Fuse

In , is denominated fuse to a device, constituted by a thread or lamina of or of low that is put in in a determined point of an electrical system so that it is based, by , when surpasses, by short circuit or an excess of load, a certain value that could make be in danger the integrity of the conductors of the installation with the consequent fire risk or destruction of other elements.

Usually they settle fuses, among other places, in the lines of electricity transport, in the entrance from the provision to the houses and in great number of electrical and electronic apparatuses, like power supplies, polímetros, etc.

The fuses can be of very diverse types and sizes, depending on the intensity and voltage of work of the installation to protect, existing fusible from some few milliamperes to thousands of .

Also, types of extrafast, fast fusion exist and slow, depending on the characteristics of the installation to protect. Thus, for example, extrafast fuses in the protection of electronicses with slow semiconductors and fuses in the protection of motors are used that at the moment of the starting present/display a consumption tip that disappears as soon as the motor begins to turn.

Before simply they were a thread of lead or , tended between two terminals or screws, with a calculated thickness so that it was fused with a certain one . At the moment, this thread goes within a cartridge of or crystal, sometimes stuffed of sand, so that the rest of fused metal do not reach other parts of the electrical system.

Modernly, the protection provided by the fuses is complemented and improved with the installation of other electromechanical and electronic devices of protection, such as and magnetotérmicos.