----- Original Message -----
From: <n3eu@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Electrical questions
|
| M.J. Gregory wrote:
|
| > ...Note that in the UK the PFA
| > does not encourage the use of fuse links rather than fuses.
|
| I once tested a #20 fusible link, using Mil Spec aircraft wire. If you
pass enough current through it, to shorten it's response time to that of a
real circuit protection device at the low end of spec, the physically tough
insulation causes a violent explosion, equivalent to a firecracker. Luckily
I had a brief moment of nonstupidity to rig the test using a remote switch!
How theoretical such a fault condition is I don't know, but a fuse means we
needn't theorize. A google search on the topic discloses there's thus
preferred insulation material -- before wire as a fusible link became
obsolete years ago in automobiles....
|
| Regards,
| Fred F.
Sounds like Kapton - scourge of airliners and fighters in the 70's. John
Cliff may have kept an article on it.
Ferg
A064
|