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Article: The dinosaurs of circuit protection: while less expensive, fuses do not provide the same reliability and control as circuit breakers.(Power Management)
- Article from:
- Communications News
- Article date:
- June 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the interest of saving space and reducing costs, some designers of power distribution/ power controllers select fuses as opposed to electro-magnetic circuit breakers as a method of circuit protection. While there is little dispute that fuses can be substituted as over-current protection devices in place of more expensive, and larger circuit breakers, the purchaser of these power controllers should also consider the overall protection reliability of the system design and the total cost of ownership.
Both devices will react to a current overload condition in approximately the same time and both can be specified with comparable over-current trip limits. Also, if ...