Low-Current Fuse Stamping with Bonded Foil Backing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for producing low-current fuse elements, such as stamping, skiving, or coining, face challenges in achieving the necessary thinness and narrowness without material damage, making it difficult to manufacture high-quality low-current fuses efficiently and cost-effectively.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a conventional stamping process using a base metal blank with bonded conductive foil, where the base metal provides a rigid backing to facilitate the stamping of thin conductive foil, allowing for the production of high-quality, low-current fuse elements with additional strength and support.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional stamping processes are used to produce low-current fuse elements, then manufacturing cost is reduced and ease of manufacture is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates because the elements cannot achieve the requisite thin and narrow dimensions without damage
Solution Approach 1:
A bonding layer is introduced as an intermediary between the thin conductive foil and the stamping tool. This bonding layer provides a surface for conventional stamping tools to effectively stamp thin fuse elements without causing damage, enabling the use of simple stamping processes while achieving precise thin and narrow dimensions.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state and properties of the conductive foil by bonding it to a substrate. This parameter change allows the foil to be stamped with conventional tools while maintaining the required thinness and narrowness, resolving the contradiction between ease of manufacture and manufacturing precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If skiving or coining methods are used to produce thin and narrow fuse elements, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases and ease of manufacture deteriorates because these methods are extremely difficult to employ
Solution Approach 1:
The bonding layer serves as a mediator that enables conventional stamping tools to achieve the precision normally requiring complex skiving or coining methods. This intermediary allows simple stamping processes to produce thin and narrow fuse elements with high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the complex skiving or coining operations from the manufacturing process and replaces them with simple stamping. The bonding layer is introduced to enable this extraction, allowing the complex precision-achieving steps to be removed while maintaining manufacturing precision.
3Device complexity
If conventional stamping is used on thin conductive foil directly, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability deteriorates because material tear-through occurs during stamping
Solution Approach 1:
The bonding layer acts as a protective intermediary between the stamping tool and the thin conductive foil. This intermediary prevents direct contact that would cause tear-through, thereby maintaining reliability while keeping the stamping process simple and low-complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The bonding layer provides beforehand cushioning by being placed between the stamping tool and the conductive foil prior to the stamping operation. This cushioning prevents material tear-through during stamping, ensuring reliability without increasing device complexity.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1C
Figure 1D~2B
Figure 2C
AI summary
A convenient, cost-effective method for manufacturing low-current fuse elements. The method may include the steps of stamping a substrate out of a sheet of material and stamping at least one hole in the substrate. The method may further include the steps of bonding a layer of fuse material to a surface of the substrate with a portion of the fuse material covering the hole, stamping a fuse element out of the portion of fuse material covering the hole, and separating an individual fuse from the fuse material and the substrate. A low-current fuse can thereby be obtained using an easily performed stamping process.