An arc detection assembly is provided and includes a first conductor comprising a first terminal end, a second conductor comprising a second terminal end, an enclosure to partially enclose a space in which the first and second terminal ends are engageable to form an electrical connection and an optical detection system. The optical detection system includes an optical element within the enclosure with a line-of-sight to an engagement of the first and second terminal ends and a sensor. The sensor is displaced from the enclosure and coupled to the optical element. The sensor is configured to determine when the optical element senses an arcing condition between the first and second terminal ends.

A connector for electric vehicle supply equipment includes: a housing that includes one or more electrical coupling members that are connectable between the electric vehicle supply equipment and a mating inlet of an electric vehicle to supply electric power to the vehicle. The housing includes a sensor for detecting light within the housing and outputting a signal in response to a detection of light within the housing to interrupt or disable the supply of electric power to the vehicle through the connector.

A coil actuator for a low and medium voltage switching apparatus comprising a coil electromagnet (2), a power and control unit (3), which comprises a power circuit (31) operatively connected to said coil electromagnet (2) and a processing unit (32) operatively connected to said power circuit and controlling the trip of said coil electromagnet (2) through said power circuit (31). The power and control unit (3) comprises an optical port (30), which is suitable to be operatively connected to an optical fiber cable (112), and a first detection unit (33), which is operatively connected to said optical port and to said processing unit. The first detection unit (33) is suitable to receive a light signal (L) from said optical port and to output a first detection signal (D.sub.1) indicative of the presence of an arc fault, depending on said light signal. The processing unit (32) is suitable to receive said first detection signal (D.sub.1) from said first detection unit and to control the trip of said coil electromagnet (2), depending on said first detection signal. In a further aspect, the invention relates to an arc fault coil suppression device including said coil actuator.

Disclosed is a device for recognizing an arcing fault in incident light, comprising a sensor for detecting absorption lines of the incident light, and an evaluation unit which generates an evaluation signal then characteristic absorption lines are detected.

An arc detection assembly is provided and includes first and second conductors including first and second terminal ends, respectively, which are engageable to form an electrical connection and an arc detection system. The arc detection system includes a fusible link disposed proximate to one of the first and second terminal ends and configured to break in response to an arcing condition between the first and second terminal ends and a monitoring circuit coupled to the fusible link and configured to determine when breakage of the fusible link occurs and to thereby determine that the arcing condition has occurred.

A plug-in discharge detection unit includes two plugs of a cathode and an anode configured to allow insertion into respective two plug insertion holes of a plug socket. A discharge detection section configured to allow detection of a noise of discharge superimposed on a voltage or current, and an arithmetic section configured to allow determination of whether discharge has occurred based on the noise. The detection unit further includes a ground terminal electrically connected to a ground; at least one first switch electrically connected to a secondary side of the respective plug; and a current limiting resistor electrically connected to a secondary side of the first switch. The current limiting resistor has a secondary side electrically connected to the ground terminal, and the arithmetic section changes, if determining that discharge has occurred, the first switch from an open state to a closed state to pass an artificial leakage current with a current value in accordance with a resistance value of the current limiting resistor through the ground terminal.

Method for detecting an electric arc in a photovoltaic installation, which includes measurement (E6) of voltage values at at least one site of the electrical circuit of the photovoltaic installation; digitization (E8) of the measured voltage values so as to form voltage data; formation (E11) of a window of n recent digitized voltage data; computation (E12) of a test value associated with the said window of the n voltage data; analysis (E13) of a test vector comprising m test values associated with m recent windows generating a quantity arising from this analysis representative of a risk of electric arc; comparison (E15) of this quantity arising with at least one threshold so as to deduce therefrom the presence or otherwise of an electric arc within the photovoltaic installation.

A computerized monitoring system and method for detecting electrical equipment failure. The system includes a sensor that detects a sound level representative of ultrasonic emissions radiating from electrical equipment to be monitored. A computer system in communication with the sensor is programmed to determine whether the electrical equipment is experiencing one or more of arcing, tracking, or corona based on the sound level detected by the sensor. In some embodiments, the computer system continuously monitors for these conditions based on the sound level detected by the sensor.

A printing apparatus that has a plurality of functions including a printing function and is capable of executing printing with resolution of 300 dpi or more includes a plurality of operating units including a printing unit and a power supply unit. The power supply unit includes a substrate, an input terminal that receives an alternating voltage, a smoothing capacitor that smooths the alternating voltage, a thermistor that detects a temperature, and a comparator that compares a signal output from the thermistor with a standard signal and outputs a notification signal. The input terminal, the smoothing capacitor, the thermistor, and the comparator are mounted on the substrate. The supply of power from the power supply unit is stopped based on the state of the notification signal. A gap between the input terminal and the thermistor is longer than a gap between the input terminal and the smoothing capacitor.

An arc flash validation system that detects incident energy produced by an arc flash is disclosed. The arc flash validation system comprises one or more power transformers (PT) and current transformers (CT). The voltage and current outputs from the PT and CT may indicate the incident energy of an arc flash. The PT and CT outputs may be stored in system memory. The arc flash validation system may analyze the stored data and compare the stored data to a predicted hazard level to generate a relay-event report.