Environmental fuse

1. A method of protecting an actuator against failure, comprising:

establishing a norm of factors affecting an operation of the actuator as based on an operating environment of the actuator;

providing the norm with a tolerance defining a condition for the operation of the actuator in the operating environment;

observing the operating environment of the actuator in order to detect a deviation that falls outside said tolerance, the observation being performed by an environmental fuse comprising a sensor member with a first connecting surface and a second connecting surface for feeding a flux through an active layer disposed between the first connecting surface and the second connecting surface, wherein the active later is arranged to cause a change in the flux's passing through the active layer when

cumulatively subjecting the active layer to a component present in the operating environment, and

limiting and/or interrupting a supply to the actuator when said deviation falls outside said tolerance for the operation.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises generating an excitation signal by said sensor member.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises generating a response by a functional member of the environmental fuse, in response to an excitation signal.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein said response comprises a function in which the supply to the actuator is limited and/or interrupted.

5. A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein said response comprises an alarm function.

6. A maintenance server comprising a block configured to process and store information concerning an alarm from an environmental fuse and/or for generating a response in order to limit and/or interrupt the supply to that actuator whose environmental fuse is the source of the alarm, wherein said environmental fuse has a sensor member with a first connecting surface and a second connecting surface for feeding a flux through, an active layer disposed between the first and second connecting surfaces, wherein the active layer is arranged to cause a change in the flux's passing through the active layer when cumulatively subjected to a component present in the operating environment, and a block configured to limit and/or interrupt a supply to the actuator, in order to keep the actuator in a working order.

7. A maintenance server as defined in claim 6 , comprising software as an implementation.

8. A maintenance server as defined in claim 6 , comprising a block configured to report alarm information to a data network.

9. A maintenance server as defined in claim 8 , wherein said data network comprises one or a combination of the following: Internet, a local network, and a network based on a cellular system.

10. An environmental fuse for protecting an actuator against failure, the environmental fuse comprising a sensor member to detect a change that occurs in an environment and deviates from a tolerance according to a norm, and a functional member having a block configured to limit or interrupt the supply to the said actuator and/or to give an alarm, said environmental fuse further comprising a sensor member having a first connecting surface and a second connecting surface for feeding a flux, an active layer disposed between the first and second connecting surfaces, wherein the active layer is configured to cause a change in the flux's passing through the active layer when cumulatively subjected to a component present in the operating environment.

11. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , further comprising a collecting arrangement for collecting a component present in the composition of the environment.

12. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 11 , wherein said collecting arrangement is based on the collection of a component present in the environment on a substrate through diffusion, electrical interaction, impaction, interception, filtering and/or deposition.

13. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 11 , wherein the collecting arrangement comprises a collecting substrate comprising a wire, strip, dielectric substrate, conductive substrate and/or filter.

14. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the sensor member is configured to detect particulate material, gas and/or moisture.

15. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein said flux comprises a flux of electric current.

16. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the change in said flux's passing is based on a change of the opacity of a medium and/or an interface thereof.

17. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 16 , wherein said flux comprises a flux of radiation.

18. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein said actuator comprises a controller of another actuator.

19. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the environmental fuse comprises:

a first component of the sensor member to detect a first change that occurs in the environment and deviates from a first tolerance according to a norm, and

a second component of the sensor member to detect a second change that occurs in the environment and deviates from a second tolerance according to a norm.

20. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 19 , wherein said first component and second component of the sensor member are integrated into an integrated sensor member.

21. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the environmental fuse comprises:

a first functional member having functional configured to limit and/or interrupt a first part of the supply to the actuator to be protected and/or to give an alarm, and

a second functional member having functional configured to limit and/or interrupt a second part of the supply to the actuator to be protected and/or to give an alarm.

22. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the environmental fuse has a modular component to be replaced with another similar component.

23. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 22 , wherein the modular component of the environmental fuse comprises the sensor member.

24. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the environmental fuse comprises a memory for storing one or more of an environment, actuator, norm, and a quantity value dependent on the state of the environment.

25. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the environmental fuse comprises one or more of a memory for authenticating an environment, actuator, norm, and a quantity value dependent on the state of the environment.

26. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 10 , wherein the sensor member of the environmental fuse comprises an active layer having one or more of a capacitance, an inductance, and a resistance.

27. An environmental fuse as defined in claim 26 , wherein said active layer is configured to form part of a measuring bridge.

28. An actuator, wherein the actuator comprises the environmental fuse according to claim 10 .

29. An actuator as defined in claim 28 , further comprising one or more of an electric drive, power supply, drive controller, pump, and fan.