Generally, this disclosure relates to the field of electrical fuses. More particularly, this disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for detecting a blown fuse in an electrical system.
Various types of equipment include complicated electrical systems that incorporate fuses to protect the power source, the system load, or the system wiring from an overload or a short circuit. In the case of an overload or a short circuit to the electrical system, the fuse will fail or blow and interrupt the flow of current in the system to prevent damage to the power source, the system load, or the system wiring. Determining the status of these fuses is often difficult, especially during the maintenance and operation of the piece of equipment.
A blown fuse detector according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a fuse and a resistor in series with a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker and the resistor are in parallel with the fuse and the circuit breaker is configured to trip when the fuse blows.
A blown fuse detector assembly according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a power panel and at least one detection circuit in the power panel. The detection circuit includes a fuse and a resistor in series with a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker and the resistor are in parallel with the fuse and the circuit breaker is configured to trip when the fuse blows. The circuit breaker may contain an isolated auxiliary contact that indicates the state of the circuit breaker.
A method of assembling a blown fuse detector according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, positioning a circuit breaker in series with a resistor and positioning a fuse in parallel with the circuit breaker and the resistor.
These and other features of the disclosed examples can be understood from the following description and the accompanying drawings, which can be briefly described as follows.
In some cases, fuses are used in place of circuit breakers for protection. Some fuses do not have a means to remotely indicate fuse failure. Each circuit breaker 18 forms a portion of a detection circuit 24 as illustrated in
When the detection circuit 24 experiences an overload or short circuit, the resistor 26 initially forces the overload current through the fuse 28, causing it to fail and subsequently, the overload current will flow through the circuit breaker 18. Because the circuit breaker 18 amperage rating is much lower than the amperage rating of the fuse 28, the circuit breaker 18 will trip when the full load current travels through the circuit breaker 18. When the circuit breaker 18 trips, the circuit breaker position sensor 20 (shown in
The preceding description is exemplary rather than limiting in nature. Variations and modifications to the disclosed examples may become apparent to those skilled in the art that do not necessarily depart from the essence of this disclosure. The scope of legal protection given to this disclosure can only be determined by studying the following claims.