Band provides a circuit breaker solution
An
Icore International product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Feb 23, 2004
Sprung contact band from Icore International is playing a major role in the development of a new range of heavy-duty vacuum circuit breakers destined for demanding energy supply applications.
Sprung contact band from Icore International is playing a major role in the development of a new range of heavy-duty vacuum circuit breakers destined for demanding applications in the energy supply industry.
The breaker manufacturer faced the challenge of providing a dependable low-resistance electrical connection, capable of carrying currents up to 2500A, between a plated copper cylinder and a contact cone which moves up and down by several millimetres at a linear speed of 2m/s when the circuit breaker operates.
A maintenance-free service life of at least 30,000 operating cycles was essential.
The current design, based on the use of multiple garter springs took up too much space, and had an undesirably high contact resistance, which resulted in excessive heating.
At Hanover Fair, the design team became aware of Icore's contact band products, which comprise strips of sprung contact elements, with a well-defined electrical performance, that can be inserted between mating components where reliable transfer of high currents is needed.
Because the contact band effectively provides multiple points of contact, all of which are connected in parallel, it produces electrical connections of very low resistance.
This allowed the circuit breaker designers to develop a more compact product, while virtually eliminating the risk of excessive heat generation.
The low sliding force offered by the contact band assembly was an additional benefit, as it helped to reduce the amount of energy needed to open and close the breaker.
After careful consideration, the designers selected Band 8 contact band as being an excellent match for their requirements.
In this product, the current transfer elements are separate from the sprung supporting tape, making it particularly suitable for applications such as this one.
With design evaluation now at an advanced stage, Icore International's contact band is proving to fully address the needs of the circuit breaker designers, allowing them to develop smaller products, without compromising reliability or performance.
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