Long time ago we found that the traces worked well as fuses when the batteries were fully charged. However, when the batteries were mostly discharged, the PC Board traces did not work well as fuses. At lower battery charge levels, the traces became very hot and ignited the PC Board rather than opening the traces up. I therefore would recommend against using PC Board traces as fuses.
Jim Jim Bacher, Senior Engineer Paxar Corp. e-mail: jim.bac...@paxar.com or j.bac...@ieee.org voice: 1-937-865-2020 fax: 1-937-865-2048 -----Original Message----- From: Cortland Richmond [mailto:72146....@compuserve.com] Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 12:53 AM To: Chris Maxwell; ieee pstc list Subject: RE: Use of PCB Traces as Fuse and Voltage suppressor When do you need a fuse? Level II is the only time you are allowed to lose functionality, and the requirement for THAT is, it can't catch fire or explode. I've seen "trace fuses" tried. The problem comes after the trace blows. You are at the mercy of your board shop, and if you use a number of them, results might not be all that repeatable. AS i said earlier, I've had a board catch fire in my hand (though not as a result of stress, but a solder splash). It is instructive. Cortland ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@mediaone.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
