Nylon circuit breaker housings lower costs
A
DuPont (UK) product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Feb 13, 2007
Square D Company is achieving benefits of easier field installation and lower manufacturing costs with the adoption of DuPont Zytel nylon as housings for high-performance circuit breakers.
Square D Company is achieving easier field installation and lower manufacturing costs with the adoption of DuPont Zytel nylon as housings for high-performance circuit breakers.
The housings provide rugged protection for certain high-interruption-rated models of Square D's PowerPact1 line of circuit breakers, namely H and J-frame products for 70 to 250A applications.
"Zytel nylon allowed us to develop a housing design with integrally moulded features allowing snap-in installation of terminals and accessories", said Bill Stewart, Product Manager - Power Protection at Schneider Electric, the parent company of Square D.
"The snap-in design saves time and money during in-the-field configuration of circuit breakers for different applications", he added.
Such features are difficult or impossible to create with thermoset designs owing to their greater stiffness and wall thickness.
The use of Zytel also provides savings in manufacturing costs, according to Stewart.
Additional integrally moulded features reduce total part count and simplify assembly.
Faster cycling and recycling of sprues and runners during moulding also save costs compared with thermoset parts.
The housings mark a major advance for thermoplastics in applications requiring high short circuit ratings.
The circuit breakers on which they are used pass stringent electrical testing to comply with requirements of the 2005 National Electrical Code, including a 100kA short-circuit rating at 480V ac per UL489.
Housing parts made of most flame-retardant thermoplastic resins fail this demanding test.
DuPont developed a special nylon resin, Zytel FR82G33V1, to meet these stringent test requirements while also delivering excellent mechanical strength, toughness and processing productivity.
Based on a PA66/PA6 copolymer with 33% glass-fibre reinforcement, the resin delivers a combination of other desirable properties including a V-1 UL94 flame classification and excellent tracking resistance, toughness, strength, and moulding productivity.
Square D benefited from solid technical support from DuPont in developing the housings.
DuPont specialists provided crucial support by developing a material to meet application needs, by working closely with Underwriters Laboratories on testing and approval, and by supporting Square D's moulder during process start-up and optimisation.
Not what you're looking for? Search the site.
Google Ads
Contact DuPont (UK)
Related Stories
- Talisman chooses Aptiv film for CMOS / CCD mask
- F1 car features parts produced using Objet printer
- Resin is tough enough for ice hockey stick
- Conductive compounds reduce static noise
- Faun specifies Camlock hinges for Trackway range
Browse by category
-
Capital Equipment (3,532)
- Capital Equipment (1)
- Compressors and Air Treatment (545)
- Electrical hardware (131)
- Electronics Manufacturing, Tools, Instruments (192)
- Machinery and Production Equipment (1,133)
- Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment (478)
- Production line blowers and fans (74)
- Robotics, Handling and Storage (978)
- Consultancy and Services (927)
-
Control and Instrumentation (5,141)
- Cabling, Conduit, Signal Conditioning (818)
- CNC and Motion Controllers (190)
- Control and Instrumentation (3)
- HMIs/Operator Interfaces (297)
- Logic Controllers, Timers and Relays (96)
- Mid-range and Large PLCs (204)
- Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications (1,209)
- Plantwide control (1,354)
- Power Supplies, Uninterruptible Power (577)
- Smaller-Sized PLCs (393)
-
Drives, Motors and Controls (3,449)
- Drives, Motors and Controls (2)
- Industrial Drives/Controls (1,292)
- Industrial Motors (502)
- Linear Drives and Motors (121)
- Precision Motors and Gears (434)
- Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls (1,096)
-
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4,324)
- Batteries, chargers and circuit protection (587)
- Connectors, Terminals, Busbars, Slip Rings (723)
- Electrical and Electronic Components (652)
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4)
- Electrical and Electronic Subassemblies (377)
- Enclosures and Equipment Cooling Fans (722)
- Knobs, Handles and Enclosure Hardware (430)
- PCs and Embedded Systems (829)
-
Engineering Design Software (6,385)
- 2D CAD software (203)
- 3D CAD software (1,199)
- CAM, CNC, production management software (583)
- Data, document management software (324)
- Electrical design software (167)
- Engineering Design Software (17)
- FEA and structural analysis software (377)
- File conversion software, data capture (358)
- Fluid, thermal, noise, vibration software (339)
- Materials design and moulding design software (153)
- Maths, charting, statistics, QA software (325)
- PLM and collaboration software (665)
- Process, instrumentation, automation software (269)
- Publishing and documentation software (234)
- Rendering, visualisation, styling software (208)
- Simulation, modelling, validation software (964)
-
Engineering Industry News, Resources (6,199)
- Electronic Resources for Engineers (273)
- Engineering Business News, Views (388)
- Engineering Conferences (438)
- Engineering Education, Resources, Standards (851)
- Engineering Exhibitions, Events (578)
- Engineering Guides, Newsletters (354)
- Engineering Industry Developments, Awards (635)
- Engineering Industry News, Resources (4)
- Engineering Industry Reports, Surveys (597)
- Engineering Recruitment, Employment (219)
- Engineering Seminars (421)
- Engineering Training Courses (458)
- Health and Safety Consultancy, Software (180)
- Health and Safety Events, Training, News (285)
- Health and Safety Legislation (403)
- Health and Safety Strategy, Risk Assessment (115)
- Machine Building (4,630)
-
Materials and Processing (3,040)
- Materials and components (2,271)
- Materials and Processing (5)
- Materials processing and testing (292)
- Rapid Prototyping (472)
-
Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (5,680)
- Data Acquisition Hardware and PC I/O Boards (491)
- Data acquisition Software and Communications (505)
- Data loggers (428)
- Electrical and Electronic Testing, PAT Equipment (645)
- Form/co-ordinate, optical, vision instruments (765)
- Gauges, Indicators and Instruments (449)
- Materials testing equipment (439)
- Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (1)
- Telecomms/network test equipment, software etc (159)
- Testing and Calibration Services and Information (522)
- Testing, analysing and monitoring equipment (1,276)
-
Powertrain Design (3,723)
- Bearings (986)
- Chains and belts (334)
- Gears, brakes, couplings and engines (1,482)
- Hydraulic Components (475)
- Lubricants (441)
- Powertrain Design (4)
-
Sensors (7,313)
- Accelerometers and Vibration Sensors (450)
- Barcode Sensors (103)
- Flowmeters and Flow Sensors (649)
- Gas, Chemical, Radiation, Magnetic Sensors (293)
- Humidity and Environmental Sensors (158)
- Level Sensors and Leak Detectors (539)
- Linear Position Sensors (417)
- Loadcells, Force Sensors, Torque Sensors (732)
- Pressure sensors (642)
- Proximity Sensors (715)
- Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors (564)
- Sensors (12)
- Temperature sensors (623)
- Vision and Colour Sensors (1,416)
- Small Mechanical Components, Joining, Tools (2,057)
- Valves, Pumps, Process Hardware (3,730)
