Design Study of a Pre-fuse Box for Power Management 2004-01-1566
The main purpose of a pre-fuse box in a vehicle is to prevent damage to the harness and car that may occur in high current conducting wires in the event of a short circuit caused during an accident.
The design study investigates several integration possibilities for components, thereby providing more than just the housing of high current fuses, but by also, with the inclusion of extra components, providing additional functionality. These additional components can be employed to provide full power management.
The pre fuse box under discussion includes a high current battery relay to disconnect the so-called comfort consumer devices i.e. air conditioning etc.. and to avoid battery break downs. The battery disconnect switch can be activated by an electronic circuit that is located within the pre fuse box in a separated sealed area. This electronic device has the ability to handle the information regarding the status of health and level of charge of the battery given by an external sensor.
The box contains an integrated high current fuse that has multiple connections to fuses with values ranging from 30 up to 150 Amps. The outgoing wires are connected using blade terminals or screwed ring terminals.
To connect the starter and generator a special high current connector to the desired wire is utilized.
Through the use of additional functionality the box also contains low current fuses for applications such as car safety systems and hazard warning lights.
Using this extra functionality, pre-fuse boxes have the ability to provide efficient full power management.
