Patent ID: 9406451
Filing Date: 2016-08-02
CPC Classification: H01H

Claim Text:
1. A method for determining the wear on a contact element of an electrical switch, the method comprising: recording electrical values (I(t), U(t)) which represent an electrical variable, which is relevant to an arc occurring at the switch during a switching operation, as a function of time; and calculating a wear value (d), which represents the wear on the contact element, from a plurality of wear contribution values, wherein the wear contribution values are calculated from a plurality of subsets (I(t wherein at least two of the wear contribution calculation rules (f wherein the method comprises: calculating, based on the calculated wear value, a percentage wear of the contact element of the electrical switch, as a proportion of a maximum wear value that the calculated wear value constitutes; determining whether the calculated percentage wear is greater than a predefined warning threshold value; and outputting a command to block operation of the electrical switch when the calculated percentage wear is determined to be greater than the predefined warning threshold value.