Contactors and motor starters

Burhanuddin Yamani Oktavian Lintin Nur Endah Lizarifin

Magnetic Contactors
Magnetic contactors as a magnetically actuated device for repeatedly establishing or interrupting an electrical power circuit

Application
To switch power on and off to a pump To switch power on and off to a distribution panel Used with pilot device to control temperature and liquid level of a tank

Advantages
Matter a build a magnetic contactor that will handle large currents of high voltage,
and the manual apparatus must control only the coil of contactor Allow multiple operation Automatically initiate the proper sequence of events Automatically controlled by very sensitive pilot device Increasing the safety of an installation The control equipment may be mounted at a remote point Possible with equipment such as PLC

Type of operating electromagnets

Clapper Bell-crank

Horizontal-action
Vertical-action

DC Contactor vs AC Contactor
DC Contactor Large number of turn High ohmic resistance Limited by resistance AC Contactor Small number of turns Low ohmic reistance Limited by impedance

Shading Coils
Shading Coils is a single turn of conducting material munted on the face of
the magnetic assembly

It use to reduce the noise on the contactor

Main contact of a contactor

Act as switch Must carry their rated current without overheating, make current without
bouncing or welding, and interrupt current without undue arcing

Auxiliary Contacts
Have a much lower current rating and are used like a relay to interlock or
hold circuit

Raw material of contacts

Copper Silver

Arc suppression
Arc suppression is required to keep the contacts in the device from burning
up

Arc Chutes
Often called blowout coil Help to extinguish an electric arc at
contacts opening under ac and dc loads

Connected in series with the load, provide

a magnetic field that blows out the arc

Contactor Sizes and Ratings

Magnetic contactors are rated by NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers
Association) according to the contactors ability to carry rated current for 8 hours without overheating according to size and type of load to be controlled.

 Magnetic contactors are also rated for the type of load to be

utilized or actual applications. Load utilization categories include :

Nonlinear load

Resistive loads
Inductive loads Capacitive loads

 Enclosed magnetic contactors must be housed in an approved

enclosure based on the environment in which they must operate to provide mechanical and electrical protection. More severe environments require more substantial enclosures. Sever environment factors to be considered include:

o Exposure to damaging fumes o Operation in damp place o Exposure to excessive dust o Subject to vibration, shocks, and tilting o Subject to high ambient air temperature.

 There are two general types of enclosures: 1. nonhazardous-location, are further subdivided into the following categories: General-purpose Watertight Oiltight Dusttight 2. hazardous-location, are classified into two categories: Gaseous vapors Combustible dusts

Solid-state Contactor
A solid-state contactor is a power-switching device designed to
replace magnetic contactors for application involving both resistive and inductive loads.

Solid-state three-phase contactors are especially suited to highcycling applications owing to the absence of arc-producing air gap contacts.

 Silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) is the most common high-

power switching semiconductor that enable reliable control of electric power from 1 kW to 1000 kW for most types of resistance heaters, motors, and other inductive loads.

Two SCRs connected in inverse-parallel are necessary to switch

ac power

Zero-fired control refers to turning on the SCRs at the zero

voltage crossing for full cycles, applying full power or no power with the proportion of full cycles, or determining the resulting power to the load. This is some times called integral cycle mode or burst firing