JPH09282999A - Fuse eminent and manufacture thereof, and fuse device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the current capacity of a fuse element to be molded by die cutting. SOLUTION: As a metal plate material 12 it be molded into a force element 21 by die cutting deformed maternal with a profile having a thick part 12a and a thin part 14b is used. A melting part 20 of the fuse element 11 is die-cut from the chicken 12b. Since die cutting width of the melting part 20 can be narrowed in comparison with the conventional one, current capacity can be reduced even in the fuse element 11 to be molded by die cutting.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fuse element punched and formed from a metal plate, a method of manufacturing the fuse element, and a fuse device using the fuse element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of fuse element, a fuse element disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-14625 is known. The fuse element shown in the publication will be described with reference to FIG. 11. In the figure, the fuse element 1 is formed by stamping a metal plate material having conductivity, and in the stamped state, the strip 3 is formed. It is connected. Further, the fusing part 2 of the fuse element 1 is formed thinner than other parts.

[0003]

By the way, in order to reduce the current capacity of the fuse element in the conventional structure, the width of the fusing portion should be made narrower. However, in the case of pressing a metal plate material. It is extremely difficult to reduce the current capacity by narrowing the width of the fusing part. On the other hand, if a thinner metal plate material is used, the fusing part also becomes thinner, and a decrease in current capacity can be expected. But,
In this case, the entire fuse element becomes thin, and there arises a problem that the strength required for mounting the fuse element or connecting to other terminals is insufficient.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a fuse element capable of reducing a current capacity by punching, a manufacturing method thereof, and a fuse device including the fuse element. It is in.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a fuse element according to a first aspect of the present invention is a fuse element formed by punching from a conductive metal plate material, wherein the metal plate material has a thick portion and a thin portion. And is characterized in that the fusing portion is formed from a thin portion.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a fuse element in which a metal plate material having conductivity and having a thick portion and a thin portion is punched out so that the fusing portion is formed by the thin portion. It is characterized by

A fuse device according to a third aspect of the present invention is a fuse device in which a fuse element formed by punching out a conductive metal plate material is provided on an insulator.
The metal plate material is a deformed material having a thick portion and a thin portion, and is characterized in that the fusing portion of the fuse element is formed by the thin portion.

A fuse element according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the fuse element according to the first aspect, wherein a plurality of fusing portions are arranged in parallel, and at least one end side thereof is gathered by an appropriate number and connected to the connecting piece portion. Have.

[0009]

In the inventions of claim 1 and claim 2 configured as described above, a deformed material having a thick portion and a thin portion is used as a metal plate material for punching out a fuse element, and the fusion cutting is performed from the thin portion. Since the portion is formed, only the fusing portion can be punched out more finely than other portions. Therefore, the current capacity of the fuse element can be further reduced as compared with the conventional one.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the fuse device is constructed by disposing the fuse element of the small current capacity, which is punched out from the profiled material in the same manner as described above, in the insulator.
Therefore, the rated current of the fuse device can be made smaller than in the conventional case.

In the fourth aspect of the invention, since the branch circuit can be formed by using the fuse element, it is not necessary to form an independent branch at another location, which is advantageous in circuit configuration.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A fuse element, a method of manufacturing the same, and an embodiment of a fuse device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, the fuse element 11 of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 shows a conductive metal plate material 12 (for example, a zinc material) for punching and molding the fuse element 11 of the present embodiment,
This is a hoop material. Further, the metal plate member 12 is a profile member in which both side portions are formed thick along the longitudinal direction and the central portion is formed thin. The thick portion is the thick portion 12a according to the present invention, and the thin portion is the thin portion 12b according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the upper side shows the fuse element 11 stamped and formed from the metal plate material 12,
Bands 13 are arranged on both sides (upper left side and lower right side) in the figure, and a plurality of fuse elements 11 are arranged in the longitudinal direction between them. Both ends of each fuse element 11 are connected to the strip 13 via the connecting portions 14.
This is for easily performing the assembling work to the insulating supporting member 15 which will be described later, and after the assembling, the connecting portion 1
Disconnected from 4. Further, each fuse element 11 is
It is formed wide from both end portions to a predetermined inside portion, and the central portion is formed narrow. The widened portion is the connecting piece portion 16 and is a portion formed by punching out the thick portion 12a of the metal plate member 12. Connection piece 1
6 has a tapered tip portion, and is configured to be inserted into a female terminal fitting 18 of a socket 17, which will be described later, and to be electrically connected thereto. In addition, a pair of positioning recesses 16a are formed in a portion from the center of each connecting piece portion 16 (a side that is continuous with the narrow portion) so as to face both side edge portions thereof in the left-right direction (from diagonally upper left to lower right in FIG. 1). Direction) and two pairs are provided at a predetermined interval. Each positioning recess 16a is formed by cutting out a side edge of the connecting piece 16 in a semicircular shape, and a caulking projection 19 described later is fitted therein.

Further, the narrowly formed portion between the connecting piece portions 16 is the fusing portion 20 of the fuse element 11, which is stamped and molded from the thin portion 12b. Therefore, the plate thickness of the fusing part 20 is thinner than the plate thickness of the connecting piece part 16, so that the fusing part 20 can be punched out with a size considerably narrower than the plate thickness of the connecting piece part 16. This fusing part 2
The thickness and width dimensions of 0 determine the current capacity of the fuse element 11, and the smaller these dimensions are, the smaller the current capacity becomes.

Next, a fuse device 29 assembled with the fuse element 11 will be described. As shown in the upper side of FIG. 4, the fuse device 29 is configured to include a fuse element 11, an insulating carrying member 15 for assembling the fuse element 11, and a cover 21 that covers these. As shown in the upper side of FIG. 1, the insulating carrying member 15 is a resin-made and rectangular plate material, and its length dimension is such that four fuse elements 11 connected to the strip 13 are arranged in parallel. The width dimension is set shorter than the length dimension of the fuse element 11. Four square openings 22 are arranged side by side in the longitudinal direction at a predetermined interval in the central portion of the insulating carrying member 15, and both left and right sides (the upper left side in the figure) sandwiching each opening 22 therebetween. Two pairs of caulking protrusions 19 facing each other at a predetermined interval are formed on the upper part and the lower right side part). The protruding position of each caulking protrusion 19 corresponds to the positioning recess 16a of the fuse element 11, and each positioning recess 1
By engaging 6a and each caulking projection 19,
The fuse element 11 is positioned with respect to the insulating carrier member 15. Then, in the state of being positioned, the fusing part 20 of the fuse element 11 has the opening 22.
Each connecting piece 16 is bridged over and the insulating carrying member 15
It is designed to be in a state of protruding from the left and right sides (the state shown in FIG. 2). Further, the height dimension of the caulking protrusion 19 is formed longer than the thickness dimension of the fuse element 11, and as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the back surface of the fuse element 11 is placed on the upper surface of the insulating carrier member 15. The upper portion of the fuse element 11 slightly protrudes from the upper surface of the fuse element 11 in a closely contacted state, and the fuse element 11 can be fixed by caulking (including ultrasonic welding) the protruding portion. In addition, a slit-shaped hinge portion 23 extending in the length direction across each opening 22 is formed in the central portion of the upper surface of the insulating carrier member 15, and each fuse element 11 is assembled to the insulating carrier member 15. In this state, the insulating supporting member 15 can be bent around the hinge portion 23 so that the insulating supporting member 15 can be superposed in a palm-like state.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which the fuse element 11 is assembled to the insulating carrier member 15 and then the fuse element 11 is bent and overlapped. The cover 21 is configured to cover the insulating carrier member 15 in the state shown in FIG. That is, the cover 21 is formed of a transparent resin material and is formed in a box shape having an open lower surface, and can be fitted into the insulating carrying member 15 from above. Then, when the cover 21 is fitted, as shown in the upper side of FIG. 4, the insulating carrying member 15 is covered with both ends of each fuse element 11 protruding downward.

The lower side of FIG. 4 shows a socket 17 for mounting the fuse device 29. This socket 17
Includes a socket housing 24 formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape. Inside the socket housing 24, a total of eight terminal accommodating chambers 25 are arranged side by side in two rows along the length direction. The distance between the terminal housing chambers 25 facing each other is equal to the distance between both ends of the fuse element 11 in the bent state, and the distance between the terminal housing chambers 25 adjacent to each other in the length direction is the insulating carrier. It is equal to the distance between the fuse elements 11 arranged in parallel on the member 15. And
In this terminal accommodating chamber 25, a female terminal fitting 18 formed in a rectangular tube shape is vertically installed.
The connecting piece 16 of the fuse element 11 is inserted through the terminal insertion port 25a formed on the upper surface side of the. Further, an opening is also formed on the bottom surface side of the terminal accommodating chamber 25, and the bus bar 26 in the junction box (not shown) is inserted into the female terminal fitting 18 through this opening. Further, insertion walls 27 are formed so as to extend upward at the four corners of the upper surface of the socket housing 24, and the fuse device 29 is fitted in the portion surrounded by the insertion walls 27. In the female terminal fitting 18, a pair of elastic contact pieces, which are not marked, are formed by cutting and raising on both upper and lower sides, so that the connecting piece portion 16 of the fuse element 11 and the bus bar 26 make elastic contact with this. It has become.

The procedure for assembling the fuse device 29 will be described. First, the fuse element 11 is stamped out from the metal plate material 12 shown in FIG. In the punched fuse element 11, a plurality of fuse elements 11 are arranged side by side by a strip 13 in a chain, and the fuse elements 11 are assembled on an insulating carrier member 15 in an open state.
To assemble, the positioning recess 1 of each fuse element 11
6a and the caulking projection 19 on the insulating carrier member 15 are engaged with each other. As a result, the four fuse elements 11 are arranged at regular positions on the insulating carrier member 15 (see FIG. 2). Further, after that, the portion of each caulking protrusion 19 protruding higher than the upper surface of each fuse element 11 is caulked by heat and crushed (see FIG. 6). Then, each fuse element 1
1 is fixed in a state of being positioned on the insulating carrier member 15 and in a state where its back surface is in close contact with the upper surface of the insulating carrier member 15 (see FIG. 7).

Thereafter, the strip 13 and each fuse element 11 are cut from the connecting portion 14. And the insulating carrying member 15
The left and right end portions are bent downward with the hinge portion 23 as the center, and they are overlapped in a palmed state. At this time, the fusing part 20 of each fuse element 11 gradually curves in a bow shape as the insulating carrier member 15 is bent, and curves almost like a hairpin when the insulating carrier members 15 are completely overlapped. . Further, in the curved state, the fusing part 20 is erected in the air above the notch 28 formed by dividing the opening 22 of the insulating carrying member 15 (see FIG. 3).

Further, in this state, the cover 21 is put on the insulating carrying member 15 from above. Then, only both ends of each fuse element 11 are projected downward (see the upper side of FIG. 4), and the assembling work of the fuse device 29 is completed.

Next, a mounting operation of the fuse device 29 will be described. To mount the fuse device 29 on the junction box, the socket 17 is connected to the bus bar 26 in the junction box in advance. To connect the socket 17 to the bus bar 26, the bus bar 26 is provided in each opening formed on the bottom surface of the socket housing 24.
The bus bar 26 and the female terminal fitting 18 incorporated in each terminal accommodating chamber 25 are connected by this. Then, in order to mount the fuse device 29 in the socket 17, the fuse device 29 is brought above the socket 17, and both ends of each fuse element 11 protruding below the fuse device 29 are respectively inserted into the socket housing 2.
The fuse device 29 is fitted into the portion surrounded by the insertion wall 27 so as to be inserted into the terminal insertion port 25a of No. 4 (see FIG. 8). When both ends of each fuse element 11 are inserted into the terminal insertion openings 25 a, both ends of each fuse element 11 are connected to the female terminal fittings 18, and are connected to the bus bar 26 via the female terminal fittings 18. As a result, the mounting work of the fuse device 29 is completed, and each fuse element 11 can be incorporated in the power supply path to each device. Then, for example, if a certain device is overloaded due to a failure or the like and a large current exceeding the rating flows through this device, the fusing part 20 of the fuse element 11 incorporated in the energizing path of the device generates heat and blows. To be done.

The effects of this embodiment will be described below. In the present embodiment, since the fuse element 11 is formed by stamping out from the profiled material including the thick portion 12a and the thin portion 12b, the fusing portion 20 can be made thinner than other portions. Therefore, not only can the thickness dimension in the cross section of the fusing part 20 be reduced, but also the width dimension can be reduced, so that the fuse element 1 with a small current capacity is obtained.
1 can be formed by punching.
In addition, the fact that the fuse element 11 with a small current capacity can be formed by punching in this manner means that a large number of fuse elements 11 with a small current capacity can be manufactured at one time. Manufacturing cost can be reduced.

In the present embodiment, each fuse element 11
Since the fuse elements 11 can be bent at a time by assembling the insulating support member 15 and then bending it, the workability is excellent and the productivity can be improved. Further, since the fuse element 11 is bent and attached to the socket 17, the fuse element 11 can be three-dimensionally incorporated in the energization path, and the fuse element 11 occupies as compared with the case where the fuse element 11 is incorporated on the same surface. The mounting area can be reduced, and further,
Since a plurality of these are arranged side by side to form blocks and mounted in the socket 17, the mounting area can be significantly reduced as compared with the case of mounting one by one.

In the present embodiment, when the fusing part 20 is fused in contact with the insulating carrying member 15, the insulating carrying member 15 burns and produces white smoke or a strange odor. Since the fusing part 20 is installed in the air, such a problem does not occur. Further, since the cover 21 is transparent, it is possible to easily visually recognize which of the fuse elements 11 has been blown.

In the present embodiment, since the caulking protrusion 19 and the positioning recess 16a are provided, when the fuse element 11 is assembled to the insulating carrying member 15, the positioning work is facilitated and the productivity in the work surface is improved. be able to. Further, the caulking protrusion 19 is formed to be higher than the thickness dimension of the fuse element 11, and the fuse element 11 can be easily fixed by heat caulking the upper end portion of the caulking protrusion 19, so that it is not necessary to separately provide a fixing member. . Further, since the back surface of the connecting piece portion 16 can be brought into close contact with the surface of the insulating carrying member 15 by caulking the fuse element 11, a heat dissipation effect on the connecting piece portion 16 is brought about, and thus, other than the fusing portion 20. It is possible to suppress heat generation and prevent the rated current from fluctuating.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be modified and implemented as follows, for example, and these embodiments also belong to the technical scope of the present invention. (1) In the above embodiment, the fuse element 11 is formed by punching in a state of being connected to the strip 13, but may be formed by punching in a state of being cut off without being connected to the strip. .

(2) In the above embodiment, the insulating carrying member 15 is formed in a plate shape, and after the fuse element 11 is assembled to this, the fuse device 29 is formed by bending it integrally, but it is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape. It may be one in which a bent fuse element is later assembled to the insulated carrier member. Furthermore, the fuse element may not be assembled to the insulating carrier member in a bent state, but may be simply assembled in a flat state.

(3) In the above embodiment, the positioning of the fuse element 11 is performed by fitting the positioning recess 16a cut out in a semicircular shape to the caulking projection 19. Forming a hole,
The configuration may be such that this is fitted into the caulking protrusion, or in other words, any configuration may be adopted as long as the positioning is performed by engagement with the caulking protrusion.

(4) In the above structure, the caulking projection 19 is
Although it has a crimping function and also engages with the positioning recess 16a to perform positioning, a projection for caulking and a projection for positioning may be separately provided.

(5) In the above embodiment, the fuse element 1 is formed by forming the opening 22 in the insulating carrier member 15.
Although the fusing unit 20 of No. 1 is installed in the air, the opening may be a recess or the like, and may not be installed in the air.

(6) In the above-described embodiment, the fuse device 29 is designed to be incorporated in a predetermined energizing path by being inserted into the socket 17, but the end portion of the fuse element may be directly soldered to a board or the like. You may

(7) In the above-described embodiment, the fuse element 11 is punched and molded so that each of the fuse elements 11 is independent when separated from the strip 13. However, as shown in FIGS. Each fuse element 31
One side may be connected and punched into a shape that is bundled in one or two connecting piece portions 32. That is, the fuse element 11 may be punched and formed so as to form a branch circuit. Even in such a case, as in the above, the blowout portion 20 of each fuse element 31 can be punched in a narrow width, and the current capacity can be reduced. (8) In the above embodiment, four fuse elements 11 are arranged in parallel on the insulating carrying member 15, but the number is not limited to four, and any number may be arranged. In addition, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a fuse element and an insulating carrying member of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a fuse element is assembled to an insulating carrier member.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which insulating supporting members are bent and overlapped.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a fuse device and a socket.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a metal plate material.

FIG. 6 is a front sectional view showing the fuse element in a crimped state.

FIG. 7 is a side sectional view taken along the line VII-VII in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a state in which the fuse device is attached to the socket.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing another embodiment (a fuse element forming a branch circuit).

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another embodiment (a fuse element forming a branch circuit).

FIG. 11 is a top view showing a conventional fuse element.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 31 ... Fuse element 12 ... Metal plate material 12a ... Thick wall portion 12b ... Thin wall portion 15 ... Insulating carrier member (insulator) 20 ... Fusing portion

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A fuse element formed by punching out from a conductive metal plate material, wherein the metal plate material is a profiled material having a thick portion and a thin portion, and a fusing portion is formed from the thin portion. Fuse element characterized by. 2. A manufacturing method of a fuse element, which is characterized in that a metal plate material having conductivity and having a thick portion and a thin portion is punched so that a fusing portion is formed by the thin portion. Method. 3. A fuse device in which a fuse element formed by punching out a conductive metal plate material is arranged on an insulator, wherein the metal plate material is a deformed material having a thick portion and a thin portion. A fuse device, wherein the fusing portion of the fuse element is formed by the thin portion. 4. The fuse element according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of fusing parts are arranged in parallel, and at least one end side of each of the fusing parts is gathered together by an appropriate number and connected to the connecting piece part.