Electric switchgear with contact viewing and contact mounting means

Claim 1

A switch device comprising an enclosure, said enclosure comprising sidewall means forming an open front, a cover structure movable to open and closed positions to open and close said open front, said cover structure comprising a generally planar front part the plane of which is normal to said sidewall means when said cover structure is in the closed position, a switch structure mounted within said enclosure and comprising a plurality of stationary contacts, a movable contact for each of said stationary contacts, an elongated movable contact arm supporting each of said movable contacts, an insulating tie bar supporting all of said plurality of movable contact arms and being rotatable about a fixed pivot to operatively move said movable contact arms to thereby move said movable contacts into and out of engagement with said stationary contacts, an operating mechanism operable to operatively move said tie bar, an external handle mounted on said cover structure, connecting means operatively connecting said external handle with said operating mechanism when said cover structure is in the closed position, with said cover structure in the closed position said external handle being operable to operate said operating mechanism to operatively move said tie bar, an arc-extinguishing structure disposed between said tie bar and said open front of said enclosure, said arc-extinguishing structure comprising an insulating arc-hood for each of said stationary contacts, during an opening operation of said switch device said tie bar being operated to simultaneously move said movable contacts to an open position during which movement an arc is drawn between each pair of stationary and movable contacts, each of said arcs being extinguished within the associated arc-hood, and at the expiration of said opening operation said movable contacts being positioned where they are all visible from the open front of said enclosure when cover is in the open position.