Plug-in fuse assembly with stackable housing

In a plug-in fuse assembly including a housing made of insulating material and including a pair of upwardly extending side walls bridged by a pair of upwardly extending end walls;

• and conductive plug-in fuse element secured in said housing and having laterally spaced, generally parallel confronting terminals at the bottom thereof projecting downwardly from the bottom of said housing, said terminals having upwardly extending current-carrying extensions, and a fuse link extending between said current-carrying extensions;
• portions of said current-carrying extensions and said fuse link being enclosed by said end and side walls;
• the improvement wherein at least one of said pairs of walls each has outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces parallel to the corresponding outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces on the opposite end or side of the housing, said outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces being adapted to engage the complementary outermost vertical wall surfaces of an identical plug-in fuse assembly placed with the identical orientation beside it, to provide for a stable stacking of numbers of identical plug-in fuse assemblies in a stacking hopper or the like, said outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces of each wall of said pair occupying only a fractional part of the total outer exposed area of the wall involved, the remainder of which is recessed within the vertical plane thereof.

In a plug-in fuse assembly including a housing made of insulating material and including a pair of upwardly extending side walls bridged by a pair of upwardly extending end walls;

• and a conductive plug-in fuse element secured in said housing and having laterally spaced, generally parallel confronting terminals at the bottom thereof projecting downwardly from the bottom of said housing, said terminals having upwardly extending current-carrying extensions, and a fuse link extending between said current-carrying extensions;
• portions of said current-carrying extensions and said fuse link being enclosed by said end and side walls;
• the improvement wherein each of said side and end walls has outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces which are parallel to the housing side or end involved and to the corresponding outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces on the opposite end or side of the housing, said outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces being adapted to engage the complementary outermost vertical wall surfaces of an identical plug-in fuse assembly placed with the identical end-to-end or side-by-side orientation beside it, to provide for a stable stacking of numbers of identical plug-in fuse assemblies in a stacking hopper or the like, said outermost vertical coplanar wall surfaces of each wall occupying only a fractional part of the total outer exposed surface area of the housing wall involved, the remainder of which is recessed within the vertical plane thereof.