Patent ID: 7123461

Claim:
A method for determining contact wear in an electrical switchgear of an electric switchgear assembly, wherein a contact current (I f ) flowing through the switchgear during a switching action is recorded using a current transformer and is evaluated with regard to contact wear, wherein a) in order to determine a status variable characterizing the contact wear (Cwsum), a current measuring signal (I mess ) of the current transformer is first measured as a function of the time, b) in the event of deviations between the predicted contact current (I f ) and the current measuring signal (I mess ), a saturation of the current measuring signal (I mess ) as a measurement error (Δ) is detected, c) in the event of detection of the measurement error (Δ) at least one characteristic current value (I char ) is determined from the current measuring signal (I mess ) and is used to determine the status variable (Cwsum), and d) the at least one characteristic current value (I char ) is a maximum current measuring signal (I max ).