Title of Invention

AN ELECTRICAL APPARATUS SUCH AS A MODULAR CIRCUIT BREAKER OR SWITCH

Abstract This apparatus is housed in a case B comprising a rear face (4) for fixing to a rail (1), a front face (5), two main faces (2) via which said case B can be adjoined to the cases of other apparatuses of the same type, the set of apparatuses being fitted in aligned manner on the rail, and at least one connection face (6, 7) comprising at least one input terminal (30) and at least one output terminal (31), the or each input terminal (30) being situated in at least one first plane P1 perpendicular to the connection face (6) and parallel to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses on the rail. The output terminal(s) (31) is(are) situated in at least one second plane P2 appreciably parallel to the first plane P1 but offset with respect to the latter in the depthwise direction of the case of the apparatus, the input terminal(s) (30) being situated respectively facing the corresponding output terminal(s), parallel to the connection face and perpendicularly to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses.
Full Text The invention relates to an electrical apparatus such as a circuit breaker designed to be fixed on a support such as a rail and housed in a case of appreciably parailelepipedic shape, said case comprising a rear face for fixing to the support and a front face, said faces being appreciably parallel to one another, two main faces appreciably parallel to one another and perpendicular to the front and rear faces, via which said case can be adjoined to the cases of other apparatuses of the same type, all of the apparatuses being mounted in aligned manner on the support, and at least one connection face, said connection face comprising at least one input terminal and at least one output terminal, the at least one input terminal being situated in a plane, called the first plane, perpendicular to the connection face and parallel to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses.
An apparatus of the kind mentioned above is described in the document XS" If 2479 filed by the applicant. This document describes a differential switch mounted on a rail and designed to supply other electrical protection apparatuses such as fuse cut-outs or circuit breakers also mounted on the rail. This differential switch presents on its connection face two input terminals and two output terminals, these terminals all being appreciably aligned in the same plane parallel to the fixing plane and perpendicular to the connection face. This arrangement, when the connection face is directed towards the top of the apparatuses, enables both power supply of the switch and connection of the apparatuses located load-side from said apparatus, via the top of the apparatuses. However, due to the alignment of the terminals in the same plane, the width of the

apparatus in the plane parallel to the rail is increased, advantageously being 36 mm. This arrangement results in the rating of the apparatuses being limited to 40A, as increasing the rating would involve increasing the width of the apparatus. This limiting of the rating of the apparatus represents a drawback.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention solves this problem and proposes an electrical apparatus such as a modular switch or circuit breaker, for which power supply and load-side connection of the apparatuses can be performed via the top, and which can receive higher ratings without its dimensions on the rail being increased.
For this purpose, the object of the invention is to achieve an apparatus of the previously mentioned kind, this apparatus being characterized in that the or each output terminal is situated in a plane, called the second plane, appreciably parallel to the first plane but offset with respect to the latter in the depthwise direction of the case of the apparatus, the input terminals being situated respectively facing the corresponding output terminals parallel to the plane of the connection face and perpendicularly to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, at least one of the input terminals or output terminals comprises a draw-in tulip finger contact. Advantageously, all the terminals are equipped with a draw-in tulip finger contact, the input terminals operating in conjunction with a connector designed to receive a cable whereas the output terminals are designed to receive teeth of a connection comb.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an electrical apparatus such as a circuit breaker designed to be fixed on a support such as a rail and housed in a case of appreciably parallelepipedic shape, said case comprising a rear face for fixing to the support and a front face, appreciably parallel to one another, two main faces appreciably parallel to one another and perpendicular to the front and rear faces, through which said case can be adjoined to the cases of other apparatuses of the same type, all of the apparatuses being mounted in aligned manner on the support, and at least one connection face, said connection face comprising at least one input terminal and at least one output terminal, the or each input terminal being situated in a plane, called the first plane, perpendicular to the connection face and parallel to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses, characterized in that the or each output terminal is situated in a plane P2. called the second plane, appreciably parallel to the first plane PI but offset with respect to the latter in the depthwise direction of the case of the apparatus, the input terminal(s) being situated respectively facing the corresponding output terminal (s) parallel to the plane of the connection face and perpendicularly to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses.

other advantages and features will become more clearly apparent from the following description of particular embodiments, given as non-restrictive examples only and represented in the accompanying drawings in which:
- Figure 1 is a front view schematically illustrating an electrical protection apparatus such as a differential switch, of the single-pole and neutral type, according to the invention,
- Figure 1a is a schematic top view of said apparatus,
- Figure 2 is a similar view to figure 1, but illustrating an electrical protection apparatus of the three-pole and neutral type according to the invention,
- Figure 3 is a similar view to the previous one, illustrating another embodiment of a three-pole and neutral apparatus according to the invention,
- Figure 3a is a top view of the previous figure, and
- Figures 4 and 5 are respectively two cross-sectional views of an apparatus according to the invention, according to a plane perpendicular to the direction of the rail, and respectively illustrating two different embodiments of the apparatus and of its input and output terminals.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In the figures, a differential switch I can be seen of the kind generally used to perform protection of one or more electrical circuits against earth fault currents. This switch I is designed to be mounted on a support, in this instance a fitting rail 1, and to be electrically connected in series to one or more electrical protection elements (not represented) also mounted on the rail 1, such as fuse cut-outs or circuit breakers.

This differential switch I and the other apparatuses are of the modular type, each module (a,b,c,d) housing a breaking unit of a phase or of the neutral and housing an input terminal and an output terminal. These apparatuses are each housed in a case B of appreciably parallelepipedic shape, said case B comprising two main parallel faces 2, 3 via which the cases B of two apparatuses can be adjoined, a rear face 4 for fixing to the mounting rail 1, a front face 5, said front face 5 and rear face 4 being perpendicular to the main faces 2, 3, and two connection faces 6, 7 parallel to one another and perpendicular to the main faces 2, 3 and to the above-mentioned front face 5 and rear face 4.
In figure 1, the apparatus is of the single-pole and neutral type and is formed by two modules a, b respectively housing a neutral breaking unit and a phase breaking unit. Only one 6 of the connection faces 6, 7 of this apparatus comprises connection terminals 8 to 11. According to the invention, and as can be particularly seen in figure 1 a, this connection face 6 comprises two input terminals 8, 9 respectively neutral and phase, situated in a first plane PI perpendicular to the connection face 6 and parallel to the rail 1 and two output terminals 10, 11 respectively neutral and phase and situated in a second plane P2 parallel to the first plane PI, but offset with respect to this first plane P1 in the depthwise direction of the case B. This depth is defined perpendicularly to the fixing plane P3 of the apparatus on the rail 1 (or plane of the support 1) and parallel to the connection face 6. The above-mentioned first plane PI is situated between the support 1 and the above-mentioned second plane P2. The two input terminals 8, 9 are designed to receive respectively two power supply cables 12, 13 whereas the two output terminals 10, 11 are designed to receive two consecutive teeth 14, 15 of a conventional connection comb P of the single-pole and neutral type. The rating of this apparatus is 63A.

In figure 2, the apparatus is of the three-pole and neutral type and comprises in the same way as for the apparatus of the previous figure, on its connection face 6, a set of four input terminals (not represented) aligned in a first plane perpendicular to the connection face and parallel to the direction D of alignment of the apparatuses, i.e. to the rail. And it also comprises a set of four output terminals 14, 17 aligned in a second plane (not represented) parallel to the first plane PI, said second plane being offset with respect to the first PI in the depthwise direction of the case.
In figures 3 and 3a, the apparatus is also of the three-pole and neutral type and comprises four modules a,b,c,d with a width of 18 mm. On its connection face 6 there are placed in a first plane P1 four input temiinals 18 to 21 each designed to receive a power supply cable and in a second plane P2, offset depthwise with respect to the first P1, for each module, a terminal 22 to 25 and a recess 26 to 29, said recess being designed to receive an unused tooth of a connection comb Q whose pitch is 9 mm, said comb Q successively distributing the different phases with a neutral tooth n interposed between two successive phase teeth.
In figure 4, an apparatus of the same type as that described in the previous figures can be seen. According to this embodiment, the connection face 6 of the apparatus 1 is formed by two surface portions 6a, 6b staggered in the heightwise direction of the apparatus. This height is defined parallel to the fixing plane P3 and to the front face 5 and rear face 4, and perpendicularly to the connection faces 6, 7. The connection surface portion 6a situated at the upper level houses the input terminals 30 of the apparatus, whereas the surface portion 6b situated at the lower level houses the output terminals 31 designed to operate in conjunction with a comb P. It can be noted that in this embodiment, the terminals are of the screw tunnel type. One of the advantages of this embodiment lies in the fact that offset of the two surface portions 6a, 6b gives rise

to the presence of a portion of wall 6c forming a shield between the input terminals 30 and the output terminals 31 and designed to prevent the operator from making the mistake of connecting an input terminal 30 and an output terminal 31 by means of said comb P.
According to the embodiment illustrated in figure 5, the input terminals 30 and output terminals 31 are situated on the same horizontal plane P4, i.e. parallel to the connection face 6. Between the two sets of terminals 30, 31, a separating wall 32 has therefore been provided extending parallel to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses, i.e. parallel to the direction of the rail and to the front face 5 and rear face 4 and whose height is such that said wall dissuades the operator from electrically connecting an input terminal 30 to an output terminal 31 by means of a connection comb or similar. According to this embodiment, the output terminals 31 and input terminals 30 each house a draw-in tulip finger contact 33. The draw-in tulip finger contacts 33 of the output terminals 31 are designed to receive respectively the teeth d of a comb P, whereas the tulip finger contacts 33 housed in the input terminals 30 are designed to each receive a contact strip 34 belonging to a power supply connector 35, said connector 35 itself being designed to receive a power supply cable 36.
An electrical apparatus has thus been achieved by means of the invention for which power supply and connection to the apparatuses situated load-side are performed on the same side and therefore advantageously via the top of the apparatuses, said apparatus being able to withstand high ratings in a space on the rail having a dimension (36 mm) corresponding to that of apparatuses of the prior art.
The invention is naturally not limited to the embodiments described and illustrated which have been given for example purposes only.

Thus, in the described embodiments, all the input terminals are aligned in the same plane, as are all the output terminals. However the invention also applies to the case where the phase input terminals are aligned in one plane and the neutral input terminals are aligned in another plane parallel to the first one. This is also valid for the output terminals.
Likewise for example, the support can be formed by another thing than a rail, i.e. any support plane on which the apparatuses can be fixed individually. In general manner, the invention applies to any electrical apparatus presenting input terminals and output terminals on one and the same face, and designed to supply other apparatuses with which it is aligned on one and the same support.
On the contrary, the invention encompasses all the technical equivalents of the described means as well as combinations thereof if the latter are performed according to the spirit of the invention.



WE CLAIM
1. An electrical apparatus such as a circuit breaker designed to be lilted on a
support such as a rail and housed in a ease of appreciably parallelepipedic shape, said
case comprising a rear lace for llxing to the support and a front face, appreciably
parallel to one another, two main faces appreciably parallel to one another and
perpendicular to the front and rear faces, through which said case can be adjoined to
the cases of other apparatuses of the same type, all of the apparatuses being mounted
in aligned manner on the support, and at least one connection face, said connection
face comprising at least one input terminal and at least one output terminal, the or
each input terminal being situated in a plane, called the first plane, perpendicular to
the connection face and parallel to the direction of alignment of the apparatuses,
characterized in that the or each output terminal (10. 11 and 22 to 25) is situated in a
plane P2. called the second plane, appreciably parallel to the first plane PI but offset
with respect to the latter in the depthwise direction of the case of the apparatus, the
input terminal(s) (8. 9 and 18 to 21) being situated respectively facing the
corresponding output terminal(s) (10. 11 and 22 to 25) parallel to the plane of the
connection face (6) and perpendicularly to the direction D of alignment of the
apparatuses.
2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1. wherein the apparatus is of the modular
type, each module (a. b, c. d) comprising a breaking unit of a phase or of the neutral
and housing an input terminal (8. 9. 18 to 21) and an output terminal (10. 11. 22 to
25).
3. The apparatus as claimed in claim I or 2. wherein the width of a module (a. b. c, d) is 18 mm.
4. The apparatus as claimed in any one ol~ the claims I to 3. wherein the above mentioned first plane PI is situated between the plane P3 of the support 1 and the above mentioned second plane P2.

5. The apparatus as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 4, wherein the above mentioned connection face (6) comprises a separate wall (32) interposed between the set of input terminals (8. 9. 18 to 21) and the set of output terminals (10. 11. 22 to 25) and designed to dissuade the operator from connecting an input terminal with an output terminal.
6. The apparatus as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 5. wherein the connection face (6) comprises two surface portions (6a. 6b) offset in the heightwise direction of the apparatus and respectively housing the input terminal(s) (8, 9. 18 to 21) and the output terminal(s) (10. 11 22 to 25).
7. The apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of the terminals comprises a draw-in tulip finger contact (33).
8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7. wherein said tulip finger contact (33) is designed to operate in conjunction with the contact strip (34) ol" a connector (35) designed to receive a cable (36).
9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7 or 8. wherein all the terminals (30. 31) are equipped with a draw-in tulip finger contact (33). the input terminals (30) are operating in conjunction with a connector (35) whereas the output terminals (31) are designed to receive the teeth d of a connection comb P.
10. The apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the apparatus is of the single-pole and neutral type, comprises two modules, and comprises on its connection face (6) two input terminals (8, 9) and two output terminals (10. 11).
11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 10. wherein the rating of the apparatus is 63A.

12. The apparatus as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 9. wherein the
apparatus is of the three-pole and neutral type and comprises four modules (a. b, c. d)
each housing, on the connection face (6) of the apparatus, an input terminal (18 to 21)
and an output terminal (22 to 25).
13. The apparatus as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 9. wherein the apparatus
is of the three-pole and neutral type and comprises on its connection face (6), for each
module (a, b, c, d), a phase or neutral input terminal and an output terminal (22 to 25)
and a housing (26 to 29) designed to receive an unused tooth d of a connection comb
P.
14. Ihe apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the
apparatus is a differential switch 1.
15. An electrical apparatus, substantially as herein described with reference to the
accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1200-mas-1999 abstract-duplicate.pdf

1200-mas-1999 abstract.pdf

1200-mas-1999 claims-duplicate.pdf

1200-mas-1999 claims.pdf

1200-mas-1999 correspondence-others.pdf

1200-mas-1999 correspondence-po.pdf

1200-mas-1999 description(complete)-duplicate.pdf

1200-mas-1999 description(complete).pdf

1200-mas-1999 drawings.pdf

1200-mas-1999 drwaings-duplicate.pdf

1200-mas-1999 form-1.pdf

1200-mas-1999 form-19.pdf

1200-mas-1999 form-26.pdf

1200-mas-1999 form-3.pdf

1200-mas-1999 form-5.pdf

1200-mas-1999 petition.pdf


Patent Number 210171
Indian Patent Application Number 1200/MAS/1999
PG Journal Number 50/2007
Publication Date 14-Dec-2007
Grant Date 21-Sep-2007
Date of Filing 17-Dec-1999
Name of Patentee M/S. SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES SA
Applicant Address AVENUE ANDRE MORIZET-F 92100 BOULOGNE BILLANCOURT,FRANCE
Inventors:
# Inventor's Name Inventor's Address
1 JEAN CAIRE 6 ALLEE DU PRE BLANC - F 38240 MEYLAN, FRANCE
2 ROBERT CHEVALEYRE 9, IMPASSE SAINT-ANGE-F38180, EYBENS, FRANCE
PCT International Classification Number H02B01/26
PCT International Application Number N/A
PCT International Filing date
PCT Conventions:
# PCT Application Number Date of Convention Priority Country
1 9816579 1998-12-23 France