A circuit breaker is an electrical switch that can be operated automatically and is designed to defend an electrical circuit from the harm that can result from a short circuit or by excess current from an overload. Its main function is to interrupt the flow of current whenever a fault is recognized. In contrast with a fuse that needs to be replaced after its first use, a circuit breaker can be made to reset to get back into its normal operation.

Circuit breakers are available in different sizes, from large switchgear made to defend high voltage circuits supplying an entire city to small gadgets that defends against individual household appliances or low current circuits. One of the general function of a circuit breaker to remove power automatically from a flawed framework is frequently curtailed as Over Current Protection Device (OCPD).

Types of Circuit Breakers

Circuit breakers can be classified into several features, like, construction type, voltage class, structural features and interrupting type.

• Low Voltage – Low voltage circuit breakers ( < 1,000 V) are popular in commercial, industrial and domestic applications. They include:

1. MCB or Miniature Circuit Breaker – It has a rated current up to 125 A. The trip characteristics are generally not adjusted.
2. MCCB or Molded Case Circuit Breaker - It has a rated current up to 1600 A.

• Solid State – Digital Circuit breakers or Solid-State Circuit breakers are a development in technology which guarantees advance circuit breakers. It offers multiple advantages, like, monitoring of circuits loads in a much better way, longer lifetime and cutting the circuit in fractions of microseconds.

• Magnetic – A solenoid, whose force of pulling is proportional to the current, is being utilized in Magnetic Circuit breakers. The contacts of a circuit breaker are held closed using a latch. As soon as the current in the solenoid gets a value above the circuit breaker’s rating, the solenoids pull releases the latch.

• Thermal Magnetic – These types of circuit breakers are most popular in Europe. It fuses both the methodologies i.e. the electromagnets are providing an instantaneous respond to short circuits and the bimetallic strips used responses to less outrageous yet longer-term over-current conditions.

• Magnetic Hydraulic – A magnetic hydraulic circuit breaker takes the help of a solenoid coil to offer force to open up the contacts. It comes with a hydraulic time delay characteristic using a viscous fluid. A spring holds the core back until the current surpasses the breaker rating.

• Ganged or Common trip breakers – To offer simultaneous breaking on the different circuits as a consequence of a fault on one of them we use ganged breakers.

These were some of the most important types of circuit breakers. There are other types of circuit breakers available in the market, like the medium voltage breakers, high voltage breakers, disconnecting circuit breakers, carbon dioxide high voltage breakers and sulfur hexafluoride high voltage breakers.

Hope you liked the article. Brands that manufacture circuit breakers are Carling, Eaton, and ETA. Make sure to follow them using the links as provided.

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A fuse is a device which helps in defending electrical circuit from the flow of excessive current. It contains a strip of wire or metal which melts itself down when a current more than it's limiting value passes through it. In the absence of fuses, there are chances of the passage of a large amount of current to the entire circuit which may lead to an electrical fire, thus, resulting in the damage of foundations as well as equipment. Keeping this in mind we have brought this article to make people well accustomed to Electrical and Industrial fuses such that they can be used at their best.

Electrical Fuses

Today each and every building and house are equipped with electrical fuses for their safety in terms of the use of electricity. Two of the major reason behind this is:

• They do not require human support and is automatic
• The prices of these fuses are quite affordable

Electrical fuse can be divided into two types according to the kind of current flowing through it. They are as follows:

• DC Fuses: DC fuses are those electrical fuses that are compatible with electrical circuits having DC. As direct current flows in one direction and never gets a zero value, it is tough to interrupt it. Thus enough power is required to cease the current passing through the circuit.
• AC Fuses: AC fuses are those electrical fuses that are compatible with electrical circuits having AC passing through them. Alternating current inverts its progression of direction and accomplishes zero value during its oscillation period. Thus, it’s quite easy to stop the flow of Alternating current when it is flowing through the circuit.

Industrial Fuses

Industrial Fuses are utilized for protecting branch circuits and motors where higher amperes and Voltage ratings are a necessity. The electrical systems which are used in today’s world have a high chance of destruction during the occurrence of a short circuit. Having a proper fusing is a must. Just 1 cycle of faulty current can vaporize insulation and wiring, explode wires as well as warp bus bars. To defend against them, one needs to have an idea about 4 things: amperage, voltage, current-limiting ability and interrupt capacity.

• The current-carrying capacity or an amperage rating should be much close to the full-load current of the circuit. Fuses that are oversized do not offer good protection while undersized ones blow up easily.
• The voltage rating may either exceed or match up with the circuit’s voltage.
• The current-limiting ability is the proportion of the amount of current the device will "let through" the framework. Indeed, even a solitary cycle of 200,000A current will harm any establishment severely. When the currents are high these current-limiting fuses respond much faster. The current-limiting ability of a fuse is communicated as number i.e. as "K1", "K2", "K3" and likewise. Here K3 is less current-limiting than K1.
• Interrupt capacity is defined as the total amount of current the fuse can interrupt without any damage. Many fuses have them of 200,000A because the fault current in industries is that high.

Hope that you liked going through the above article. Brands that make Electrical and Industrial Fuses are Eaton, Siemens, and Littelfuse. Make sure to follow them using the links as provided.

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