Addressing and Mitigating Circuit Breaker Vacuum Interrupter Failures
Vacuum interrupters have been installed in industrial circuit breakers since the early 1970s and were designed for a 20-to-30-year minimum usable life. Fortunately, many have lasted well beyond their anticipated shelf life. However, we are now seeing many requests for vacuum bottle testing and replacements. Vacuum interrupter test sets can determine the pressure inside a vacuum interrupter and along with wear and number of operations, predict the usable life of the vacuum interrupters used in your circuit breakers and contactors. Until now, this type of testing could only be performed at the assembly plant. In this webinar, Jerod Day at Vacuum Interrupters, Inc, explains the causes of vacuum bottle failures and the new field-based testing method that minimizes the chances of costly damage or unintentional downtime through predictability.
Jerod Day received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical & Energy Engineering in 2010 and 2012, respectively, from the University of North Texas, Denton, TX. Jerod has coauthored publications, including in the J. Heat Transfer. He is head of engineering at Vacuum Interrupters, Inc. in Farmers Branch, TX which specializes in vacuum interrupter design, testing, and manufacturing. Mr. Day has nine years of field experience with medium voltage circuit breakers and switchgear.