What is a Circuit breaker?

A circuit breaker (CB) is an automatically operated electric switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by an overload or short circuit.

Unlike fuses, which must be replaced when they open, a circuit breaker can be reset once the overcurrent condition has been corrected. Pushing the handle to the “OFF” position then back to the “ON” position restores the circuit. If a circuit reopens upon reset to the “ON” position, the circuit should be checked by a qualified electrician.

Contact breakers vary in size, from small devices that protect someone and household appliances to large switchgear designed to protect high voltage circuits that transmit to the entire city.

Operation of Circuit breaker:

All circuit breakers have a common feature in their operations, although details vary substantially depending on the class of stress, rating and type of circuit breaker.

circuit breaker

The circuit breaker must detect an error condition. In low-voltage contact breakers, it is usually done in a tripping lever. A high-voltage circuit breaker has separated the device to feel an overcurrent or other error.

An error is detected, the contact in the contact breaker must be open to interrupt the circuit. Mechanical energy stored in the tripping lever is used to separate contacts, although some of the energy required may be obtained from the fault flow itself. When one current is interrupted, a circular arc is fixed.

This circular arc chamber must be inserted, cooled and extinguished in a controlled manner, such that the gap between contacts can hold the voltage in the circuit again. Finally, once the error condition is clean, the contact must be reclosed to rebuild energy (energy) to the interrupting circuit.

Types of circuit breakers:

Air Circuit Breakers:

Built between the connections of air that collide in the air atmosphere. Often used in low voltage systems with normal 3000 currents.

In heavy industries that have large electric motors with frequent starting, air CB can replace oil damage and oil contamination. CB air can be used more widely with electric stoves

Oil circuit breaker:

Oil here provides the right container to stop sparks. In oil damage, sparks can be called automatic blackouts. Oil circuit breakers are classified into 2 types, namely large oil and minimum oil. This classification is based on sparks and the ability to stop different types.

Air-Blast Circuit Breakers:

The principle of extinguishing sparks in a CB-Air Blast is to put direct pressure directly on the air that is longitudinal or perpendicular to the spark. Fresh and dry air will quickly occupy the hot gas which is ionized in the sparks zone and the duration of the spark will increase steadily.

Vacuum Circuit Breaker:

The vacuum chamber circuit breaker (VCB) has a pressure of 10-4 Pa, acts as a strong dielectric and has high insulation ability for other media, including compressed gas and oil. In vacuum breakers, a contact is only 1 cm apart. Because it is very tight, it takes a little power to close and open the circuit for other types of breakers.

Solid-State Circuit Breaker:

This type of circuit breaker uses solid materials such as thyristors, triacs or transistor power. This circuit cannot weaken the electromechanical device. Solid breakers can clean errors with only 1.5 cycles. If the breaker is closed, an error will occur in the circuit, it will still damage the wrong curren with only 1.5 cycles