CIRCUIT BREAKER SELECTION CRITERIA BASIC INFORMATION

The selection of any circuit breaker, for any given duty, is ultimately based on an assessment of its ability to perform the following basic functions:

a) To carry the required full-load current without overheating (i.e., it should have the correct current rating),

b) To switch and isolate or disconnect the load from the source at the given system voltage (i.e., it should have the correct voltage rating),

c) To interrupt any possible abnormally high operating current or short-circuit current likely to be encountered during operation (i.e., it should have the correct interrupting rating), and

d) To be able to perform these functions over an acceptably long period of time under the operating and environmental conditions that will actually prevail in the application (i.e., it should have the correct mounting provisions, enclosure, and accessories for operation in the environment in which it is to be applied).

The degree to which a circuit breaker can satisfy these requirements is a measure of its applicability for a function. A circuit breaker's rating indicates these capabilities to the user because rating is established by proof testing. Hence, an understanding of how a circuit breaker of any given type is tested will give insight to its applicability for any function.

The role of standards

The primary vehicle for ensuring commonality in performance among circuit breakers of the same rating produced by different manufacturers is a product standard. Standards represent the consensus of manufacturers about what a given product should be able to do as a minimum.

Standards establish the design tests that each manufacturer must perform and pass in order to claim a rating and to be in compliance with that standard. Some standards include requirements for periodic follow-up testing which, in effect, continues to sample the capabilities of newly manufactured circuit breakers.

This assures that they maintain the capabilities of their product ratings. Standards provisions also provide for monitoring the quality of the materials used in the construction of circuit breakers and the quality of the workmanship in the manufacturing process.

As stated previously, standards requirements for the different classes of circuit breakers establish a basis for minimum performance. Circuit breakers may prove by test to perform better than their product ratings indicate, but they can never be permitted to perform worse.

The user, however, may never assume that a circuit breaker can perform better than its rating indicates and should realize that there are manufacturing variations among mass-produced products. The levels of performance required by the standards for the minimum acceptable performance of different classes of circuit breakers will be the primary references in the discussion that follows.

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