Appeal No. 2000-0368
Application No. 08/789,659
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to an arcing fault detection system for a secondary
line of a current transformer. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a
reading of exemplary claim 17, which is reproduced below.
17. A system for detecting arcing faults in an electrical distribution
system including a line conductor carrying an electrical current between a
power source and a load [sic ,] said system comprising:
a current transformer coupled to said line conductor, said current
transformer including at least one secondary line carrying a secondary
current less than the electrical current carried on said line conductor,
a sensor coupled to one of said secondary lines for monitoring the
secondary current to detect the occurrence of an arcing fault signal in said
line conductor, said sensor producing a rate-of-change signal representing
the rate of change of said secondary current, and
means for generating an arcing-fault-detection signal in response to
said rate-of-change signal demonstrating characteristics of an arcing fault.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Beihoff et al. (Beihoff) 5,206,596 Apr. 27, 1993
MacKenzie et al. (MacKenzie) 5,459,630 Oct. 17, 1995
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