Different Industrial Circuit Breaker Types

There are several different industrial circuit breaker types that can be used in both commercial application and by the average homeowner. The different types of devices are each designed to be used in different applications depending on the voltage requirements you have and how you need the breaker to function. Some are made to handle the currents of low voltage systems and some are designed to handle the currents of high voltage systems.

Industrial circuit breaker Types

There are low voltage versions of the industrial circuit breaker, and there are magnetic breakers that make use of an electromagnetic pulling force supplied by a solenoid to increase the current. In these devices the contacts are held closed by a latch until such time as the current increases greater than the rating of the breaker and then the pull from the solenoid will release the latch and allow the contacts to separate. Some of these items will have a hydraulic time delay built in that makes use of viscous fluid that allows the core to be held back until such time as the current exceeds the rating on the installed breaker. When this occurs, the speed of the solenoid will be maintained by the fluid because the fluid will act as a restrictor to the solenoid.

Thermal Magnetic Industrial Circuit Breaker

There are also industrial circuit breakers that are thermal magnetic circuit breakers. These types of breakers are mostly installed in distribution boards that power large corporations or cities and towns. They are not seen in simple home installations or in the average small business, but may be found in hospitals and large plants.

Common trip breakers are used to ensure that the live conductors that are protected by a breaker pole are protected when any of the conductors are interrupted. They usually contain two or three tripping mechanisms and they make certain that all of the conductors are interrupted whenever any one of them has a fault. These are most commonly seen in homes when you are looking at the devices used to protect the circuits of major appliances that feed off of electricity.

There are devices designed for medium voltage and ones that are designed for the extremely high voltages that can be found at electrical power transmission stations. These devices are much more complicated than the small versions we see in our homes and offices. They are responsible for handling the amount of current it takes to run entire city blocks and sometimes areas even larger than that.

All of these devices need to be installed by a professional electrician. If you have trouble with an item of this nature you need to contact an electrician to trouble shoot and advise you as to what is causing the problem and the safest way to remedy the situation. The average homeowner does not know enough about all of the components that make these devices up to attempt to repair one of them. It is much safer for everyone if you replace a breaker you believe to be bad rather than attempt to repair one of them. The cost will be much less in the long run.