ALAN B SHIMP
Engineers in Monroeville, PA

4298852, Nov 3, 1981

Aug 21, 1979

6/068771

Alfred E. Maier - Chippewa PA
Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA
David J. Uram - Penn Hills PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H01H 924, H01H 3348, H02H 308

335 6

A circuit breaker comprises an adjustable trip unit having electronic circuitry for initiating a tripping command upon detection of overcurrent conditions. The trip unit includes an externally accessible interchangeable plug-in rating adjuster removably supported on the housing of the circuit breaker by a threaded rod and tube. An interlock mechanism cooperates with the trip bar of the circuit breaker and secured mechanism to insure that only when a compatible rating adjuster is properly seated in the housing and the threaded rod is completely engaged within the threaded tube will the circuit breaker mechanism be removed from the trip-free condition. Coordination of a proper rating adjuster with a corresponding trip unit and circuit breaker is achieved by coordinating the lengths of the rod and tube and the position of the threaded portions thereof such that only a rating adjuster which is electrically compatible with a particular circuit breaker and trip unit will properly engage the threads of the tube to remove the circuit breaker from the trip-free condition.

5105326, Apr 14, 1992

May 31, 1991

7/708328

Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA
James I. Wise - Butler PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H02H 308

361 49

A circuit for controlling the orientation of magnetic fields is provided. The circuit has particular application to a flux shunt trip device in a circuit breaker. The flux shunt trip device has a spring-loaded plunger which when released to its extended position causes the circuit breaker to trip. Under normal operating conditions, the plunger is maintained in a retracted position by the force of a permanent magnet. A trip coil is mounted adjacent to the plunger. When the trip coil is energized a magnetic flux is generated opposing the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet. When the opposing flux neutralizes the flux of the permanent magnet the spring-loaded plunger is released to its trip position. A control circuit is provided to aid in maintaining the plunger in its retracted position under high current conditions close to, but below, the trip value. This control circuit acts to reverse the direction of current through the trip coil under these conditions such that a magnetic flux aiding that of the permanent magnet is generated.

4181922, Jan 1, 1980

Nov 23, 1977

5/853991

Joseph J. Matsko - Beaver PA
Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA
Paul Skalka - Beaver PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H02H 308, H01H 7702

361115

A circuit interrupter includes an adjustable trip unit for tripping the circuit breaker to the open circuit position upon overload current conditions. The trip unit includes a shorting plug adjuster comprising a pair of connecting pins electrically connected together and insertable into cooperating sockets in the trip unit housing. One of the pins is common to all adjustment positions and is of greater length, having a retaining clip at the end thereof to permit the adjuster to be partially withdrawn, pivoted about the common pin, and inserted into the desired position. The adjuster comprises a flange which covers the trip unit panel socket in all positions, thereby providing protecting against dust and other contamination. The adjuster is cheaper and more reliable than the prior art, providing increased protection against shock, vibration, and contact bounce.

4016518, Apr 5, 1977

Sep 25, 1975

5/616709

Walter W. Lang - South Beaver Township PA
Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA

Westinghouse Electric Corporation - Pittsburgh PA

H01H 8312

335 7

A multipole circuit breaker including a trip release actuator having a single coil coaxially surrounding a plunger and mounted within a hollow cylindrical actuator support frame. The actuator is mounted in association with a latch mechanism and includes a spring biasing the plunger toward release of the latch mechanism. The coil is responsive to an electronic sensing and control circuit and serves, when energized, to oppose the action of the bias spring and maintain the plunger in a position to prevent release of the latch mechanism during normal conditions. Upon either undervoltage or overcurrent conditions the sensing and control circuit deenergizes the coil, allowing the bias spring to move the plunger into engagement with the latch mechanism, effecting release of the latch mechanism and separation of the circuit breaker contacts.

4258403, Mar 24, 1981

May 31, 1979

6/044150

Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H02H 308

361 42

A ground fault detecting circuit interrupter is taught. A ground fault is sensed by utilizing a summing transformer interconnected with the three-phase current transformers for normal fault detection. The turns ratio between the primary winding and the secondary winding of the summing transformer is kept purposely high so that the excitation current for the current transformers is made relatively small when compared to the normal secondary current of the current transformers. This has the effect of improving the accuracy of the normal fault detecting portion of the circuit breaker. The relatively high turns ratio between the primary and second of the summing transformer usually supplies insufficient current to directly actuate the trip coil of the circuit interrupter on the occurrence of a ground fault. However, this latter current is utilized to charge a capacitive storage element after a ground fault has been sensed. When the capacitive storage element is fully charged, it is switched into a circuit disposition suitable for discharge through the trip coil of the circuit interrupter with sufficient current flow to open the separable main contacts of the circuit interrupter.

5559719, Sep 24, 1996

May 26, 1994

8/249829

Richard A. Johnson - Murrysville PA
Joseph C. Engel - Monroeville PA
Gary F. Saletta - Irwin PA
Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA

Eaton Corporation - Cleveland OH

H02H 326, G01R 1900, H02J 300

364483

A circuit interrupter with a digital trip unit automatically sets the sampling interval appropriate for the 50 Hz or 60 Hz distribution system to which the interrupter is connected. In order to avoid falsely shifting the interval in response to distorted currents, the trip unit only changes the interval if the number of zero crossings of the current within a fixed number of samples is within two zero crossings of the number of zero crossings for an undistorted current of the other frequency for two consecutive time periods in which the fixed number of samples are taken. Furthermore, changes in the interval are only written into an EEPROM for use on power-up a fixed number of times to preclude disabling the EEPROM. In one embodiment, a 2 pole filter is utilized in the zero crossing counting circuit to eliminate false counts from noise originating in a chopper used in the trip unit power supply. In another embodiment, the zero crossing counting circuit is disabled unless external dc power is available for the trip unit which idles the chopper.

4104691, Aug 1, 1978

Sep 30, 1976

5/728088

Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA
Thomas N. Meyer - Murrysville PA
Robert T. Elms - Monroeville PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H02H 308

361 96

A circuit breaker apparatus is taught which includes three time delayed modes of interruption and an instantaneous interruption. A long time delay mode is taught for interrupting overload current in the line to be protected. The latter time delay is inversely proportional to the square of the overload current. A short time delay mode is taught for providing a circuit breaker tripping operation after a predetermined fixed time delay when the current flowing in the line to be protected exceeds a predetermined amount. An asymmetrical fault detecting range of interruption is taught which overlaps the region of overload current which normally would require an instantaneous tripping of the circuit breaker as a function of the properties of the circuit breaker but which nevertheless delays interruption of the circuit breaker for a relatively short period of time to test subsequent peaks of the fault or overload current to determine if the latter current decays to a value which does not necessitate quick tripping of the circuit breaker during the delay period. The latter case is related to the occurrence of a fully offset asymmetrical transient fault condition.

4358810, Nov 9, 1982

Jan 21, 1981

6/226951

John A. Wafer - Beaver PA
William E. Beatty - Beaver Falls PA
Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H02H 308

361 93

A circuit breaker and alarm device for a circuit having a series connected interruptible current device whereupon a circuit breaker tripping means, attached to said circuit breaker, is adapted to obtain an output voltage of one polarity upon the tripping of the circuit breaker. A circuit breaker resetting device, attached to said circuit breaker, is adapted to obtain an output voltage of reverse polarity upon the resetting of the circuit breaker. A voltage-detecting circuit for sensing the voltage produced by the tripping or resetting of the circuit breaker. A current detecting circuit which produces an output upon detecting an output produced by the voltage-detecting circuit. An alarm circuit which is connected to the current-detecting circuit is thereby caused to essentially instantaneously upon the tripping of the circuit breaker, to energize and remain energized until the resetting of the circuit breaker.

5331501, Jul 19, 1994

Sep 30, 1992

7/954913

Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

H02H 308

361 94

A microprocessor based switch such as a circuit breaker has a memory capacitor charged by the microprocessor to generate an analog equivalent of a digitally modelled heat state signal. A selected resistor discharges the capacitor at a rate which models a cooling rate of a load. Alternatively, the memory capacitor may be charged to a preset value and discharged at a rate representative of the time since a trip generates digital rms representations of analog load. Terminals for rapidly resetting the analog trip memory for calibration and field testing of a long delay trip are hidden behind a removable rating plug.

4011484, Mar 8, 1977

Feb 23, 1976

5/660192

Derek A. Paice - Murrysville PA
Alan B. Shimp - Monroeville PA

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the
Interior - Washington DC

H02H 306, H02H 324

361 59

An undervoltage circuit having a power supply voltage level detector, a reset circuit, and a hold-in circuit. The level detector of the circuit causes an undervoltage coil to trip a circuit breaker when the power being supplied falls below a predetermined voltage level. When power is restored, an automatic reset circuit resets the circuit breakers undervoltage coil at a preset voltage level by applying a repetitive pulse to the coil. The hold-in circuit applies a continuous current to the same coil of the undervoltage circuit to hold it in once it has been reset.