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Mersen's expertise is geared to serving expanding markets like energy (including renewable energies), transportation, chemical-pharmaceuticals or electronics, but also its traditional markets like process industries, helping them to achieve greater energy efficiency.
- Anticorrosion and process equipment
- Electrical Solutions For Motors And Generators
- Advanced materials and solutions for high temperature
- Safety & Reliability for electrical power
Mersen’s business is organized today around 2 poles of expertise on which the Group holds leadership or co-leadership positions. Graphite systems and high-tech materials for highly demanding industrial environments: high temperature applications, anti-corrosive equipments; Components and innovative solutions underpinning the performance and safety of electrical installations: carbon brushes and brush holders, signal transfer systems for wind turbines, industrial fuses, cooling for power electronics…
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Mersen’s corporate project is first and foremost based on men and women of the Group.They are the one that have the expertise and develop innovative solutions. Their knowledge and know-how are Mersen’s primary asset, its human capital.
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initiative is part of a whole series of measures that the Group has implemented over the past few years to promote diversity. As a priority avenue of im...
Mersen makes this space available for its shareholders. You will find essential information about he Group with regulated information, presentations, letters to shareholders as well as other documents allowing you to better understand Mersen and its strategy.
Mersen makes this space available for its shareholders. You will find essential information about he Group with regulated information, presentations, letters to shareholders as well as other documents allowing you to better understand Mersen and its strategy.
No. 7: High circuit breaking capacity, a key factor in electrical protection
Electrical protection systems must be able to shut off the current very rapidly in order to protect equipment against short circuits. This is one, but not the only reason why fuses rank well ahead of competing electrical protection devices. We explain why in the following article.
SAME BASIC PRINCIPLES ALWAYS AT WORK
Thermal effects lie at the heart of how a fuse operates. Inside the body of a fuse (see diagram), the specially developed metal fuse element is designed to melt when the current exceeds a certain level. No external manifestation occurs because the electric arc resulting from the fusion remains inside the fuse, and the energy is absorbed by the sand filler, which turns into glass as a result of the heat.
APPARENT SIMPLICITY MASKING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Though simple on the face of things, fuses are actually highly sophisticated. While the physical principle underpinning how they work never changes, improvements are constantly being made and are studied as part of permanent research programs, focused notably on the following points:
- The metallic profile of the fuse element: the fuse element is affected by an aging phenomenon caused by the thermal and mechanical constraints to which it is subject during its service life. Understanding and controlling this phenomenon play a crucial role in optimizing these products.
- The filler material, notably studies of the extent to which it has to be compacted, helps to safeguard the fuse’s performance.
- The ceramics performance: the body of fuses for power semiconductors relies on technical ceramics able to withstand very high mechanical pressure and thermal constraints. Research into the field aims to optimize use of these materials or even to find alternative materials.
- Distribution of the current in the fuse element, which is unequal for certain applications with high-frequency current components, is another area of in-depth research.
There are thus thousands of models of fuses, each one designed for the particular characteristics of the electrical equipment it protects and tailored to meet the local standards.
UNDENIABLE STRENGTHS
If we had to spotlight just one property of a fuse, it would be its exceptionally rapid action when a problem occurs. A few milliseconds are sufficient to eliminate a short circuit completely.
But that is not its sole strength. Exceptional breaking capacity (up to 300,000A for certain industrial fuses), the safety they provide for installations and people, owing to the way in which they operate, the quality of the current they guarantee and indeed their cost and ease of maintenance make them a crucial weapon in the electrical protection armory.
Factoring in their undeniable economic benefits vis-a?-vis their total cost of ownership (acquisition, installation and maintenance), it is easy to understand why fuses are used very widely in industrial installations, from straightforward low-voltage distribution panels through to highly expensive power electronic equipments (rectifiers, inverters, speed controllers), the shut-off times of which have to be minimized.
MERSEN AND FUSE-BASED ELECTRICAL PROTECTION
Mersen is the world leader in the fuse-based protection of electrical circuits and installations. Thanks to what is the currently widest range of products in terms of standards catered to and its unique global reach, the Group is present in all applications and in all markets, notably thanks to the research and development drive that it is implementing at its labs around the world.
