Circuit Breaker Arc Chute

The main contacts are usually made of copper and carry the current in the closed position of the circuit breaker.

Circuit breaker arc chute.

An arc chute arc extinguisher contains cools stretches and deionizes and extinguishes the arcs between contacts. The basic characteristics for air magnetic circuit breakers are maximum rationalization and constructional simplicity. How do arc chutes extinguish an arc. Construction of an air circuit breaker arc chute type used for low and medium voltage is shown in the figure.

The arc chutes for molded case circuit breakers and old power breakers look simple enough but they actually are a complex design and perform extremely important functions. Heat loss from an arc in circuit breaker is takes place through conduction convection as well as radiation. The poles the arc chutes the base frame the operating mechanism. Insulated fin arc chutes use non conductive plates that are used to stretch the path the arc takes to make it longer and therefore making cooling and dissipation of the arc.

For excitement read the patent application for an old circuit breaker arc chute if you can stay awake. In circuit breaker with plain break arc in oil arc in chutes or narrow slots nearly all the heat loss due to conduction. We always go for the short version. There are two basic types of arc chutes insulated fin and metal fin.

Hvdc circuit breakers and hvdc gis at kema labs tests successfully. This occurs within 1 10 of a second six cycles or less and is critical to the safe operation of the. Circuit breakers use arc chutes to deionize the air and interrupt the flow of short circuit current. The major components of such breakers are.

Midwest sometimes is asked to explain what an arc chute does. The arc chutes with metal plates provide segmentation of the arc in a number of shorter arcs that burn between a set of parallel plates metal plates are generally made of steel because of its ferromagnetic property that helps to attract the arc and keep it inside the stack. The electric arc is formed between the contacts of a circuit breaker when it interrupts the current flow to load during normal operation. In air blast circuit breaker or in breaker where a gas flow is present between the electrical contacts the heat loss of arc plasma occurs due to convection process.

There are two sets of contacts in such breakers named as main contacts and arcing contacts. The air helps quench the arc by pushing it up into the arc chute. Arc chutes can be found inside circuit breakers contactors isolators and other high current interruption devices.