Drive device for an electric switching device

Abstract

The invention relates to a drive device for an electrical switching device, in particular for a high-voltage switch, having a housing which can be filled with insulating gas, having an energy storage device which is arranged in the housing and has a spring and a stop against which the spring can be tensioned. According to the invention, an adjustment device which can be actuated from the exterior of the housing is provided, by means of which adjustment device a position of the stop in the housing can be adjusted along an axis.

Claims

1. A drive device for an electrical switching device for a high-voltage switch, having a housing which can be filled with insulating gas and which includes an interior space and an exterior, having an energy storage device which is arranged in the housing and has a spring and a stop against which the spring can be tensioned; characterized in that an adjustment device, which can be actuated from the exterior of the housing is provided, by means of which a position of said stop in said housing can be adjusted along an axis.

2. The drive device according to claim 1, wherein said housing has an opening, and wherein an adjustment element of said adjustment device, which can be coupled to said stop, is movably arranged in said opening, parallel to or along the axis.

3. The drive device according to claim 2, wherein said housing has a guide for the adjustment element adjacent said opening.

4. The drive device according to claim 2, wherein the housing has an internal thread adjacent said opening, and wherein the adjustment element has an external thread cooperating with said internal thread.

5. The drive device according to claim 2, wherein a sealing element is provided which seals an interior space of said housing against said opening, wherein the sealing element is associated with at least one ring seal and at least one lip seal ring.

6. The drive device according to claim 5, wherein said stop is arranged on an end face of said sealing element facing said interior space.

7. The drive device according to claim 5, wherein said sealing element can be coupled to said adjustment element on its end face facing away from the interior space.

8. The drive device according to claim 5, wherein said sealing element is formed integrally with the adjustment element.

9. The drive device according to claim 2, wherein said adjustment element has a driving profile on its side facing away from said interior space of said housing.

10. The drive device according to claim 2, wherein a secondary sealing element is provided which seals said interior space of said housing against said opening independently of said sealing element or independently of a state of said sealing element.

11. The drive device according to claim 2, wherein a securing element is provided, which is configured for locking said adjustment device.

12. The drive device according to claim 1, wherein said housing has a hollow cylindrical portion, and wherein the adjustment device and at least a portion of the spring is arranged in said hollow cylindrical portion.

13. The drive device according to claim 12 wherein a ratio of an outer diameter of said hollow cylindrical portion to an outer diameter of said spring is between about 110 percent and about 200 percent.

14. The drive device according to claim 1, wherein said spring at its end section facing away from said stop is coupled to a first lever arm of a lever rotatably mounted in said housing by means of a spring plate which is arranged rotatably on said lever.

15. The drive device according to claim 14, wherein a second lever arm of said lever is coupled to a drive rod for actuating a switching contact of said switching device.

16. The drive device according to claim 1, wherein said housing contains at least one insulating gas of the following group: sulfur hexafluoride, tetrafluoromethane, carbon dioxide, a gas from the group of fluorinated nitriles, wherein said housing preferably contains a mixture of a fluorinated nitrile with carbon dioxide.

17. A switching system comprising: at least one switching device; at least one drive device for the at least one switching device that has a housing which can be filled with insulating gas and includes an exterior; an energy storage device which is arranged in the housing and has a spring and a stop against which the spring can be tensioned; characterized in that an adjustment device, which can be actuated from the exterior of the housing, is provided, by means of which a position of said stop in the housing can be adjusted along an axis.

Description

(1) In the drawing:

(2) FIG. 1 shows schematically a first embodiment of the drive device according to the invention,

(3) FIG. 2a shows schematically a partial cross-section of a second embodiment of the drive device according to the invention in a first operating state,

(4) FIG. 2b shows schematically a partial cross-section of the second embodiment of the drive device according to the invention in a second operating state,

(5) FIG. 3 shows schematically a three-phase switching system according to an embodiment, and

(6) 4a, 4b show further embodiments.

(7) FIG. 1 shows schematically a first embodiment of the drive device 100 according to the invention. Drive device 100 is provided, for example, for driving a switching contact (not shown) of an electrical switching device 10, in particular for a high-voltage switch or a high-voltage circuit breaker, and in an embodiment, for example, can be arranged in a common housing 102 together with switching device 10. An interior space of housing 102 can be filled with an insulating fluid, in particular insulating gas, for example with SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride) and/or CF4 (tetrafluoromethane) and/or CO2 (carbon dioxide) and/or a gas from the group of fluorinated nitriles or mixtures thereof. A particularly preferred insulating fluid is, for example, a mixture of a fluorinated nitrile, which is marketed under the trade name Novec 4710 by the company 3M, with carbon dioxide. Such a mixture is also referred to as G3 insulating gas.

(8) In a manner known per se, drive device 100 has an energy storage device 12 which stores mechanical energy by means of at least one spring (not shown in FIG. 1) in a tensioned state of the spring.

(9) According to the invention, an adjustment device 114 which can be actuated from the exterior of housing 102 is provided (not shown), by means of which a position of a stop (not shown), against which the spring is tensioned, can be adjusted in the housing along an axis. This allows the level of mechanical energy which can be stored in the spring of the energy storage device 12 and which can be retrieved for switching operations can be simply adjusted from the exterior on drive device 100 without having to open it.

(10) FIG. 2a shows schematically a partial cross-section of a second embodiment 100a of the drive device according to the invention. As already described with reference to FIG. 1, drive device 100a, together with the switching device associated with it, of which only a drive rod 104 is shown in FIG. 2a, can be arranged in common housing 102. The interior space I of housing 102 can be filled with an insulating fluid, in particular with an insulating gas such as, e.g., SF6.

(11) In housing 102, a lever 106 is provided, which is rotatably supported on a first shaft 106a and has two lever arms 106b, 106c. Lever 106 is used to transmit the spring force of spring 108, which is also arranged in housing 102, to drive rod 104 which, for example, affects a switching contact which is not shown of the switching device associated with drive device 100a. For example, spring 108 can be used as a so-called Switch-off spring, whichstarting from a state tensioned against stop 112adrives at least one switching contact of the associated switching device in the sense of a switch-off operation via lever 106 and drive rod 104.

(12) In an embodiment, shaft 106a can also be routed to the exterior (not shown) through a housing wall so that torque can be applied to shaft 106a from the exterior by further drive components, such as, for example, an electromechanical drive or the like, in order to tension spring 108 (again).

(13) In its end section 108a facing lever 106, spring 108 abuts against spring plate 110, as shown in FIG. 2a, which, preferably rotatably, is connected to lever arm 106b on the left in FIG. 2a. As already described, the other end of spring 108 abuts against stop 112a in a tensioned manner, which is part of adjustment device 114 according to the invention.

(14) Adjustment device 114 has a substantially disc-shaped adjustment element 114a, which is movably arranged in an opening 102a of housing 102 along an axis running vertically in FIG. 2a, which in the present case corresponds to the longitudinal axis LA1 of spring 108. Adjustment element 114a has an external thread which cooperates with an internal thread 114b of housing 102 in such a way that adjustment element 114a can be screwed in the housing or unscrewed from the housing by rotation about axis LA1 resulting in the axial mobility indicated by block arrow P1. For this purpose, a driving profile, e.g., a common hexagon socket profile or the like may be provided on an exterior end face, i.e. at the bottom in FIG. 2a, of adjustment element 114a.

(15) Since opening 102a of housing 102 in the present case is arranged in a hollow cylindrical portion 102b of the housing, this portion 102b can advantageously simultaneously at least accommodate and/or guide a part of spring 108 and parts of adjustment device 114.

(16) The adjustment element 114a is preferably coupled with a sealing element 112, wherein an interior end face of sealing element 112 advantageously has or forms stop 112a for spring 108.

(17) The coupling of sealing element 112 with adjustment device 114 results in axial mobility of components 112, 114 and thus also stop 112a, against which spring 108 can be tensioned, so that the spring path of spring 108 and thus also the level of mechanical energy which can be stored in spring 108 by the tensioning of spring 108, can be adjusted in a simple manner by screwing in or unscrewing the adjustment element. As a result, by actuating the adjustment element 114a alone from the exterior, i.e., without opening housing 102, manufacturing-related tolerances and/or age-related or temperature-related changes in the spring constant of spring 108 can be compensated, so that precise maintenance of the required switching times of the switching device driven by drive device 100a is ensured by simple and cost-effective adjustment of the position of stop 112a throughout the life of the device. In particular, gas exchanges of the insulating gas and, in any case, opening/closing of housing 102 can be advantageously avoided.

(18) In the operating state shown in FIG. 2a, a contact surface of stop 112a abuts against spatial coordinate x0 of the coordinate axis x pointing vertically downwards in FIG. 2a. In the operating state shown in FIG. 2b the contact surface of stop 112a abuts against spatial coordinate x1>x0 of the coordinate axis x, which corresponds to a lower energy which can be stored in spring 108.

(19) In a further embodiment, an end face 112b (FIG. 2a) of sealing element 112 facing adjustment element 114a is detachably or non-detachably connected to the opposing surface of adjustment element 114a.

(20) In a further embodiment, the sealing element 112 has at least one circumferential groove, not indicated, in which a ring seal 112c is inserted, which seals the interior space I against the surroundings or opening 102a. Alternatively or in addition, a shell surface of sealing element 112 and the inner surface of the hollow cylindrical housing portion 102b facing the shell surface radially outwardly, can have a high surface quality, in particular low roughness, which can also contribute to the sealing effect. Alternatively or in addition to sealing element 112, in further embodiments, the guide of adjustment element 114 or thread 114b of the adjustment element can be configured to have a sealing effect.

(21) In a further embodiment, it is provided that a ratio of an outer diameter d1 (FIG. 2b) of the hollow cylindrical portion to an outer diameter d2 of spring 108 is between about 110 percent and about 200 percent, in particular between about 110 percent and about 150 percent, resulting in a particularly small building configuration.

(22) FIG. 3 schematically shows a three-phase switching system 200 according to an embodiment. Switching system 200 has a switching device 10a, 10b, 10c for each phase, which, in each case, is associated with a drive device 100a, 100b, 100c according to the invention. The drive devices 100b, 100c are advantageously configured in the same way as drive device 100a described with reference to FIGS. 2a, 2b.

(23) Advantageously, the switching times of all three switching devices 10a, 10b, 10c can be adjusted by the adjustment options for the position of stop 112a (FIG. 2a) provided according to the invention, so that no appreciable differences in the switching times occur between the respective phases.

(24) In a further embodiment (not shown), spring 108 can also be configured as a tension spring and, for example, can also be arranged on second lever arm 106c with its first end 108a with respect to drive rod 104 (FIG. 2a). In this case, the second spring end can be attached to an adjustment element or a corresponding adjustment device configured for connection to the tension spring. Thus, in this embodiment, the first lever arm 106b can be omitted and a part of housing 102 which is comparable to portion 102b, e.g., in FIG. 2a below the mounting point of drive rod 104, can be arranged on lever arm 106c. In this case, the pulling force obtainable by the spring would be equally simply adjustable from the exterior by means of the adjustment device as the pretension at exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 2a, 2b.

(25) FIG. 4a shows schematically an aspect of a further embodiment 100b of the drive device according to the invention. For the sake of clarity, only the part of housing 102 is depicted which accommodates adjustment device 114. In addition to adjustment device 114 and (primary) sealing element 112, see also FIG. 2a, a secondary sealing element 1120 is provided in drive device 100b according to FIG. 4a, which seals the interior space I of housing 102 against opening 102a (FIG. 2a), in particular independently of the primary sealing element 112 and/or independently of any state of primary sealing element 112. In the present case, secondary sealing element 1120 is provided with an external thread which cooperates with the internal thread 114b of portion 102b, so that the secondary sealing element 1120 can be screwed into or out of housing 102. The secondary sealing element 1120 in this case has, in its lower area in FIG. 4a, a flange-like widening which carries a second seal ring 1122, which, upon screwing the secondary sealing element 1120 into the housing 102 is pressed against housing 102 and thus contributes to the sealing of interior space I. This results in an in-series connection of the two sealing elements 112, 1120 between interior space I and the surroundings. Overall, the secondary sealing element 1120 has, for example, a substantially T-shaped cross-section.

(26) In a further embodiment, the secondary sealing element 1120 can also have a stuffing box.

(27) In a further embodiment, housing portion 102b can also have, for example, a flange (not shown) in its lower area in FIG. 4a, on which a sealing ring comparable to component 1122 is arranged. In this case, the secondary sealing element can be formed, for example, by a substantially disc-shaped body which can be attached to the flange (in particular can be screwed on or clamped) and in this way is held sealingly against seal ring 1122 relative to housing 102.

(28) FIG. 4b schematically shows an aspect of a further embodiment 100c of drive device according to the invention. Again, for the sake of clarity, only the part of housing 102 is depicted, which accommodates adjustment device 114. Here a securing element 116 is provided, which is configured for locking adjustment device 114, whereby undesirable adjustment of adjustment device 114 is avoided, as may occur, for example, by vibrations and/or temperature changes. In the present case, securing element 116 is configured as a counter screw with an outer thread (not shown) matching the inner thread 114b and can be screwed tight by screwing it into the housing portion 102b against adjustment device 114 for locking adjustment device 114. FIG. 4b shows a state in which the counter screw 116 does not already have contact with adjustment element 114a.