A non-invasive technique for assessing the condition of circuit-breakers by considering the acoustic signals generated during non-energized switching is described. Mechanical malfunction, wear and other types of abnormal behaviour can be detected as changes in this acoustic "signature". Digital signal processing techniques known from speech recognition were successfully applied to extract, compare and present the information from the breaker signatures. A fault in the release mechanism which developed over rime and eventually rendered one pole of a circuit-breaker inoperative, was detected in an early stage, demonstrating the eficiency of this diagnostic technique.
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