Start-up fuse for aluminium reduction electrolysis cell

摘要

A Fuse 3 for bridging the gap (8, figure 1) between an upstream cathode busbar (1, figure 1) and a downstream cathode busbar (2, figure 1) in an electrolysis plant, comprises a metallic band-shaped body comprising a) two contact surfaces (19a,19b, figure 1 or 3) for contacting respectively a surface of said upstream cathode busbar (1) and a surface of said downstream cathode busbar (2), b) two main sections 4a,4b respectively adjacent to said contactsurfaces (19a,19b), c) a central section 5 adjacent to said main sections 4a,4b, wherein said central section 5 has a transverse cross section having a surface area that is smaller than the surface area of any transverse cross section of said main section 4. The smaller transverse cross section of the central section 5 may be caused by drilling ahole in said section. The fuse may be a curved fuse (figure 3). A method of starting up a pot in a series of at least two pots (10, 11, figure 6) in an electrolysis plant, each pot being associated with a cathode busbar having an upstream cathode busbar (1, figure 6) and a downstream cathode busbar (2, figure 6) separated by a gap (8, figure 6) comprises a) inserting at least one electrically conductive wedge into said gap (8) such that current can flow from the upstream cathode busbar to the downstream cathode busbar across the at least one wedge, b) installing a fuse as defined above across the gap (8) such that current can flow from upstream cathode busbar to the downstream cathode busbar across the fuse, c) withdrawing the at least one wedge, where in steps a) and b) can be performed in any order.