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Originally Posted by Andy A.
In otherwords, if you knew that the 40 amp breaker takes 30 seconds to trip when passing 60 amps, and the motors duty cycle was perhaps only 20 seconds why not gear the motor to produce peak power at 60 amps rather then limiting your self to 40 amps?
Anyone have any thoughts?
-Andy A.
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The 40 amp breakers trip VERY quickly after 40 Amps. The only data I can verify this with is that from personal experience, noting that at a ratio of 25:12 our machine was tripping against a wall, and at a ratio of 25:10 on the final sprocket reduction, they wouldn't trip... this means that around 20% past thier rating, they trip quickly (5 or 6 seconds). I wouldn't even try messing with these.
The 120 Amp breaker is another story. Dr. Joe and I had a lively discussion on this preseason. He was convinved that those 120 Amp breakers wouldn't trip even throwing boatloads of current through them. We found this to be true. We were running (at peak) somewhere in the range of 160 amps and had no problems.
Until the finals.
In the last round of our last match, after playing in the order of a 10 or more consecutive matches, our main 120 Amp breaker tripped in the finals of Currie, costing us the match, and perhaps much more. These breakers have a thermal element to them, and after back to back matches, they were starting out a bit too warm... and tripped about a minute into the match.
Lesson Learned:
Be sure that you cool your breakers in the finals, as well as your motors.
Matt