Surge suppressor and method with components oriented for improved safety

摘要

Improvements to surge suppressors with thermal cutoffs to reduce the risk of burning through the outer enclosure in the event electrical components such as current diverters or MOVs over heat. Improvements include revised layouts or orientations of components so that neighboring components or surfaces are at a closer electrical potential or so that exteriors of thermal cutoffs are on the protected side of the thermal cutoffs. Redundant thermal cutoffs or thermal cutoffs with nonconducting exteriors may be used and thermal cutoffs may be sandwiched between current diverters in blocks so that the sides of the current diverters that are adjacent to the thermal cutoffs are normally at the same electrical potential as the thermal cutoffs.