Patent ID: 6958895

Claim:
An electrical wiring protection device comprising: a housing assembly including at least one receptacle, the at least one receptacle being configured to receive plug contact blades inserted therein, the housing assembly including a hot line terminal, a neutral line terminal, a hot load terminal, a neutral load terminal, a hot user-accessible receptacle contact, and a neutral user accessible receptacle contact; a fault detection circuit coupled to the hot line terminal and the neutral line terminal, the fault detection circuit being configured to detect at least one fault condition and provide a fault detect signal in response thereto; an interrupting contact assembly coupled to the fault detection circuit, the interrupting contact assembly including at least one set of two-pole interrupting contacts having a first pair of contacts coupling one of the line terminals to a corresponding load terminal and a second pair of contacts coupling the one line terminal to a corresponding user-accessible load terminal, the at least one set of two-pole interrupting contacts being configured to provide electrical continuity between the first pair of contacts and the second pair of contacts in a coupled state, the interrupting contact assembly generating a tripping stimulus to separate the first pair of contacts and second pair of contacts in response to the fault detect signal, the first pair of contacts and the second pair of contacts being separated in a tripped state; and a weld breaker mechanism coupled to the interrupting contact assembly, the weld breaker mechanism being configured to strike the first pair of contacts and/or the second pair of contacts in response to the tripping stimulus.