What it is and what it does
The Siemens 3VA2216-5MN32-0BC0 is a SENTRON molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) built for motor protection. It's a three-pole unit rated 160 A at 40 °C, with an ETU350M electronic trip unit that gives you adjustable overload and short-circuit protection curves — the kind of thing you want when a motor's starting inrush could nuisance-trip a thermal-magnetic breaker. Phase failure detection is built in, so if you lose a leg on a three-phase pump motor, this breaker catches it and drops the load before the motor cooks.
Where it fits and how it connects
The 3VA2216-5MN32-0BC0 measures 105 mm wide, 181 mm tall, and 86 mm deep — that's a standard MCCB footprint for a 160 A frame. It mounts on a DIN rail or direct panel, and the front face carries an IP40 protection class, so it's fine inside a clean enclosure but not for washdown zones. The auxiliary contact version is listed as 2 auxiliary switches HQ, and there's an undervoltage release (UVR) built into the auxiliary release design. That UVR means the breaker can be tripped remotely by dropping the control voltage — handy for emergency-stop circuits or interlocking with a safety relay.
Ratings that matter for your BOM line
The headline interrupting ratings tell you this breaker can handle serious fault current: 187 kA at 240 V, 121 kA at 415 V and 440 V, 75.6 kA at 500 V, and 17 kA at 690 V. For a motor protection MCCB, that SCCR headroom means you can place it downstream of a high-capacity transformer without worrying about cascading failure during a bolted fault. The thermal derating curve is published from 40 °C through 70 °C: it holds 160 A up to 50 °C (–), then steps down to 153.6 A at 55 °C, 150.4 A at 60 °C, 147.2 A at 65 °C, and 144 A at 70 °C. If your panel runs hot near the top of the enclosure, you'll need to account for that drop — or bump the frame size.