When selecting fuses, we may have a question, most of the products can be replaced between different brands, so is it the same with fuses? Is it possible to replace fuses of different brands with the same rated current?

The role of the fuse

The role of the fuse in the circuit includes two aspects: 1. In the event of circuit failure overcurrent, it should be able to fuse itself within the specified time frame so as to interrupt the current, to protect the circuit and personal safety; 2. When there is a non-fault transient overcurrent in the circuit, to ensure that the circuit continues to work properly, can not be arbitrarily blown. These functions are realized by selecting the appropriate fusing characteristics of the fuse and the appropriate rated current specifications, and in the selection is based on the fuse manufacturer to provide technical information, including “time – current characteristic curve” and “time – energy characteristic curve” and so on.

The fuse characteristics

The fuse characteristics and rated current are only a name, and do not truly reflect the actual fuse current, fuse time and melting thermal energy. There is a certain difference between different brands of products. For example, the same is a slow fuse product, brand A may be slightly faster than brand B, but certainly slower than brand A’s own fast fuse product. Although there are some basic consensus in the industry, there are recognized standards, but these standards are quite wide range of data. So although both can meet the standard requirements, but there are still some differences between the two. Therefore, we are in the fuse (fuse) replacement, in addition to confirming the same rated current, it is best to identify the difference between the two through the characteristics of the curve how big, to avoid errors or losses caused by performance differences.

The consequences of random direct replacement

Simple direct replacement may result in insufficient protection performance or fuse blown abnormally, resulting in the whole machine can not work. The latter is more likely to occur.
Therefore, different brands of fuses with the same rated current may not be directly replaced. For the safety of the circuit, we should choose a fuse with similar parameters and smaller differences for replacement. Before choosing a replacement, we must ask about the parameters.