Patent ID: 7154718

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, and a neutral load terminal; at least one set of receptacle contacts disposed in the housing assembly and in communication with the at least one receptacle, the at least one set of receptacle contacts including a hot user-accessible load contact and a neutral user accessible load 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; a four-pole interrupting contact assembly coupled to the fault detection circuit and including, at least one solenoid coupled to the fault detection circuit, an armature coupled to the at least one solenoid, the armature being configured to move in only a first direction in response to any force generated by the at least one solenoid, and a set of four-pole interrupting contacts having a first pair of hot contacts coupling the hot line terminal and the hot load terminal, a second pair of hot contacts coupling the hot line terminal to the hot user-accessible load contact, a first pair of neutral contacts coupling the neutral line terminal and the neutral load terminal, and a second pair of neutral contacts coupling the neutral line terminal to the neutral user-accessible load contact, the set of four-pole interrupting contacts being configured to provide electrical continuity between the first pair of hot contacts, the second pair of hot contacts, the first pair of neutral contacts, and the second pair of neutral contacts in a coupled state, the set of four-pole interrupting contacts being driven by the armature movement in the first direction to thereby interrupt electrical continuity between the first pair of hot contacts, the second pair of hot contacts, the first pair of neutral contacts, and the second pair of neutral contacts in a tripped state; and a reset mechanism coupled to the four-pole interrupting contact assembly, the reset mechanism including a reset button and a reset actuator that selectively provides a reset stimulus in response to an actuation of the reset button, the first pair of hot contacts, the second pair of hot contacts, the first pair of neutral contacts, and the second pair of neutral contacts being necessarily driven into the coupled state by the reset stimulus.