Fuse Boxes with Integrated Surge Protection Application

The move to upgrade street lights to LED luminaires was an enlightening challenge for one German city. When a German municipality planned to change its 28,000 street lighting luminaires to LED, it knew that LED luminaires are sensitive to voltage spikes caused by everything from switching operations to lightning strikes. Therefore, protection for the LED luminaires would be a critical part of the retrofitting project. Each street light would need a surge arrester installed inside the fuse box located in the base of the poles.

Changing fuse boxes is time consuming due to required wiring of components inside the box and the connection of luminaire cables. The customer was looking for a product that allowed fast and reliable installation, and approached a surge arrester manufacturer to find the right product. The components available in the market from the manufacturer, however, were not designed to withstand the harsh environment inside lighting poles.

Additionally, the customer wanted surge arresters that could be installed quickly and efficiently. This meant that the installation location had to be close to ground level and not inside the luminaires themselves. In order to meet this application challenge, the municipality turned to TE Connectivity (TE) who had been supplying them with other components for more than a decade. The solution needed to provide ease of installation of the surge arresters while meeting their requirements.

TE Connectivity (TE) engineers developed an innovative concept that would offer protection and ease of installation and maintenance by proposing to install the surge arresters inside the fuse boxes.

They specifically designed fuse boxes for harsh conditions in street lighting poles, allowing:

• The connection between the cable network and the luminaire
• The electrical protection of the equipment by fuses
• An easy and reliable installation of network cables in a narrow environment inside the lighting poles

TE and the German municipality partnered even further. Together, they discussed about the idea of making the installation even easier by getting the luminaires prewired and equipped with a special plug, and having the fuse box prewired and equipped with a receptacle.

TE was able to tailor a product exactly to its customer’s needs. The solution enabled easy installation of fuse boxes with surge arresters, which saves significant installation time even when compared with the standard product the municipality had purchased in the past.

With over 60 years of experience in materials science and engineering, TE engineers are able to meet a wide range of customer requirements and develop innovative, customized solutions that address specific needs.