Mersen, a manufacturer of products for the electric power industry, has announced a new line of overcurrent protection devices for the EV industry. The new line of self-triggered χp-ST hybrid fuses technology purports to offer greater overcurrent protection in EV DC batteries than traditional fuses.

The new χp-ST hybrid fuses incorporate a fast-acting pyro-element with self-triggered ignition, eliminating the necessity of an external trigger sensor. The fuses can detect overcurrent faults at 1,000 volts DC in less than 1 ms, with a 2 kA minimum breaking capability and a power loss of 20 watts at 400 amps. The fuses have adjustable time-current performance and a tunable minimum breaking capacity.

The χp-ST hybrid fuses were introduced to address the challenges of overcurrent protection in EV applications. These include fast protection for a range of fault currents, a large amount of charge and discharge cycles, accelerations and regenerative breaking, and harsh vibrations and temperature variations.

Source: Mersen