Fused circuit breaker

Claim 1

A multi-pole circuit breaker comprising an insulating circuit breaker housing, a circuit breaker mechanism supported within said insulating circuit breaker housing, said circuit breaker mechanism comprising a pair of contacts for each pole, a releasable member releasable to effect automatic opening of all of said pairs of contacts, said circuit breaker mechanism comprising a multi-pole trip device supported in said insulating circuit breaker housing, said multi-pole trip device comprising an insulating trip device housing, a common trip bar movably mounted in said insulating trip device housing and movable to a tripped position to effect release of said releasable member, said insulating trip device housing having an opening therein for each of said poles, an intermediate member for each pole extending from outside of said trip device housing through the associated opening into the inside of said trip device housing, each of said intermediate members being spaced from said trip bar inside of said trip device housing, a separate fuse for each pole, each of said fuses being supported inside of said circuit breaker housing and outside of said trip unit housing, each of said fuses being in electrical series with the contacts of the associated pole, each of said fuses comprising biased plunger means automatically movable to an extended actuating position when the fuse blows, each of said fuses being constructed to blow upon the occurrence of an overload above a predetermined value to effect interruption of the overload, upon the occurrence of an overload over said predetermined value in any of said poles the associated fuse blowing and the associated plunger means moving to the extended actuating position to engage the associated intermediate member to move the associated intermediate member against said trip bar to thereby move said trip bar to said tripped position.