by moving the actuator, and a passive operating state in which the emergency off-switch is functionless. The emergency off-switch further has a visualization unit having at least a first and a second display state. The emergency off-switch is visually highlighted in the first display state, and the emergency off-switch is neutrally represented in the second display state. The visualization unit adopts the first display state in the active operating state and adopts the second display state in the passive operating state. The emergency off-switch also has a monitoring unit which monitors whether the visualization unit is in the first or in the second display state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An emergency off-switch for triggering an emergency switch-off function for safety-related shutdown of an electrical device, comprising:
an actuator and at least two electrical contact points which can be connected to one another via a contact bridge, wherein a position of the contact bridge is influenced by the actuator such that the electrical contact points can selectively be opened or closed,
an active operating state, in which the emergency switch-off function can be triggered by moving the contact bridge, and a passive operating state, in which the emergency off-switch is non-functional,
a visualization unit having at least a first and a second display state, wherein the emergency off-switch is visually highlighted in the first display state, and the emergency off-switch is neutrally displayed in the second display state, the visualization unit being designed to adopt the first display state in the active operating state and to adopt the second display state in the passive operating state, and
a monitoring unit which monitors whether the visualization unit is in the first or in the second display state,
wherein, in the first display state, the visualization unit has a defined nominal current and the monitoring unit triggers the emergency switch-off function, when an actual current into the visualization unit is less than the defined nominal current.

2. The emergency off-switch of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring unit is designed as a quiescent current relay having a defined quiescent current and having a working contact, and the monitoring unit triggers the action via the working contact.

3. The emergency off-switch of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring unit has a normally open contact, and the first and second electrical contact points form a normally closed contact, with the normally closed contact and the normally open contact being connected in series.

4. The emergency off-switch of claim 1 , further comprising a first and a second current path, wherein the action causes a disconnection of both the first and the second current path.

5. The emergency off-switch of claim 4 , wherein the monitoring unit comprises a first normally open contact in the first current path and a second normally open contact in the second current path, and further comprises normally closed contacts that are mechanically coupled to the first and second normally open contacts, wherein the first and the second current path can be electrically connected via the normally closed contacts.

6. The emergency off-switch of claim 1 , wherein the visualization unit adopts a third display state when the monitoring unit is non-functional.

7. The emergency off-switch of claim 1 , further comprising a connection terminal for receiving a signal from a connected safety switching device, said signal supplying power to the visualization unit.

Assignees

• Pilz Gmbh & Co Kg

Inventors

• Bellingkrodt Martin
• Zinser Christoph
• Weishaar Christoph
• Peters Helge

Classifications

• H01H9/161

  comprising light emitting elements · CPC title

• H01H3/022 Primary

  Emergency operating parts, e.g. for stop-switch in dangerous conditions · CPC title

• G05B19/02

  electric · CPC title

• G05B23/0291

  Switching into safety or degraded mode, e.g. protection and supervision after failure · CPC title

• H01H47/002

  Monitoring or fail-safe circuits · CPC title