During the last decades vacuum replaced air, oil and almost SF6 as switching medium in medium voltage circuit breakers. Beside the ecological and economic advantages vacuum is a proper solution for all switching applications. The range of applications last from switching of loads, such as transformers, motors to the switching of short circuit currents up to 63 kA and more. Due to the recent developments in the field of permanent magnets the development of a magnetic drive for a vacuum circuit breaker seemed to be reasonable. The papers explains the working principle and demonstrates, that the combination of a conventional drive with a magnetic actuator is appropriate to have the same functionality and man-machine interface for the user. Such kind of circuit breakers can be preferably used in air insulated switchgear and are also qualified to replace old circuit breakers in retrofit projects.
