Patent ID: 9136077
Filing Date: 2015-09-15
Classification: H01H

Abstract:
1. A 3-phase multiway vacuum interrupter switch assembly comprising: (a) a housing having a plurality of windows; and (b) a plurality of building block assemblies within said housing, each building block assembly comprising three disconnect switch assemblies, three vacuum bottle switch assemblies and three ground switch assemblies, each disconnect switch assembly of each block assembly including (1) a power connector extending through the housing, (2) first and second electrical contacts spatially separated from each other, one of said contacts being electrically connected to the power connector, at least a portion of the region between the contacts being viewable through a respective window, (3) a contact rod movable between the first and second contacts to selectively electrically couple and decouple the first and second contacts, at least a portion of the contact rod extending between the first and second contacts being sufficiently viewable through a window to visually signify whether the contact rod is electrically coupling or not electrically coupling the first and second contacts, the control rods of each of said disconnect switch assemblies being connected so that the plurality of disconnect switch control rods move in unison, each of the vacuum interrupter bottle switch assemblies including (1) a substantially stationary electrical contact and (2) a movable electrical contact movable between the first and second positions to selectively electrically couple to and electrically decouple from the substantially stationary electrical contact to thereby respectively close and open-circuit the vacuum interrupter bottle switch assembly, the movable electrical contacts of each vacuum interrupter bottle switch assembly in the block assembly being mechanically linked so that said plurality of movable electrical contacts move in unison, each of said vacuum interrupter bottle switch assemblies being connected in electrical series with a respective one of the internal disconnect switch assemblies, the plurality of vacuum interrupter bottle switch assemblies being functionally coupled to the plurality of internal disconnect switch assemblies so that electrically coupled disconnect switch contacts cannot become electrically decoupled or electrically coupled unless the bottle switch contacts are electrically decoupled, each of said ground switch assemblies having a first electrical contact and a second electrical contact selectively electrically coupled to and electrically decoupled from each other, one of said contacts being electrically coupled to a ground connector extending from the housing for connection to an electrical ground point external to the housing, the other contact being electrically coupled to a respective one of the disconnect switch assemblies in such a way as to couple residual electrical current within the building block to the ground connector when the ground switch assembly contacts are electrically coupled and the contacts of the disconnect switch assembly to which it is electrically coupled are electrically decoupled, the plurality of ground switch assemblies in the block being functionally coupled to the plurality of internal disconnect switch assemblies in the block in such a way that that the contacts of the ground switch assemblies cannot be electrically coupled unless the contacts of the disconnect switch contacts to which they are electrically coupled have been electrically decoupled, and the contacts of the disconnect switches in the block cannot be electrically coupled unless the contacts of the come electrically decoupled or electrically coupled unless the bottle switch contacts are electrically decoupled.