Operating mechanism for autorecloser with series disconnector

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to control of power in overhead line electrical distribution systems and in particular to an operating mechanism for mechanically interlocking the circuit-breaker element of an autorecloser with an associated disconnector to prevent on-load operation of the disconnector.

Autoreclosers of the type referred to in this specification are intended to be mounted on electricity distribution poles and pylons in overhead line electrical distribution systems. Pole mounted Autoreclosers are in effect, pole mounted circuit breakers connected to control the power flowing in overhead lines. Systems of this type are prone to electrical faults of a transient nature, due to wind blown foliage, birds and lightning strikes Therefore Autoreclosers, as their name suggests, are arranged to open and clear fault current when it reaches a predetermined level, and then reclose after a pre-deteried time interval. In cases where the electrical fault, which causes the autorecloser to open, self-clears during the cessation of current, safe power supply is re-established when the unit recloses. However. Autoreclosers are designed to remain in the open position, preventing further electrical current flow, when they have experienced the passage of a pre-determined number of electrical fault currents in a pre-determined sequence of operations. These sequences are usually a selection of instantaneous and fault current dependent time opening operations. When an autorecloser has exhausted its pre-set sequence the fault is deemed to be permanent and it is said to have ‘locked-out’ in the OPEN position. The system then requires manual intervention to carry out repairs at the site of the fault.

When repairs are to be carried out to the overhead line, operator safety dictates that the line be isolated from the system by the use of a disconnector and i live-line working is not to be employed, the faulted section is earthed. These disconnectors are off-load switching devices They provide an isolating gap between their contacts capable of withstanding a much higher impulse voltage level than the impulse voltage which the overhead line itself can withstand, and so provide protection from electrical flashover of one side of the overhead line system to the other. As these are off-load switching devices they have to be interlocked with the circuit-breaker element of the autorecloser to prevent on-load operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an improved form of mechanical interlock between the circuit breaker element of an autorecloser and a disconnector.

According to the present invention, an operating mechanism for an autorecloser, in which a circuit breaker is in electrical series with a disconnector, comprises shaft means for transmitting motion between first and second ends thereof, the first end being connected to the circuit breaker for moving a moveable contact of the circuit breaker between CLOSED and OPEN positions, the second end being, adapted to engage a profile of a rotary crank means, the rotary crank means being attached to means for rotating it the rotary crank means being further attached to an insulating linkage for moving a moveable contact of the disconnector between CLOSED and OPEN positions, the arrangement being such that when the rotary crank means is rotated in a predetermined direction through a first predetermined angle from a starting position in which the moveable contacts of the circuit breaker and the disconnector are both in the CLOSED position, the moveable contact of the circuit breaker is moved to an OPEN position while the moveable contact of the disconnector is maintained in the CLOSED position and during further rotation of the rotary crank means in the first direction through a second predetermined angle. the moveable contact of the disconnector is moved to an OPEN position while the moveable contact of the circuit breaker is maintained in the OPEN position and further that when the rotary crank means is rotated back to its starting position. the moveable contact of the disconnector is moved back to its CLOSED position before the moveable contact of the circuit breaker is moved back to its CLOSED position.

In order to move the moveable contact of the circuit breaker from the CLOSED to the OPEN position, the profile of the rotary crank means may include a first portion adapted to exert a lever action on the second end of the shaft means during rotation of the rotary crank means through the first predetermined angle.

The profile of the rotary crank means advantageously further includes a second portion adjacent the first portion the second portion comprising a sector having a constant radius over an angle at least substantially equal to the second predetermined angle, whereby the moveable contact of the circuit breaker is maintained in the OPEN position during the further rotation of the rotary crank means through the second predetermined angle.

Conveniently, the means for rotating the rotary crank means comprises a link attached to the rotary crank means at a fixed radial distance from the center of rotation of the rotary crank means.

The moveable contact of the disconnector may comprise a contactor link hinged at one end thereof to fixed contact means so that an opposing free end of the contactor link can be moved into and out of engagement with further fixed contact means thereby respectively to CLOSE and OPEN the disconnector. This may be achieved by pivotally connecting the contactor link at a location between its hinged end and its tree end to an end of the insulating linkage which at an opposed end thereof is pivotally connected to the rotary crank means at a location thereon which is a fixed radial distance from the center of rotation of the rotary crank means and a fixed angular distance from the first portion of the profile of the rotary crank means.

The shaft means is conveniently also part of an actuator element of the autorecloser for automatically driving the moveable contact of the circuit breaker into its OPEN and CLOSED states.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1

is a single line electrical diagram of the connections for an autorecloser comprising a circuit breaker and a disconnector in series;

FIGS. 2

,

3

A and

4

show three different positions of an operating linkage in accordance with the present inventions for use in association with the autorecloser of

FIG. 1 and

;

FIG. 3B

is an enlargement of part of

FIG. 3A

illustrating the motions of the mechanism during the transition between the positions of FIGS.

2

and

3

A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In

FIG. 1

, an autorecloser

1

comprises a disconnector

2

in series with a circuit breaker element

3

The circuit breaker

3

and the disconnector

2

are integrated with each other in that they are provided with mechanical and electrical interlocks to prevent on-load operation of the series disconnector

2

, because as explained above, it is an off-load switching device. The present invention as described below in relation to

FIGS. 2

to

4

provides the required mechanical interlock system.

The interlock system must meet some important criteria, as follows;

(1) A local manual opening operation should automatically fully open the autorecloser circuit breaker contacts, with the disconnector contacts held in full electrical contact, before moving the disconnector to the OPEN position.

(2) With the autorecloser circuit breaker contacts CLOSED, it must not be possible to move the disconnector contacts from a position where they have fill electrical contact without first opening the circuit breaker.

(3) The disconnector should be free to be opened when the autorecloser circuit breaker contacts are OPEN.

(4) The autorecloser circuit breaker contacts will only be free to close when the disconnector is closed and its contacts have full electrical contact.

(5) When the disconnector is being operated toward the CLOSED and OPEN positions. and when in the OPEN position it must not be possible to close the autorecloser circuit breaker contacts.

Referring now to FIG.

1

and

FIG. 2

, there is shown an operating mechanism according to the invention. In the mechanism, a series disconnector

2

has fixed contacts

10

,

30

and a moving contact

20

which is hinged to the fixed contact

30

by a hinge pin

32

. Fixed contact

10

is connected to the electrical power circuit via bushings, not shown, and fixed contact

30

is rigidly connected to a fixed contact of the circuit breaker, not shown, via electrical bushings, also not shown. The power electrical path through the unit is therefore through external electrical bushings, the disconnector fixed contact

10

, the disconnector moving contact

20

, the disconnector fixed contact

30

, the circuit breaker fixed contact

34

, the circuit breaker movable contact

36

, and a final set of external bushings, not shown.

The autorecloser circuit breaker

3

. see

FIG. 1

, is mechanically linked to the drive element

80

. Drive element

80

may be of the magnetic actuator type In the embodiment shown in

FIG. 2

, drive element

80

is directly connected through drive shaft

82

at its right hand side to the autorecloser circuit breaker, thereby to OPEN and CLOSE the circuit breaker contacts by a linear backwards and forwards motion between two fixed positions, as indicated by a double-headed arrow. Drive shaft

2

also extends through the center of the drive element

80

to emerge at its left hand side. Drive shaft

82

has a flanged end

40

at its left hand extremity, the back face of which is intended to engage with a bell crank

50

. This bell crank is arranged to rotate on a fixed axis pin

52

and is connected through radially outer pivot point

54

to a drive link

60

manufactured from insulating material. The remote end of drive link

60

is connected to the disconnector moving contact

20

through pivot

22

about a third of the way along the length of contact

20

from fixed hinge pin

32

. The arrangement is such that rotation of the bell crank

50

will cause the disconnector contact

20

to move towards the OPEN or CLOSED position depending upon the direction of rotation of bell crank

50

.

Also connected to bell crank

50

at a radially outer pivot point

56

is a link

70

. which is arranged to move up and down in a vertical direction as shown by the double-headed arrow Link

70

is the means by which manual operation of the disconnector

2

is carried out. Upward movement of link

70

causes the bell crank

50

to move in an anti-clockwise direction. while downward movement causes clockwise bell crank movement.

As seen in

FIGS. 2

to

4

, the bell crank

50

is provided with a special two-part cam profile for engagement with the flange

40

of shaft

82

. A first part

57

of the cam profile is straight, ending at a corner

58

. A second part

59

extends from comer

58

as a curve of constant radius centered on the axis of the fixed pivot

52

.

The mechanism in

FIG. 2

is shown in the position which it adopts when both the series disconnector

2

and the autorecloser circuit breaker

3

are in the CLOSED position, the disconnector moving contact

20

being in fill electrical contact with fixed contact

10

. Starting from this position, with the straight part

57

of the cam profile lying parallel to the rear face of flange

40

, downward movement of the link

70

rotates the bell crank

50

clockwise causing its bottom left corner

58

to engage the rear face of flange

50

at the left end of drive shaft

82

. As the rotation of bell crank

50

continues, the corner

58

of the cam profile exerts a lever action on flange

40

so that it is pushed to the position shown in dotted outline, this being the position it assumes when the autorecloser circuit breaker is in the OPEN position.

FIG.

3

. illustrates the configuration of the entire mechanism when the circuit breaker is in the OPEN position, the starting position of flange

40

in

FIG. 2

being shown in dashed lines. It will be noticed that even though the bell crank

50

has been angularly rotated through about 30 degrees, the movable contact

20

is still in substantially the same position it was in

FIG. 2

i.e. the disconnector

2

is still in the CLOSED condition.

FIG. 3B

illustrates the reason for this more clearly.

It will be seen from

FIG. 3B

that as link

70

is pulled down, the center of pivot pin

56

on radius R

1

moves from position A to position B, through an angle of X degrees Angle X was designated as about 30 degrees in the preceding paragraph, though this angle and other dimensional characteristics of the mechanism can of course be varied to suit any particular design requirements. Similarly, point

58

on radius R

2

moves through angle X from position C to position D, pushing flange

40

to the left and the center of pivot pin

54

on radius R

3

moves through angle X from point E to point F. At the same time it can be seen that the line R

4

extending between the centers of pivot pins

72

and

54

has moved through an angle Y. If a circle G centered on the center of fixed pivot pin

52

is drawn through points E and F and a circle H centerd on the center of pin

22

on moveable contact

20

is also drawn through points E and F, it will be noted that there is only a very small overlap of the circles indicating that there is little movement of the pivot

22

relative to the fixed pin

52

. Hence, moveable contact

20

does not move out of engagement with fixed contact

10

as the circuit breaker moves from the CLOSED position in

FIG. 2

to the OPEN position in

FIG. 3A

, fulfilling the above criteria (1) and (2).

At the point shown in

FIGS. 3A and 3B

, further downward movement of the link

70

will bring the rear face of flange

40

into contact with the second part

59

of the cam profile on bell crank

50

as it rotates further clockwise. This cam face

59

is of constant radius, thereby maintaining the drive shaft

82

in the same position so that the circuit breaker cannot CLOSE. At the same time, as pivot pin

54

moves clockwise around circle G. link

60

pulls moveable contact

20

down and away from fixed contact

10

. so moving it to the OPEN position as shown in FIG.

4

. This fulfils criterion (3), above.

It will now be seen from

FIG. 4

that further downward pulling of link

70

, if allowed. could only rotate the bell crank

50

further clockwise by a limited amount, at most until pivot pin

56

is directly underneath flxed pivot

52

. At this point, cam face

59

would still be in contact with flange

40

, again ensuring that flange

40

is prevented from moving towards the CLOSED position. However, it is in fact arranged that after flange

40

has begun to engage cam face

59

, the bell crank

50

can only be rotated through a further angle Z to a predetermined limit of movement, so that after movement through angle Z has been achieved, further clockwise rotation of the bell crank

50

from the position shown in

FIG. 4

is prevented. Hence, criterion (5) above is filled because the disconnector contact

20

is mechanically tree to be driven back co the CLOSED position by upward movement of drive link

70

, causing the bell-crank

50

to rotate anti-clockwise and thus drive the insulating link

60

upwards.

Prevention of further rotary movement of bell crank

50

after it has turned through the angle X÷Z can readily be achieved by means of a suitable stop in the mechanism; for instance, an abutment may be arranged between a lug (not shown) on the bell crank

50

and a further lug (not shown) on a stationary support structure.

Clearly, there is nothing in this invention which prevents the additional use of electrical interlocks and/or auxiliary switches to help in meeting the operational requirements listed, and it would be prudent to have such devices. However, this invention will ensure the requirements are always met, even in the event of loss of electrical power to the operating mechanism.

Although link

70

has been described as the means by which manual operation of the disconnector

2

is carried out, the invention is not restricted to such manual operation. Clearly, it is at the option of the designer also to connect the link

70

to a linear magnetic actuator or a motorised rack-and-pinion mechanism, for example, in order to provide for remote or automatic operation of the disconnector in addition to provision of manual operation as a last resort.