fuse preventive replacement 2

[electricpete]

Does anyone have a program for preventive replacement of fuses in critical instrument/control applications?

One objection to the above approach would be increased infant mortality.... Can fuses be purchased that are already worn-in to reduce early failures in the field?

Any other comments for getting reliable fuse performance?

 

[jktwn]

That's a good question electricpete.

Our thermographer regularly submits work requests to replace working fuses. The IR camera is effective in finding fuses that are approaching failure. The fuse will be hot as compared to adjacent fuses or connections. We will probably do some post-mortum investigative work one of these days on the degrading fuses to try to understand the failure mode(s).

I don't know of any other means of identifying fuses scheduled for replacement other than a time-based system which may not be cost effective.

 

[jktwn]

electricpete,

I missed the fact that you are dealing with small current-carrying capacity fuses. IR thermography will probably not be effective in this case.

 

[busbar]

What about in-service millivolt-drop tests?