What is fuse?

•A fuse is a short piece of metal inserted in a circuit, which melts when excessive current flows through it
and thus break the circuit.
•The fuse element is generally made of materials having low melting point, high conductivity and least
deterioration due to low oxidation e.g, silver, copper etc
•Under normal conditions the fuse element is at a temperature below its melting point.
•When a short-circuit or overload occurs, the current through fuse increase beyond its rating this melt the
fuse.

Function:
A fuse is generally inserted into an electrical circuit for 1 of 2 reasons, either to protect the power
source which includes the wire that connects the power supply to the electrical device, or to protect
the electronic equipment. The electronic equipment manufacturers specify a fuse rated to open the
electrical circuit before damage can be done to the device or open the circuit if the electronic device
fails in some way (electronic devices may pull excessive current when they fail). If a fuse larger than
the specified fuse is used, a small mistake when installing the equipment may cause catastrophic
failure of the equipment.
 In the diagram below, you see that there is a fuse between the battery and the amplifier. In
this configuration, the fuse can be used to protect the wire and the amplifier. If the fuse is the proper
one for the amplifier, all you have to do is make sure that the wire segments 'A' and 'B' are rated to
pass more current than the fuse and you'll be OK. Wire segment 'A' must be as short as possible
because it is NOT protected by the fuse.

In the diagram below, things get a little more complicated. As you can see, wire 'A' is used
to deliver power to the distribution block. Wire 'A' is of a large enough gauge to power both amplifiers.
4gauge wire is commonly used as a main power wire. Fuse 'A' must be rated to protect wire 'A'. Again,
fuse 'B' protects wire 'B' and fuse 'C' protects wire 'C'. Wire segments 'X' and 'Y' MUST be as short as
possible because, unless they are of the same gauge as wire 'A'(or larger), they could be a fire hazard.
 In most cases, the wire size is reduced at the point of is reduced at the point
of distribution. ANY time that the wire size is reduced, you must add a fuse in the line (at the point
of distribution) to protect the smaller wire. Look at the following for more detailed info about changing
wire sizes.
Wire "A" is unprotected which is why you want the main (125 amp) fuse as close to the battery
as possible. If this length of wire gets shorted, it WILL burn.
 Advantages
•It is the cheapest form of protection available.
•It requires no maintenance.
•Operation is completely automatic.
•It can break heavy short-circuit currents without noise or smoke.
•The inverse time-current characteristic of a fuse make it suitable for overcurrent protection.
•Time of operation shorter than circuit breakers

Disadvantages
•Time is lost in rewiring or replacing a fuse after operation.
•On heavy short-circuits discrimination between fuses in series cannot be obtained.
•The current-time characteristic of fuse cannot always be co-related with that of protected
apparatus.

Types of fuses:
1.Low voltages fuses
2.High voltages fuses
Low voltages fuses:
•Semi-enclosed rewire able fuse
•High rupturing capacity cartridge fuse
•H.r.c. fuse with tripping device
High voltages fuses:
•Cartridge type
•Liquid type
•Metal clad fuses

1. Rewirable fuse:
This is the cheapest method for protecting a circuit from short circuit. Wires of different
diameters made of lead and tin are used in the circuit. When large current flows these wires melts
and disconnects the faulty circuit from the rest of the supply.
There are different types of fuses. The usual type is the rewirable type in which the fuse wire
is carried in a removable fuse link. The fuse link is made of porcelain or other suitable insulating
material. The fuse carrier is push-fitted to the fuse base to make the connection through. An
advantage of this type is that the blown fuse wire can be replaced with negligible cost. But
there is a chance of selecting a wrong size of fuse wire. Another disadvantage with rewirable
fuse is that it may sometimes lead to fire hazards, when the fuse wire blows.

The semi enclosed rewirable fuses has the following drawbacks:

• It normally melts on 50 % to 100 % excessive overload. The melting current cannot be
accurately predicted.
• It takes time to rewire the fuse.
• Standard fuse wire should be always made available.
However it is the cheapest mode of protection from short circuit.
 2. Cartridge fuse
Cartridge fuse consists of a tube with metal end caps at both ends. The tube is usually
made of glass with no filling material. The fuse wire is placed inside the tube, connected between the
end caps. Since the tube is made of glass, the fuse element can be easily inspected for
breakage. When the fuse is blown, the whole cartridge has to be replaced. The advantages of
cartridge fuses are, quick and easy replacement and the fuse rating is marked on the end cap of the
cartridge itself.
Cartridge fuses are mainly: used in various electrical and electronic equipment.

3. High Rupturing Capacity Fuse (HRC):

This is a completely enclosed cartridge type of fuse. These fuses are screwed or linked in the
circuit. Generally it is used in the high power circuits. High Rupturing Capacity (HRC) fuse consists of
a porcelain tube with metal end caps and fixing tags. The fuse element is held inside the tube
between the end caps and the tube is filled with silica sand or granulated quartz. When the
fuse element blows, the silica inside the tube prevent the formation of an arc, and thus avoids
the possibility of fire hazards. HRC fuse links are available in a range of 10A to 800A.

The HRC fuse has the following advantages:

• It is very reliable.
• It has an enclosed fuse wire, therefore no chance its arc doing any damage to the
surroundings.
• It has low temperature rise at rated load.
• Maintenance free.
The drawbacks are:
• It is costly.
• Take time to replace the fuse.
What is Relay?
•A relay is a device that detects the fault and initiates the
operation of circuit breaker to isolate the defective element from
the rest of the system
•A relay is a simple electromechanical switch made up of
an electromagnet and a set of contacts. Relays are found hidden in
all sorts of devices. In fact, some of the first computers ever built
used relays to implement Boolean gates.

A relay is used to isolate one electrical circuit from another. It allows a low current control
circuit to make or break an electrically isolated high current circuit path. The basic relay consists of a
coil and a set of contacts. The most common relay coil is a length of magnet wire wrapped around a
metal core. When voltage is applied to the coil, current passes through the wire and creates a
magnetic field. This magnetic field pulls the contacts together and holds them there until the current
flow in the coil has stopped. The diagram below shows the parts of a simple relay.
Advantages of relays
•Relays can switch AC and DC, transistors can only switch DC.
•Relays can switch high voltages, transistors cannot.
•Relays are a better choice for switching large currents (> 5A).•Relays can switch
many contacts at once.

Disadvantages of relays
•Relays are bulkier than transistors for switching small currents.
•Relays cannot switch rapidly (except reed relays), transistors can switch many
times per second.
•Relays use more power due to the current flowing through their coil.
•Relays require more current than many ICs can provide, so a low power transistor
may be needed to switch the current for the relay's coil.

Protective relay And Construction

•A protective relay is a complex electromechanical apparatus, often with more than one coil,
designed to calculate operating conditions on an electrical circuit and trip circuit breakers
when a fault was found. Design and theory of these protective devices is an important part of
the education of an electrical engineer who specializes in power systems. Today these
devices are nearly entirely replaced (in new designs)with microprocessor-based instruments
(numerical relays) that emulate their electromechanical ancestors with great precision and
convenience in application.

Operating Principle
•Most of the relays in service on electric power system today are of electro-mechanical type
•They work on the following two main operating principles
 Electromagnetic attraction
o Attracted armature type relay
o Solenoid type relay
o Balanced beam type relay
 Electromagnetic induction

Induction type Relays

 Over current relay (non-directional)
 Over current relay (directional)
 Directional power relay

Others types of functional relays

 Distance relays
 Differential relays
 Translay system

Types of protection
1. Primary protection
2. Back-up protection
Circuit Breakers
A circuit breaker is defined as a piece of equipment which can do any one of thefollowing tasks:
 Makes or breaks a circuit either manually orby remote control under normal conditions
 Breaks a circuit automatically under faultconditions
 Makes a circuit either manually or byremote control under fault conditions

Switching Function
 Thus a circuit breaker is used for incorporating manual as well as automatic control for the
switching function.
 The automatic control of the circuit breaker is incorporated with the help of relays.
 The automatic control is only done in case of fault conditions.

Advantage over Fuse

 A fuse operates once and then has to be replaced.
 The main advantage associated with the use of circuit breaker isthat a circuit breaker
can be reset (either manually or automatically) to resume normal operation.
LIGHTNING ARRESTER
 A lightning arrester is a device used on electrical power systems to protect the
insulation on the system from the damaging effect of lightning.
 Metal oxide varistors (MOVs) have been used for power system protection since the
mid 1970s.
 The typical lightning arrester also known as surge arrester has a high voltage terminal
and a ground terminal.
 When a lightning surge or switching surge travels down the power system to the
arrester, the current from the surge is diverted around the protected insulation in
most cases to earth.

TYPES OF LIGHTNING ARRESTER

 Rod Gap Type
 Expulsion type Lightning Arrester
 Valve Type Lightning Arrester

Rod Gap Type

 This type of protective device is very simple and robust.
 It is, however, rarely used on circuits of some significance because it does not fulfill the
basic requirements of a true protective device.
 It does not cut off power voltage after it has been flashed over by a surge.
 This would mean a short circuit on the system every time a surge causes a flashover
across the rod gap.