Hubbell Incorporated
Shallow electrical protection device (GFCI, AFCI, and AFCI/GFCI) system and method

Abstract:

A resettable switching apparatus, useful in a GFCI receptacle, has a housing with a face plate and at least one sense transformer core positioned to define a current flow direction through a center cavity that is parallel to the face plate. The GFCI receptacle further includes a space-efficient coaxial configuration in which a mechanical latching arrangement for resetting (i.e., closing) main switch contacts is disposed inside the trip solenoid. A movable carriage for the main contacts spans one end of the solenoid and has a latching portion in the solenoid that engages the inner end of a reset plunger in two sequential states (i.e., unlatched and latched). The mechanical latching arrangement comprises a cam surface coupled to a lifting plate, which is connected to the carriage of the GFCI receptacle. The cam surface is responsible for translating a downward movement to a translational movement to engage the carriage to the rest plunger.