I see Vishay have just introduced some resistors designed to deliberately ignite pyrotechnics:
Perhaps these have been around a while, but it's the first I've heard of them. I just like the idea that these are so opposite to normal design requirements. At last we can build computers that blow up properly when they fail, like in SF movies.
Vishay is probably buying a firework manufacturer
martin
I'd be afraid to order this. I might get a visit from CSIS.
Tried 'EPIC' in Digikey ...nothin... Perhaps Digikey chickened out. (Or other...)
D from BC British Columbia Canada.
Well, these have a resistance
I worked on a design once for the Australian Navy that used burning resistors as a trigger. The first resistor had a string tied around it that held back a spring loaded sharp point. When the resistor burned the string broke and the probe pierced a small bottle that inflated a float bag.
The second resistor was attached to the side of the bag, and when "fired" melted a small hole in the inflated bag and the device sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Couldn't have the Ruskies coming along and picking up the gear now could we :->
Dave.
One of the faux paus Russia made during the cold war was underestimating just how deep our subs could go. :-)
American nuclear weapons are mostly plutonium implosion gadgets. The plutonium pit is embedded in a sphere of explosives, with a lot of detonators around the outside. The detonators I saw were thinfilm gold; dump a lot of joules from a capacitor into a few micrograms of gold and you get a pretty good, nanosecond-accurate initiation.
There are some "safe" explosives that can't be detonated by a regular chemical blasting cap. They can be set off by a tiny thinfilm resistor with a plastic coating. Dump a cap into that, and the plastic vaporizes with enough energy to start things.
John
Just saw an episode of "how its made" (I think) where they showed how high voltage fuses are made, there was actually a small charge of gunpowder inside used to drive a sharp metal spike through the end cap to show when it was blown.
funny how those resistors have the usual "not designed for use in medical, life-saving, or life-sustaining applications." disclaimer in the end :)
-Lasse
Actually just another now declassified product going mainstream. Larger pyrotechnic resistors have been around for 70 years.
A slightly more advanced version of what i was using over 30 years ago.
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