Fuse clip for a cartridge fuseholder

Abstract

A fuseholder assembly for a fusible loadcenter is described. The assembly comprises a fuse unit and a base member. The fuse unit includes a pair of spaced apart U shaped fuse clips axially aligned about the longitudinal axis of a cartridge fuse. The fuse clips each have two mutually opposed wing contact portions that are substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis. The broad contacting surface area of the wing contact portions are capable of making contact with a load or line contact. The base member has an opening therein for receiving the fuse unit. The base member has a load and line contact each of which includes a base portion and two resilient side strips that are closely adjacent to each other. Each side strip is independently biased towards the opening in the base member and lies on a plane normal to the longitudinal axis. Each broad surface area of the wing portions makes wiping electrical contact with a smooth contact surface of a corresponding independently biased side strip when the fuse unit is inserted in the opening of the base member. Previous fuseholder assemblies have a heat producing joint where the contacts join the legs of the fuse clips. The present fuseholder eliminates this heat producing joints by forming the wing contact portion from the legs of the fuse clips. The present assembly also compensates for discrepencies in the lengths of mutually opposed contacts by providing two independently biased side strips.