An improved circuit breaker includes an arc extinction system having one or more insulators that generates a desirable gas in the presence of an arc. The exemplary circuit breaker includes gas-generating insulators disposed at three sides of a stationary contact and an arc chute at a fourth side of the stationary contact. The gas promotes the desirable extinction of the arc in a number of exemplary fashions. The presence of the gas on three sides of the stationary contact can resist movement of the arc toward the gas, thereby substantially limiting movement of the arc in a direction other than toward the arc chute. The gas can remove heat from the arc, thereby promoting deionizating of the plasma by forming neutral molecular species at a lower temperature state. The presence of the gas can reduce the concentration of ions and electrons within the interior of the circuit breaker and can increase the pressure within the circuit breaker, and these also facilitate extinction of the arc.
Circuit breakers are generally well known and are used in numerous applications. Circuit breakers can be used to interrupt a circuit under certain predetermined circumstances, and can be used for other purpose.
Depending upon the magnitude of current, an electrical arc can have a temperature in the range of about 3000°K. to 30,000°K., with the relatively highest temperature of the arc being at approximately its center. Such electrical arcs have a tendency to vaporize material within the interior of the circuit breaker. Certain vaporized materials can generate airborne ions that help to form a high temperature plasma that undesirably can encourage the continued existence of an electrical arc. It thus would be desirable to provide an improved circuit breaker that has an improved ability to extinguish an electrical arc.
