Commercially available HV fuses are quite expensive.
I thought of using a small spring instead, like the ones in ball-point pens.
They are about one inch long and could be spread between two isolated
standoffs about 2 1/2 inches apart.
The ball-point pen springs are made with thin wire, but could easily
carry several hundred mA.
In case of a flashover current through the tube can reach tens of
Amperes. In that case the wire would melt, the spring would split and
the two halves would quickly retract, in less than a millisecond and
stay about one inch apart, so the arc would quickly extinguish.
I wonder if this would work. Has someone tried it?
Old Philips TV sets had a similar system on some power resistors. They
were soldered on two small springs. If the resistor became too hot, the
solder would melt and the springs would retract, thereby interrupting
the circuit.
Angel Vilaseca HB9SLV
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