Fail-safe surge arrester.

摘要

A fail-safe, non-fragmenting surge arrester (10) includes a liner (14) having one or more outlets (40) formed in the walls thereof for venting ionized gases generated within the liner by internal arcing. The vented ionized gas forms a lower impedance path for the current which is thereby shunted around the failed internal components, preventing the generation of internal pressure which could otherwise cause a fragmenting failure mode of the arrester. The internal components include stacked varistor elements (22) and may include an internal fuse link (110) electrically in series with the varistor.