Technical Report No.1278

No. 1278

Technical trend of vacuum circuit breaker and vacuum switchgear

Investigating R&D Committee on Technical trend of vacuum circuit breaker and vacuum switchgear

Keyword :

Vacuum Circuit Breaker, Vacuum Switchgear, Technical trend

Vacuum circuit breakers and vacuum switchgears are environmentally-friendly equipments that use vacuum as interruption and insulation media. They have been mainly used for voltage range below 36kV for long time. Recently, application for over 72kV has been increasing by improvement of VCBs such as new contact materials.
And also, from the view point of ecology, requirement for environment impact reduction has increased.
Investigating R&D Committee on "Technical trend of vacuum circuit breaker and vacuum switchgear" was constituted in 2009 against the back ground that there is no general review for development of VCBs in these ten years.
This report contains technical trends of vacuum circuit breaker and vacuum switchgear as bellow.
Ch.2 presents review of technical transition such as breaking capability, contact material and electrode geometry. Related standards are also referred. Ch.3 presents technical trend of dielectric strength of vacuum gap, insulator in vacuum and outside of vacuum bulb. Ch.4 presents methods for increasing the breaking current and arc phenomena.Ch.5 presents technical trend of operation mechanism especially which adopted the combination of permanent-magnet and electromagnet.Ch.6 presents computer aided engineering on this field. Ch.7 presents from the view point of environmental resistance and maintainability.