Importance

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Abstract

A thermally activated circuit interrupter (10) has a cantilever mounted, snap acting thermostatic disc (16) mounting a movable electric contact (18) that is adapted to move between a contacts engaged position and a tripped, contacts disengaged position. A pivot member (24) is rotatably mounted above the thermostatic disc and movably mounts a latch (26d) that is biased by spring arm (26a) against the edge of the free end of thermostatic disc (16) in the contacts engaged position and is moved under the thermostatic disc when the disc moves to the contacts disengaged position. An arm (24b) of the pivot member transfers motion to a trip indicator button (32) pushing the button to an exposed position upon rotation of the pivot member when the thermostatic disc moves to the tripped configuration and the latch moves under the disc. The trip indicator button also serves as a reset button so that upon cooling of the thermostatic disc to the reset temperature, the button can be depressed transferring motion to the arm (24b) of the pivot member thereby moving the latch from under the disc allowing the disc to move to the contacts engaged configuration.

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First Claim