EP0059334B1 - Electric fuse - Google Patents

Electric fuse Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0059334B1
EP0059334B1 EP82100806A EP82100806A EP0059334B1 EP 0059334 B1 EP0059334 B1 EP 0059334B1 EP 82100806 A EP82100806 A EP 82100806A EP 82100806 A EP82100806 A EP 82100806A EP 0059334 B1 EP0059334 B1 EP 0059334B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
metal
fuse
silver
copper
enclosed electric
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
EP82100806A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0059334A2 (en
EP0059334A3 (en
Inventor
Olaf Noerholm
Peder Knudsen
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
McGraw Edison Co
Original Assignee
McGraw Edison Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Family has litigation
First worldwide family litigation filed litigation Critical https://patents.darts-ip.com/?family=8094268&utm_source=google_patent&utm_medium=platform_link&utm_campaign=public_patent_search&patent=EP0059334(B1) "Global patent litigation dataset” by Darts-ip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Application filed by McGraw Edison Co filed Critical McGraw Edison Co
Publication of EP0059334A2 publication Critical patent/EP0059334A2/en
Publication of EP0059334A3 publication Critical patent/EP0059334A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0059334B1 publication Critical patent/EP0059334B1/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H85/00—Protective devices in which the current flows through a part of fusible material and this current is interrupted by displacement of the fusible material when this current becomes excessive
    • H01H85/02—Details
    • H01H85/04—Fuses, i.e. expendable parts of the protective device, e.g. cartridges
    • H01H85/05—Component parts thereof
    • H01H85/055—Fusible members

Definitions

  • the invention relates to electric fuses and in particular to fuses to be used under marginal conditions both in respect of the steady state operating current and of the operating voltage and in particular to fuses with an extremely fast action and current limiting operation.
  • Such operating conditions are generally associated with fuses used for the protection of semi-conductor devices.
  • the invention is generally directed to an enclosed electric fuse with a porous filler provided with a pair of terminals, one or more fuse conductors comprising two kinds of metal so arranged that the current from one terminal to the other will pass successively and alternately through the two kinds of metal beginning and ending in the first kind of metal, the second metal having pronounced reductions in cross-section defining one or more fuse elements.
  • bi-metallic fuses are known to the trade and used because they allow advantages of an economic nature without necessarily being associated with any inferior performance. However, it is also the object of the invention to achieve a significantly superior performance under marginal operating without sacrificing the economic advantages known from the prior art.
  • the prior art includes fuses where the current successively passes a part of the fuse conductor made of copper, then a part made of silver, and finally again a part of copper, the parts being so arranged that the fuse element, namely the part intended to melt and open the circuit, is situated entirely in the silver part, while the parts that primarily serve to conduct electricity and the heat created in the fuse element are made from the less expensive metal copper.
  • the present invention is characterized in that the distance between the center of the fuse element and a transition point between the two kinds of metal is selected to keep the temperature of the first metal below a preselected value, and that the length of said second metal is sized such that an arc caused by current interruption at the nominal fuse rating will initially burn back only through said second metal and subsequently, after complete back-burning of the second metal, burn between foot-points on parts of said first metal, and the following significant advantages can be realized.
  • the invention explores prior art in the light of this hitherto unnoticed advantage of copper by locating the thermally highly stressed fuse element in the part made of silver, while at the same time locating the part made of copper as close to the fuse element as compatible with an avoidance of the tendency to be subject to progressive oxydization.
  • the fuse conductor of Fig. 1 consists of a thin plate of silver intended to carry the current in the direction coinciding with its largest dimension. Across this direction of current flow, fuse elements have been created by punching openings in the conductor. In Fig. 1 there are a number of holes in a row, namely four, thereby creating five portions of reduced cross-section forming five fuse elements 1. This pattern of fuse elements is repeated five times along the length of the fuse, so that the fuse can be adapted to a voltage rating five times that of a single fuse element.
  • the fuse conductor shown in Fig. 2 can either be regarded as disclosed in US Patent 2,781,434 or as illustrating the present invention.
  • it only shows the fuse elements 1 formed by the punching of circular openings 2 in the part made of silver 3 located between the outer parts of the fuse conductor made of copper 4, but special attention should be directed to the location of the transitions 5 between silver and copper.
  • the critical dimension defining the invention is the distance between the center of the fuse elements 1 and the transitions 5, because this distance shall be long enough to ensure that the temperature of any part of copper does not exceed the value of temperature that leads to harmful progressive oxydization, while on the other hand, the amount of silver located inbet- ween must burn away before the arc can be established between foot-points on copper.
  • the invention centers on the means available to achieve the desirable, but hitherto unnoticed effect resulting from an early transition of the arc from silver to copper.
  • the object of design must be to reduce the cross-section as far as practical.
  • An important means to that end is to increase the number of openings in a given width of conductor, that is, to have many small openings instead of a few large ones, and to locate the fuse elements essentially midway in between the transition lines 5. Further improvements can be achieved by proper deviations from the simple circular form in various ways generally known to the man skilled in the art.
  • the degree to which this critical distance can be diminished also depends on the operating temperature of the fuse element.
  • the most unfavorable case is that of the temperature of the fuse element being almost at the melting point of silver.
  • the fuse conductor shown in Fig. 3 is made according to the invention. It shows the use of a higher number of openings with intervening fuse elements across the width of the fuse conductor and also the use of several bands of fuse elements over the length, making it possible to design the fuse for any desired value of voltage.
  • the fuse conductor shown on Fig. 4 is similar to that of Fig. 3 except that the length of silver is shown to be less than the diameter of the openings. A detail is shown enlarged in Fig. 5.
  • aluminium In contrast to copper, aluminium will not be subject to harmful progressive oxydization because the first oxide film formed will be mechanically strong and impervious to oxygen and therefore protects against further oxydization. This implies that in case aluminium is used in place of silver and together with copper as explained, the fuse element can assume a temperature even above the melting point of aluminium, the molten aluminium being retained within the oxide film until it bursts. However, because of the lower temperature it can be used with less distance to the copper, and because aluminium at the temperature of the arc reacts with quartz, a frequently used component of the porous filler of the fuse, the burn-back velocity in aluminium will be higher than for silver. Both of these properties lead to a faster transfer of the arc foot-points to copper to realize the effect according to the invention.
  • the invention opens the possibility to exploit many more combinations of different metals, each with its particular advantages in the two parts of the bi-metallic fuse conductor. Such other combinations will occur to the man skilled in the art when the desired special properties of the fuse and its operating conditions are specified.

Landscapes

  • Fuses (AREA)
  • Fixed Capacitors And Capacitor Manufacturing Machines (AREA)
EP82100806A 1981-02-05 1982-02-04 Electric fuse Expired EP0059334B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DK500/81 1981-02-05
DK50081A DK50081A (da) 1981-02-05 1981-02-05 Slukkemiddelfyldt elektrisk sikring og dens anvendelse

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0059334A2 EP0059334A2 (en) 1982-09-08
EP0059334A3 EP0059334A3 (en) 1983-05-18
EP0059334B1 true EP0059334B1 (en) 1988-11-17

Family

ID=8094268

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP82100806A Expired EP0059334B1 (en) 1981-02-05 1982-02-04 Electric fuse

Country Status (11)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0059334B1 (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
JP (1) JPS58500148A (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
BR (1) BR8205980A (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
CA (1) CA1201470A (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
DE (1) DE3279223D1 (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
DK (1) DK50081A (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
FI (1) FI820381L (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
GR (1) GR78349B (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
IE (1) IE54661B1 (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
NO (1) NO823332L (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)
WO (1) WO1982002795A1 (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html)

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE2914386A1 (de) * 1978-04-13 1979-10-25 Andersson A E Bror Desodorierendes und desinfizierendes, fluessigkeitsaufsaugendes erzeugnis und verfahren zu seiner herstellung
EP1300867A1 (fr) 2001-10-03 2003-04-09 Metalor Technologies International S.A. Element de fusible et son procédé de fabrication

Family Cites Families (12)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US1973120A (en) * 1931-06-01 1934-09-11 Line Material Co Fuse link
DE677780C (de) * 1936-05-23 1939-07-06 Voigt & Haeffner Akt Ges In der Laengsrichtung unterteilter Schmelzleiter fuer Schmelzsicherungen
DE703632C (de) * 1938-06-17 1941-03-13 Siemens Schuckertwerke Akt Ges Schmelzleiter fuer traege Sicherungen
DE709900C (de) * 1940-03-09 1941-08-29 Elektrotechnische Spezialfabri Schmelzleiteranordnung
US2816989A (en) * 1954-05-05 1957-12-17 Parmiter Hope & Sugden Ltd Electric fuses
US2781434A (en) * 1955-01-06 1957-02-12 Chase Shawmut Co Current-limiting fuses comprising fuse links of silver and copper
GB789545A (en) * 1955-03-08 1958-01-22 Parmiter Hope & Sugden Ltd Improvements in and relating to electric fuses
DE1192304B (de) * 1961-06-16 1965-05-06 Siemens Ag Schmelzsicherung
CH389759A (de) * 1961-10-23 1965-03-31 Weber Ag Fab Elektro Streifenförmiger Schmelzleiter für Schmelzsicherungen
CA942803A (en) * 1970-05-04 1974-02-26 Aktieselskabet Laur. Knudsen, Nordisk Elektricitets Selskab Sand-filled electric fuse
DE2348771A1 (de) * 1973-09-28 1975-04-10 Degussa Schmelzleiter fuer elektrische sicherungen
US4216457A (en) * 1978-08-08 1980-08-05 Gould Inc. Electric fuse having folded fusible element and heat dams

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
IE54661B1 (en) 1990-01-03
GR78349B (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html) 1984-09-26
BR8205980A (pt) 1983-01-11
JPS58500148A (ja) 1983-01-20
EP0059334A2 (en) 1982-09-08
IE820246L (en) 1982-08-05
NO823332L (no) 1982-10-04
JPH0343736B2 (GUID-C5D7CC26-194C-43D0-91A1-9AE8C70A9BFF.html) 1991-07-03
WO1982002795A1 (en) 1982-08-19
DE3279223D1 (en) 1988-12-22
DK50081A (da) 1982-08-06
CA1201470A (en) 1986-03-04
FI820381A7 (fi) 1982-08-06
EP0059334A3 (en) 1983-05-18
FI820381L (fi) 1982-08-06

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