Development of a circuit breaker system using a linear motor with opposite magnetic poles

The high-thrust linear motor with a lightweight and high-strength mover was developed for operating circuit breakers. The linear motor is composed of a lightweight mover that has permanent magnets sandwiched between magnetic poles and an armature with a three-dimensional magnetic circuit. The specifications and performance of the linear motor were determined to cut off current soundly. Then, a prototype of a fully electrically operated breaker using linear motor was investigated. The linear-motor-based operating mechanism designed for the circuit breaker reached the open-pole position in 13.2 ms from the start of movement. However, the time from opening to 0.5 cycle was 9.0 ms. In addition, the variation in breaking operation time was within 1 ms, which was expected that stable controlled operation.