ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Electrical Theory and Applications Under the hood of melting wires

Maybe I'm over simplifying things but I view it as two different issues:
1.) Resistive heating of the conductor.
2.) The temperature at which elements change to their molten or gaseous states.

You can melt a fuse element or vaporize it depending on fault currents and I'm sure we've all seen both types.
Joe


[This message has been edited by JoeTestingEngr (edited 02-27-2006).]