Cooper Electronic Technologies Adds Significant Product Technology to its Portfolio
20 September 1999
Cooper Electronic Technologies Adds Significant Product Technology to its Portfolio
ST. LOUIS--Sept. 20, 1999--Cooper Electronic Technologies announced today the availability of its new Polytron(TM) series of resettable PTC circuit protection products."This represents a significant step forward in fulfilling our strategic plan of bringing a totally integrated solution to the marketplace for our customers' overcurrent, overvoltage and power conversion challenges," said Steven D. Hogge, Cooper Electronic Technologies' director of global business development.
Hogge went on to say that the addition of these polymeric resettable fuses is not only an important enhancement to Cooper Electronic Technologies' product portfolio, but that the added material technology and design expertise is significant as well.
Polytron circuit protection devices can be used in almost any application where there is a low-voltage power source and load, including computers and peripherals, telecommunications, automotive, and consumer electronics, and many other high-density circuit board applications.
"Design engineers now have an additional source for competitively priced resettable fuses," according to Ed Carter, Cooper Electronic Technologies' marketing manager of overcurrent products. "In addition, we're one of only a few companies that offers both the traditional fuse products and those with the polymer resettable technology." -- more -- What makes the Polytron device so unique is the polymer it's made of. This material is made from a conductive plastic that produces a large non-linear Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) effect when heated.
When the conductive plastic material is at normal room temperature, numerous carbon chains provide conductive paths through the material. Under fault conditions, excessive current flows through the Polytron device. The resulting heat increase causes the material's temperature to rise until it exceeds its phase transformation temperature, at which time the polymer matrix changes to an amorphous structure. As the conductive particles move apart from each other most of them no longer conduct current, which causes the device to interrupt the fault condition. Once this fault condition is removed, the device cools and returns to its normal state and circuit function resumes.
"The ability for these devices to provide this circuit protection function numerous times", Carter said, "is what makes Polytron resettable fuses so unique and effective."
Cooper Electronic Technologies' broad range of Polytron devices comes in axial, radial and surface mount configurations.
Packaging options include bulk, ammo-pak, and tape-and-reel for surface mount varieties, with pricing starting at $.24 each in 10,000 quantities, depending on the specific product options.
Cooper Electronic Technologies is a global manufacturer of electronic circuit protection, power conversion and filtering components. Brand names include Bussmann(R) electronic fuses, Coiltronics(R) power magnetics, and SurgX(R) ESD suppression components.
For more detailed information on Polytron(TM) resettable polymer fuses, please contact Mr. Ed Carter, Product Marketing Manager, at (636) 527-1613.