630 A MCCB with ETU550 — what the ratings mean for your panel
The Siemens SENTRON 3VA2463-6JP32-0KC0 is a 3-pole molded case circuit breaker rated for 630 A continuous current at 40 °C. That 630 A figure is the thermal benchmark — derate to 600 A at 45 °C, 570 A at 50 °C, and so on down to 450 A at 70 °C (–). For a 480 V panel running near 600 A, this breaker holds without nuisance tripping, but if your ambient inside the enclosure hits 50 °C, you're sizing at 570 A, not 630 A. Breaking capacity is 242 kA at 240 V, 187 kA at 415 V and 440 V, 121 kA at 500 V, and 40 kA at 690 V (–). That 242 kA at 240 V tells you this is a high-interrupting-capacity frame — it clears a bolted fault on a large transformer secondary without the arc re-striking. For a 480 V distribution board, the 187 kA at 440 V figure is the one that governs SCCR coordination upstream. The ETU550 electronic trip unit gives you adjustable long-time, short-time, instantaneous, and ground-fault protection curves — it's not a fixed thermal-magnetic. That means you can coordinate selectively with downstream breakers and still get fast clearing on a hard fault. The communication function lets the breaker talk to a monitoring system, so you're not walking the panel to read the trip flag.
Mounting and integration — footprint and auxiliaries
Dimensions are 248 mm height, 138 mm width, 110 mm depth. The 138 mm width is a standard 3-pole MCCB footprint for this class — it fits the same cutout as other SENTRON 3VA frames, so a panel laid out for a 630 A 3VA will accept this unit without re-drilling the mounting plate. Comes with 2 auxiliary switches HQ and a shunt trip release (STL) integrated. The auxiliary contacts report breaker position back to the PLC or status light — useful for a remote open/closed indication without adding a separate limit switch. The shunt trip lets a safety relay or E-stop drop the breaker remotely. Maximum power loss is 162 W. That's the heat the breaker dumps into the enclosure at full rated current. For a panel with multiple breakers side by side, you need to account for that in the thermal design — 162 W times several breakers can push internal temperature above the 40 °C rating point if the cabinet isn't vented or fan-cooled.
Lifecycle and sourcing — current production, quoted to order
Rated insulation voltage Ui is 800 V, and the storage temperature range is -40 °C to 80 °C. Operating ambient is -25 °C to 70 °C. That covers most indoor and outdoor enclosure installations in temperate and cold climates.