TECHNICAL NEWS

Issue 6
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Quarterly Technical
Newsletter o f Australia's
leading supplier of
low-voltage motor control
and switchgear.
CONTACTOR
OPERATING SPEED
Introduction
The basic contactor has
been around for a long
time. Most people in the
electrical industry take
them for granted and do
not appreciate that in
some applications the T1 T2
speed of operation can be
critical. Between Fig. 1 Coil current during closing operation of a
different contactor contactor AC magnet
designs and control Is Rated coil current
circuits there can be ls 1 Closing current of coil (6 ... 25 Is depending on
significant differences in contactor)
the closing and opening T1 Closing command (coil closed)
times. In some cases the 12 Magnet closed
delay on opening times
can be as high as several to develop sufficient the highly inductive
seconds. power to rapidly close. nature of the magnet
The time from the closing system and high voltage
AC types command to the magnetic spikes can be produced.
system closing is The arcing is normally
typically in the order of extinguished in the first
Switching on •
20mSec. This will vary zero passage of the
The operation of by about± 5mSec., current. (Fig. 2).
contactors on AC is depending on the actual
generally faster than DC. point on the wave that the The fastest opening
When switching on there closing command is operation is obtained
• AC types 1 is a starting current inrush
created by the build up of
made. (Fig. 1). when no suppression
devices are fitted to the
• DC control 2 the magnetic field and the
initially low inductance
Switching off-
When switching off the
coil. The use of sensitive
electronic equipment in
• Case study No. 1 2 with the core of the
magnet still open. The
control contacts interrupt
the coil current and an
the vicinity of the
contactor control circuit
• Case study No. 2 3 low initial inductance electric arc is produced. requires suppression of
allows the magnet system The arcing is enhanced by the voltage transient. The
• Case study No. 2 4
 (

(continuetffrom page 1) some contactors, drop out While the coil inductance has
delays exceeding lOOmSec. no effect on the final current, it
most common form is a simple can arise. does slow the rate of rise in
RC network connected across current and there is a delay
the coil and this has the before sufficient force is
advantage of only slightly DC control developed to start the system
increasing the contactor Switching on - moving. (Fig. 4).
switching time. At this point it
is usually assumed that AC Unlike the AC magnet which Switching off-
magnet systems will always limits the closed current drawn With a DC system the current
open rapidly, but the circuit is by the coil inductance, the final required to hold the magnet
not always simple. If the coil current in a DC system is system closed can be very
limited by the coil resistance. small and therefore on
is connected in parallel with
other loads (Figure 3) this The closing operation for DC switching off the coil current
greatly effects the time is slower as the current profile has to decay to a very low
(
constant of the circuit and with is the reverse of an AC system. value. (Fig. 5) The fastest
drop out is achieved when the
coil is switched directly, but
this can produce high voltage
transients. A diode connected
across the coil will provide a
discharge path for the energy
in the coil, but will delay the
drop out. With some larger
u
contactors this delay can be in
the order of 1 second.
It is common with contactors
over about 500 amp rating to
use only DC magnet systems.
Fig. 2 Current and voltage curves across the contact on switching For AC control a diode bridge
off alternating current magnet drives is incorporated into the design.
If control of the coil is on the
<IIIII Fig 3. Contactor coil con- AC side, drop out of the
nected In parallel with load contactor will be slow. For
circuit alters opening time. fast operation the switching
LOAD element needs 'to be connected
on the DC side of the diode
Fig. 4 Current curve on
bridge.
switching on a pure direct •
current magnet drive.
A: Influence of the armature Case studies
-.. reaction.
Case study No 1.
i u A large bar contactor was used
~ to provide changeover to an
I'I
'' alternate supply when failure
- t-- -- - - - - _,_-
• I of the normal supply occurred.
Ie ""1--~ I ULB I The contactor was fitted with
I /' I changeover contacts to provide
I the change with only one
II I
_.,, "' contactor.
- ... ------ I

NHP Technical News, issue 6

(

{continuetffrom page 2) The time constant (T) of an

inductive circuit is:
T =1
R
L =Inductance
R = Resistance
(The time constant represents
the time taken for the current
to reach 0.63 of its initial
value.)
It can be seen from this
equation that as R decreases
the time constant increases.
Bench testing for contactor operating times. This means that the coil
current takes longer to
decrease to the drop out point
with increasing circuit load.
To try and prevent the load
circuit increasing the time
constant a small interposing
relay was connected in the coil
circuit. Even though the
interposing relay was rated for
fast operation it too suffered
from the same problem as the
contactor, although some
improvement in the total time
Fig. 5 Current and voltage curves on switching off direct current was achieved.
magnet drives
To improve the system further
16 Nominal operational current
( i Current curve on switching off the voltage rating of the
U6 Nominal operational voltage interposing relay was lowered
uLs Arc voltage and a dropping resistor used in
u Voltage across control contact series with the coil.
The series resistance was much
It was required to make the
larger than the connected load
alternate supply in under
and allowed the time constant
30mSec. after failure of the
of the circuit to be maintained
main supply.
at a relatively low level.
Testing of the contactor before
With this arrangement the
installation proved satisfactory
required changeover time was
LOAD but, when fitted, the
achieved. (Fig. 6).
changeover time regularly
exceeded 1OOmSec. Case study No 2.
The coil of the contactor was A large motor drive was found
energised directly from the to be causing problems with
normal supply. This proved to some contactors during start-
Fig 6. Interposing relay with be the problem, as it meant that up. The voltage drop at the
series resistance to improve the circuit load was connected point of connection was quite
opening time. in parallel w ith the coil. large and under some

NHP Technical News, issue 6

 NHP Electrical
Engineering Products
Pty ltd A.C.N. 004 304 812
Internet http://www.nhp.com.au
MELBOURNE
43-67 River Street,
Richmond, Vic. 3121
Phone: (03) 9429 2999
Fax (03) 9429 1075
SYDNEY
(continuetifrom page 3} was decided to try and fix This was rejected, as 30-34 Day Street North,
Silverwater, N.S.W . 2128
the problem by during normal running Phone: (02) 9748 3444
circumstances could modifying the contactors operation the applied Fax: (02) 9648 4353
cause contactors to BRISBANE
being affected by the voltage is close to the
25 Turbo Drive,
chatter. To reduce the voltage drop. nominal voltage of the Coorparoo, Qld. 4151
voltage drop would have system. The point of Phone: (07) 3891 6008
The first option Fax: (07) 3891 6139
meant upgrading a very chattering would have
considered was to change ADELAIDE
long run of cable at been lowered, but coil 50 Croydon Road,
the contactor operating
considerable expense. overheating would be Keswick, S.A. 5035
coils to a lower voltage. Phone: (08) 8297 9055
Instead of doing this it likely. Fax: (08) 8371 0962
PERTH
The solution selected was 38 Belmont Ave.,
to convert the contactor Rivervale, W .A. 6103
magnet systems to DC Phone: (08) 92771777
Fax: (08) 9277 1700
with continuously rated NEWCASTLE
coils. This style of 575 Maitland Road,
contactor has a large coil Mayfield West, N.S.W. 2304
Phone: (02) 4960 2220
which is capable of Fax: (02) 4960 2203
continuous operation at TOWNSVILLE
62 Leyland Street,
the rated voltage without Garbutt, Qld. 4814
the need to switch in a Phone: (07) 4n9 0100
limiting (economy) Fax: (07) 4775 1457
ROCKHAMPTON
resistor. The drop-out 208 Denison Street,
point of this type of Rockhampton, Qld. 4700
contactor is much lower Phone: (07) 4927 22n
Fax: (07) 4922 2947
than an AC style and is TOOWOOMBA
immune to short duration Cnr Carroll St. & Struan Crt.,
Toowoomba, Qld. 4350
losses of control voltage Phone: (07) 4634 4799
when fitted with a free Fax: (07) 4633 1796
wheeling diode across the CAIRNS
14/128 Lyons Street,
coil. The diode acts as a Bungalow, Qld. 4870
short across the coil and Phone: (07) 4035 6888
maintains the current Fax: (07) 4035 6999
DARWIN
flow resulting from the 3 Steele Street,
energy stored in the coil. Winnellie, N.T. 0820
Phone: (08) 8947 2666
After the conversion all Fax: (08) 13947 2049
The introduction of electronic coil control has contactors behaved in a Agents:
eliminated many of the problems associated with stable manner during the HOBART
199 Harrington Street,
convent/a/ coils. motor start cycle. Hobarf, Tas. 7000
Phone: (03) 6234 9299
Fax: (03) 6231 1693
LAUNCESTON

Contact NHP for all your 59 Garfield Street,

Launceston, Tas. 7250
Phone: (03) 6344 8811
Fax: (03) 6344 4069

switchgear requirements BURNIE

6 Wellington Street,
Burnie, Tas. 7320
Phone: (03) 6432 2588
Fax: (03) 6432 2580

from the one source

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NHP Technical News, issue 6