The origin of the air switch name

Posted by Kuajing Plus on January 28th, 2021

The air switch is among the most typical electrical components that normal users come into contact with.

Why is it called "air"?

Air-insulated (that is, there is a certain air gap) is called "air circuit breaker", typically known as "air switch." Its arc snuffing out medium is air.

The working concept of the breaker is the concept of arc extinguishing. When a breaker opens a circuit, an arc will be created between the moving and fixed contacts at the moment of breaking. Whether the circuit breaker can open the circuit depends upon whether the arc generated in between the contacts when the circuit is opened is snuffed out.

To understand this problem, we must initially understand the relationship between three terms: switch-circuit breaker-air switch (air circuit breaker).

A switch, whatever that can manually break a circuit, can be called a switch. Amongst the switches, the most familiar one is the wall switch utilized to control the lamps.

A circuit breaker is a sort of switch. In the process of opening and closing the circuit, it is simple to ignite-electric spark, the taxonomic name is "arc". The arc will lose the switch contacts in the tiniest and harm people in the worst. Therefore, we need to "extinguish the arc" on the switch.

Air switch-circuit breaker is a kind of switch, so "air switch" is also called "air breaker". There are lots of ways to extinguish the arc of a breaker. One of them is to extend the arc and let the arc cool naturally in the air till it is extinguished. We can look at its arc extinguishing gadget (arc extinguishing cover):

It is this little red part with a row of metal pieces on it. After an arc happens at the switch contacts, it will be attracted to these metal pieces. A brand-new arc can be produced in between every 2 metal sheets, and after that carried out to the following metal sheets-until the arc is pulled to the very same length as the entire arc extinguisher.

As the length increases, the heat dissipation speed boosts. An arc can be understood as a flame. Without adequate heat, it can not continue to exist.

The air switch is the least expensive method to snuff out the arc. But it is not supreme. For example, the voltage of some circuits is reasonably high, and the arc created is big, and the air switch can not be utilized. So in addition to the air switch, there are lots of arc extinguishing approaches. For instance, vacuum arc extinguishing (vacuum switch) allows the contacts to be straight contacted in a vacuum environment. Without air, no arc can be produced at all; for example, an oil immersion switch utilizes cooling oil to cover the arc to accomplish cooling.

The difference between air switch and leakage switch:

The air switch has the exact same qualities as the leak switch: both are switches.

The difference between the air switch and the leak switch: the air switch only journeys when a short-circuit accident or failure happens, while the leak defense switch just trips when the individual gets an electrical shock; The capability of the air switch can be big or little, however, the capacity of the leak security switch is difficult to increase, and typically single-phase is mainly.

The principle of the air switch and the leak switch is different, and the structure is much more varied, and it is absolutely irreplaceable.