Bucket assemblies for motor control centers (MCC) with disconnect assemblies and related MCC cabinets and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9859068-B2
Application number	US-201414501969-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2014
Priority date	Oct 14, 2013
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

Circuit breakers with a rotary handle attached to an inwardly oriented shaft that connects to a gear assembly that translates rotational input to linear input also include a trip assist spring in communication with the rack gear so that, in operation, the trip assist spring applies a force to the operator slider and forces the handle to a consistent trip position.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A bucket assembly, comprising:
an external rotary handle having a defined ON position and OFF position associated with conduction and non-conduction;
a shaft attached to the rotary handle and extending into the bucket assembly;
an operator mechanism cooperably engaging the shaft, the operator mechanism comprising a gear assembly with a rack gear that linearly moves an operator slider;
a circuit breaker in the bucket assembly having a lever in communication with the operator slider; and
a trip assist spring that is held on a rod that is parallel to the rack gear, wherein the trip assist spring cooperates with the rack gear to move the external rotary handle to a defined consistent orientation when the circuit breaker trips, and wherein the trip assist spring and rod are parallel to a side of a primary body of the rack gear comprising gear teeth.

2. The bucket assembly of claim 1 , wherein the trip assist spring and rod are both held in a fixed lateral orientation over their respective lengths, wherein the fixed lateral orientation is parallel to a long side of the side of the primary body as the side of the primary body comprising gear teeth, and wherein the rod extends through the trip assist spring and has a length that is greater than the trip assist spring, wherein the rotary handle ON and OFF positions are about 90 degrees apart, and wherein the trip assist spring is in a compressed state when the lever is in the ON and OFF positions to be able to bias the operator slider to a center of its travel path.

3. The bucket assembly of claim 1 , wherein the trip assist spring is held above the rack gear in a fixed horizontal orientation on the rod, wherein the rod has a length that is greater than the trip assist spring, and wherein the trip assist spring and extends over a sub-length of the rod in a compressed configuration and applies a force to bias the operator slider to reside at a location that is at a medial position of its sliding travel path.

4. A bucket assembly, comprising:
an external rotary handle having a defined ON position and OFF position associated with conduction and non-conduction;
a shaft attached to the rotary handle and extending into the bucket assembly;
an operator mechanism cooperably engaging the shaft, the operator mechanism comprising a gear assembly with a rack gear that linearly moves an operator slider;
a circuit breaker in the bucket assembly having a lever in communication with the operator slider; and
a trip assist spring that cooperates with the rack gear to move the external rotary handle to a defined consistent orientation when the circuit breaker trips, wherein the trip assist spring is parallel to the rack gear,
wherein the rotary handle has an externally visible protruding shaped feature or member, wherein the rotary handle comprises an escutcheon that interacts with an upwardly extending arm with a horizontally oriented slot that slidably engages a stationary shaft as a safety lock for the door.

5. A bucket assembly, comprising:
a rotary handle attached to an inwardly oriented shaft;
a drive gear in communication with the shaft so that rotation of the rotary handle rotates the drive gear;
a pinion gear in communication with the drive gear;
a rack gear in communication with the pinion gear;
an operator slider in communication with the rack gear;
a stationary operator base in communication with the operator slider and attached to a circuit breaker;
a breaker lever in communication with the operator slider; and
a trip assist spring in communication with the rack gear and slider,
wherein the trip assist spring applies a force to bias the operator slider to reside at a location that is at a medial position of its sliding travel path to thereby provide a trip assist force to move the rotating handle to a consistent OFF position when the circuit breaker trips.

6. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the circuit breaker comprises a housing with a door, the rotary handle residing outside the door, and wherein the door comprises an automated electronically operated internal interlock assembly inside the operator mechanism envelope that comprises a laterally extending spring residing over a door interlock bolt, wherein the bolt slidably extends to lock a door bracket.

7. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the rack gear comprises rack gear teeth, and wherein the trip assist spring is held over an outer surface of a guide rod held above the rack gear teeth.

8. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the rack gear comprises horizontally oriented rack gear teeth, and wherein the rack gear comprises an upper segment that resides a distance above the rack gear teeth, and wherein the trip assist spring is held in a horizontal orientation over a guide rod held by the upper segment of the rack gear.

9. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the trip assist spring has an uncompressed length that is between about 50-100% of a length of the slider's sliding travel path.

10. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the trip assist spring has continuously compressed configurations when in operative position.

11. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the trip assist spring has a length that is 30-80% less than a length of a guide rod extending therethrough.

12. The assembly of claim 5 , and wherein the trip assist spring is held by an outwardly extending arm of the rack gear in a horizontal orientation over a guide rod above rack gear teeth of the rack gear, and wherein at least one end portion of the guide rod is held in a fixed position.

13. The assembly of claim 5 , further comprising:
a stationary mounting member that has a primary planar surface and an end portion that extends inwardly therefrom, residing in front of the operator base, closer to the rotary handle than the operator base; and
a guide rod holding the trip assist spring, the guide rod having an end portion attached to the end portion of the mounting member.

14. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the rotary handle is positioned on a centerline of the circuit breaker, substantially in-line with a corresponding center pole, to allow a load side of the breaker to reside facing an outer side wall of the housing.

15. The assembly of claim 5 in combination with a plurality of bucket assemblies held in a Motor Control Center cabinet, wherein the rotary handles of different bucket assemblies are vertically aligned irrespective of a size of a frame of the circuit breaker and have a substantially common ON/OFF position of the rotary handle.

16. The assembly of claim 15 , further comprising a handle having an inwardly extending plunger rotably residing in a base having a detent to assist in positioning the rotary handle to a defined OFF position in a tripped configuration.

17. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the door interlock assembly resides within about 0.5 inches to about 1 inch envelope between a door under a front cover of and the operator base in a depth direction along with the drive gear, pinion gear, rack gear, and trip assist spring therebetween.

18. The assembly of claim 5 , wherein the operator base has a horizontally extending slot, and wherein the operator slider has a rectangular slot that is smaller than the base operator slot, and wherein the breaker lever extends through both the operator slider and operator base slots, wherein the rack gear is attached to an upper portion of the operator slider, and wherein the trip assist spring is in communication with an upper portion of the rack gear.

19. A bucket assembly, comprising:
a

Assignees

• Eaton Corp

Inventors

• Oneufer Stephen W
• Morris Robert A
• Kroushl Daniel B

Classifications

• H02B1/00

  Frameworks, boards, panels, desks, casings; Details of substations or switching arrangements · CPC title

• H01H2235/01

  Spiral spring · CPC title

• H02B1/46

  Boxes; Parts thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• H01H3/38

  using spring or other flexible shaft coupling · CPC title

• H01H9/22

  for interlocking between casing, cover, or protective shutter and mechanism for operating contacts {(explosion-proof cases H01H9/045; built-in fuses and interlocking mechanisms H01H9/104; by automatic release of circuit breakers H01H71/126)} · CPC title