à coupure visible

English translation: with visible break

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	à coupure visible
English translation:	with visible break
Entered by:	Jennifer Thomas

18:21 Apr 1, 2004

French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Electronics / Elect Eng / power circuits

French term or phrase: à coupure visible

Les départs puissance en tête d’armoires seront équipés d’interrupteurs-sectionneurs tripolaires à doubles coupure visible.

Not sure if this is a visible circuit breaker?

Jennifer Thomas KudoZ activity Questions: 94 (1 open) (1 without valid answers) (6 closed without grading) Answers: 4 United Kingdom
Local time: 02:18

with visible break

Explanation:
131 GGLs for ("circuit breaker" + "visible break"). Check it out. What it means is that there must be no doubt that the circuit is open, as would be the case if a lever, say, were positioned up or down, because people might forget which is the "trip" position! Whether it means the contacts are to be visibly apart or that there is to be some sort of "flag", like a coloured tag that protrudes when the circuit is broke, I don't know.

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Note added at 1 hr 40 mins (2004-04-01 20:02:07 GMT)
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Note that many of the examples referred to speak of \"isolating switches\", which is what \"intérrupteurs-sectionneurs\" are. They are deliberately opened to make a circuit safe to work on. A circuit-breaker on the other hand will trip automatically when there is some kind of fault, overload, etc.

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Note added at 1 hr 50 mins (2004-04-01 20:12:15 GMT)
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<<Visible Break Isolators (VBI) - Indicate the state of the contacts by a flag mounted on the body of the switch. The flag is viewed through a window in the switch cabinet;>>
[http://www.icande.com.au/Redbusbar/Switchek.htm]

Isolating Means - The isolating means is Fault Making, Load Breaking, visible break disconnect switch externally operable
[www.joslynclark.com/downloads/ SectionFFirePumpControl.pdf]

The Producer shall provide a loadbreak gang-operated isolating switch with a visible break at the point of delivery to BCH, accessible to BCH at all times and capable of being secured by a standard BCH padlock
[www.bchydro.com/rx_files/info/info2154.pdf]

Selected response from:

Bourth (X)
Local time: 03:18

Grading comment

Thanks ever so much to all for your extremely useful explanations.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +6

with visible break

Bourth (X)

with visible disconnection

Didier Fourcot

4 +1

COMMENT

Tony M

4 -1

Circuit breaker.

horizon

Answers

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +6

à coupure visible

with visible break

Bourth (X)
Local time: 03:18
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 447

Grading comment

Thanks ever so much to all for your extremely useful explanations.

38 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): -1

à coupure visible Circuit breaker.

Explanation:

Power output from boxes head will be fitted with double cutting three-pole circuit breaker.

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Note added at 2 hrs 58 mins (2004-04-01 21:20:16 GMT)
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...will be fitted with double \"visible\" cutting three-pole circuit breaker.

horizon
United States
Local time: 19:18
Native speaker of:

English,

Portuguese

15 hrs confidence:

à coupure visible with visible disconnection

Explanation:
This is what I find most often when translating from Eng to Fre.
It means that the disconnected state must be readily apparent to any nearby worker
http://www.nyiso.com/services/documents/planning/pdf/ferc_fo...
"when the circuit breaker is in the disconnect position providing true visible disconnection with earthed"
http://www.nyiso.com/services/documents/planning/pdf/ferc_fo...
"The disconnect switch must show a visible disconnection"

My opinion is that "interrupteur-sectionneur" should be a "circuit switcher": a "circuit breaker" or "disjoncteur" has an automatic tripping feature that disconnects on overcurrent, the "interrupteur-sectionneur" does not have this feature.

Reference: http://www.nyiso.com/services/documents/planning/pdf/ferc_fo...
Reference: http://www.nyiso.com/services/documents/planning/pdf/ferc_fo...

Didier Fourcot
Local time: 03:18
Works in field
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in category: 43

17 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

à coupure visible COMMENT

Explanation:
In response to Horizon's specific request, I take the liberty here of adding my comments on her/his suggestion:

"Power output from boxes head will be fitted with double cutting three-pole circuit breaker."

'boxes head' would be very odd English at the best of times (we'd be more likely to say 'box heads', for example), but in any case we don't usually refer to electrical cabinets (+ other possible translations) as 'boxes', except in the most informal of inter-technician language.
And 'head' is probably out of place here (though we do sometimes talk about a 'power head' in certain contexts) -- but here, 'feeds' or 'outputs' is probably more appropriate...
'cutting' is not the usual translation of 'coupure' in a technical, electrical context.
As discussed in other answers, there is a specific difference between 'sectionneur' and 'disjoncteur', and although informally we often use 'circuit-breaker' for both, this practice is to be deprecated in formal technical language, where precision is vital.
And finally, your original answer on which I was commenting left out the very vital 'visible' aspect!

Thanks, Tom, for backing me up, and apologies to 'Horizon' for publicly dissecting your suggestion, which I would not normally do unless you had specifically asked me to! :-)

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Note added at 18 hrs 3 mins (2004-04-02 12:25:23 GMT)
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Note relating to \'intérrupteur / sectionneur\' vs. \'disjoncteur\'

The former, [= \'(circuit) isolator\'] is specifically designed as a switch, suitable for repeated on/off operation, but has no inherent safety protection (overcurrent or differential, etc.), whereas the latter [= \'circuit-breaker\'] is specifically intended for protection (in various modes), but is NOT designed to be suitable for repeated use as an on/off switch.

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Note added at 18 hrs 6 mins (2004-04-02 12:28:07 GMT)
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Note to Didier:
I am, of course, basically entirely in agreement with your excellent and informative answer; I\'d just like to say however that in my own experience of the electrical industry, we\'ve usually preferred the term \'isolator\' to \'switch\' in this kind of context; firstly, because it helps convey the deliberate dual meaning of intérrupteur AND sectionneur, and also, because it is just more \'technical\' and less of a layman\'s term! Cheers!

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Note added at 18 hrs 8 mins (2004-04-02 12:29:35 GMT)
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Apologies to all! Where DOES that acute accent keep creeping in from that I put on \'interrupteur\'? Put it down to fatigue, if you please!
:-(

Tony M
France
Local time: 03:18
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 2116

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English translation: with visible break

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