A high speed actuator for 1.14kV rated vacuum switch

The paper presents a design of a high speed actuator which consists of an electromagnetic repulsion driving unit (ERDU) and an permanent magnet force holding unit (PMFHU). Three types of PMFHU are proposed and analyzed by 3D finite element method. Then a 2D finite element model of ERDU is established and a hybrid field-circuit simulation is finished. A method based on high speed camera for detecting the speed is developed and used for the HSS tests. Based on that, the mechanical characteristics of the high speed switch prototypes assembled with three types of PMFHU are tested. The results show that the model 2 is the one whose properties most meets the requirements of high speed repulsion actuator. At last, the repulsion buffering method is presented for solving the bounce of the HSS. The testing results show it is valid.