Circuit breaker enhancements promote safety, protect equipment

Eaton Corporation expanded circuit breaker capabilities to offer enhanced ground fault protection and non-fused current limiting breaker modules for the Series G circuit breakers.

December 29, 2010

Eaton Corporation expanded its circuit breaker capabilities to offer enhanced ground fault protection and non-fused current limiting breaker modules for the Eaton Series G circuit breakers. Equipped with a built-in sensor and ground fault relay, Eaton’s Earth Leakage Modules are designed to protect against equipment damage and increase personnel safety by limiting current. Additionally, the current limiting breaker modules are designed to meet the increasing capacity of electrical source, which provides increased fault currents. They provide advanced system protection during overloads and both low and high-level short circuits.

“Eaton continues to develop industry-leading products and services designed to improve safety and equipment reliability,” said Chad Murff, product manager, Eaton. “Fundamentally, the expanded circuit breaker capabilities are designed to increase personnel safety and protect equipment against damage by limiting electrical currents.”

Eaton’s current limiter module provides automatic reset after interruption, unlike fused current limiters with a one-time use. The molded case circuit breaker can be reset to restore power to the system, without having to find replacement fuses. Eaton manufactures non-fused current limiting modules in combination with Series G E-Frame breakers with interrupting capacities up to 150 kiloamperes (kA) at 480 Volts alternating current (V ac).

The Series G current limiter module uses the stationary and moving contact arm design, creating a second set of contacts to assist during high fault interruption. During interruption, the second contacts open at the same time the main breaker contacts open, and the breaker trips to clear the fault. The current limiter module automatically resets after interruption.

Eaton’s Earth Leakage Module is designed to limit the current returning along an unintended path toward the source. The unintended current path can cause damage to sensitive machine control or risk personnel injury, if the current exceeds 30 milliamperes (mA). Offering superior Class 1 ground fault protection and improved ground fault coordination capabilities, Eaton’s Earth Leakage modules allow for protection sensitivities down to the 30 mA level and can be field installed.

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Eaton Corporation