New Arc Control Design for Vacuum Interrupters

In this paper, we introduce a new design of an arc control exhibiting a behavior that is different from those observed with axial magnetic field (AMF) and Transverse/Radial Magnetic Field (TMF/RMF) arc controls. With this new arc control, the arc forming when the contacts are parted is a rotating diffuse columnar arc with a main arc column which can occupy up to half of the contact tip surface. We present the assessment of the arc behavior and its characteristics by means of high-speed video recordings of the arc, arc voltage measurements, and synthetic and direct testing, which show that the new arc control has the potential to offer better breaking performance than the existing AMF cup type arc control of the same size. In addition, because of the shape and behavior of the arc, the electric life of the new arc control is expected to be longer than the one of the TMF arc controls.