Lecture No 05

EEE-435

Industrial Electronics
Text Book: Chapter 07 (Industrial electronics by Frank D. Petruzella

 Electromechanical Relays

Instructor: Usman Nasim

Electrical Engineering Department

1
Relays
• Many applications in industry and in process control require relays as
critical control elements.
• Relays are used primarily as switching devices in a circuit.
• This chapter explains the operation of different types of relays and the
advantages and limitations of each type.
• Relay specifications are also presented to show how to determine the
correct relay type for different applications.
Electromechanical Control relay (EMR)
• An electromechanical relay (EMR) is best defined as a switch that is operated
by an electromagnet.
• The relay turns a load circuit on or off by energizing an electromagnet, which
opens or closes contacts connected in series with a load.
• A relay is made up of two circuits: the coil input or control circuit and the
contact output or load circuit, as illustrated in Figure 7-1.
• Relays are used to control small loads of 15 A or less. In motor circuits
electromechanical relays are often used to control motor contactors and
starters.
• Other application include switching of solenoids, pilot lights, audible alarms
and small motors ( 1∕8 hp or less).
• Operation of a relay is very similar to that of a contactor. The main
difference between a control relay and a contactor is the size and
number of contacts.
• Control relay contacts are relatively small because they need to
handle only the small currents used in control circuits.
• The small size of control relay contacts allows control relays to
contain multiple isolated contacts.
Working of EMR
• A relay will usually have only one coil, but it may have any number of different contacts.
• Electromechanical relays contain both stationary and moving contacts, as illustrated in
Figure 7-2.
• The moving contacts are attached to the armature.
• Contacts are referred to as normally open (NO) and normally closed (NC).
• When the coil is energized, it produces an electromagnetic field. Action of this field, in turn,
causes the armature to move, closing the NO contacts and opening the NC contacts.
• The distance that the plunger moves is generally short—about ¼ Inch or less. A letter is used
in most diagrams to designate the coil.
• The letter M frequently indicates a motor starter, while CR is used for control relays. The
associated contacts will have the same identifying letters.
Working of EMR
• Normally open contacts are open when no current flows through the
coil but closed as soon as the coil conducts a current or is energized.
• Normally closed contacts are closed when the coil is deenergized and
open when the coil is energized.
• Each contact is normally drawn as it would appear with the coil
deenergized.
• Some control relays have some provision for changing contacts from
normally open to normally closed types, or vice versa. The provisions
range from a simple flip-over contact to removing the contacts and
relocating with spring location changes.
Application Example
• Relays are used to control several switching operations by a single,
separate current.
• One relay coil/armature assembly may be used to actuate more than
one set of contacts.
• Those contacts may be normally open, normally closed, or any
combination of the two.
• A simple example of this type of application is the relay control with
two pilot lights illustrated in Figure 7-3.
The operation of the circuit can be summarized as follows:

• With the switch open, coil CR1 is deenergized.

• The circuit to the green pilot light is completed through normally closed
contact CR1-2, so this light will be on.
• At the same time, the circuit to the red pilot light is opened through
normally open contact CR1-1, so this light will be off.
• With the switch closed, the coil is energized.
• The normally open contact CR1-1 closes to switch the red pilot light on.
• At the same time, the normally closed CR1-2 opens to switch the green
pilot light off.
Relay Applications
• Relays are extremely useful when we need to control a large amount of current
and/or voltage with a small electrical signal.
• The relay coil, which produces the magnetic field, may consume only a fraction
of a watt of power, while the contacts closed or opened by that magnetic field
may be able to conduct hundreds of times that amount of power to a load.
• You can use a relay to control a high-voltage load circuit with a low-voltage
control circuit as illustrated in the circuit of Figure 7-4.
• This is possible because the coil and contacts of the relay are electrically
insulated from each other.
• The relay’s coil is energized by the low- voltage (12-V) source, while the contact
interrupts the high voltage (480-V) circuit.
• Closing and opening the switch energizes and deenergizes the coil. This, in turn,
closes and opens the contacts to switch the load on and off.
Relay Styles and Specifications

• Control relays are available in a variety of styles and types. One popular type is
the general-purpose “ice cube” relay, so named because of its size and shape
and the clear plastic enclosure surrounding the contacts.
• Although the contacts are nonreplaceable, this relay is designed to plug into a
socket, making replacement fast and simple in the event of failure. An eight-pin
plug-in-style ice cube relay is shown in Figure 7-6.
• This relay contains two separate single-pole double-throw contacts. Because the
relay plugs into a socket, the wiring is connected to the socket, not the relay. The
numbering on the socket base designates a terminal with the corresponding pin
position.
• Care must be taken not to confuse the base numbers with the wire reference
numbers used to label control wires.
Pick up voltage:
• The level of voltage at which relay coil is energized, resulting in
contact switching.
Drop out voltage:
• Level of voltage at relay coil at which contacts return to its
unoperated condition.
• Like contactors, relay coils and contacts have separate ratings. Relay
coils are usually rated for type of operating current (DC or AC), normal
operating voltage or current, permissible coil voltage variation (pickup
and dropout), resistance, and power.
• Coil voltages of 12 V DC, 24 V DC, 24 V AC, and 120 V AC are most
common. Sensitive relay coils that require as little as 4 mA at 5 V DC
are used in relay circuits operated by transistor or integrated circuit
chips.
• Relays are available in a wide range of switching configurations. Figure
7-7 illustrates common relay contact switching arrangements. Like
switch contacts, relay contacts are classified by their number of poles,
throws, and breaks.
• The number of poles indicates the number of completely isolated
circuits that a relay contact can switch. The single-pole contact can
conduct current through only one circuit at a time while a double pole
contact can conduct current through two circuits simultaneously.
• A throw is the number of closed contact positions per pole (single or
double). The single-throw contact can control current in only one
circuit while the double-throw contact can control two circuits.
• The term break designates the number of points in a set of contacts
where the current will be interrupted during opening of the contacts.
All relay contacts are constructed as single break or double break.
• Single-break contacts have lower current ratings because they break
the current at only one point.
• the maximum amount of current the contacts are capable of handling
at a specified voltage level and type (AC or DC). Current ratings
specified may include:
 Inrush or make-contact capacity
 Normal or continuous carrying capacity
 Opening or break capacity
• The load-carrying capacity of contacts is normally given as a current value
for a resistive load. Lamp filaments are resistive, but change in value by a
large factor from their cold state to their operating state resistance.
• This effect is so great that the inrush current can be expected to be 10 to
15 times greater than the steady-state value. Normal practice is to de-rate
contacts to 20 percent of their resistive load capabilities for a lamp load.
• Inductive loads, such as transformers, act as energy storage devices and
can cause excessive contact arcing when the relay breaks the circuit. For
inductive type loads contacts are normally de-rated to 50 percent of their
resistive load capacity.
• Relay contacts often have two ratings: AC and DC.
• These ratings indicate how much power can be switched through the
contacts. One way to determine the maximum power capacity of
relay contacts is to multiply the rated volts times the rated amperes.
This will give you the total watts a relay can switch.
• For instance, a 5-A relay rated at 125 V AC can also switch 2.5 A at
250 V AC. Similarly, a 5-A relay rated at 24 V DC can switch 2.5 A at 48
V DC, or even 10 A at 12 V DC.
Review Questions
What exactly is an electromechanical control relay?
 A relay involves two circuits. Name the two circuits and explain how they
interact with each other.
Compare control relays with contactors.
Describe the switching action of normally open and normally closed relay
contacts.
Outline three basic ways in which control relays are put to use in electric and
electronic circuits.
An eight-pin octal-base ice-cube-style relay is to be wired into a control circuit
that requires a set of NO and NC contacts electrically isolated from one another.
State the number of the pin connections you would use for each contact.
Review Questions
How many breaks can relay contacts have?
What does SPDT stand for?
List three types of current ratings that may be specified for relay
contacts.
The load-carrying capacity of contacts is normally given as a current
value for a resistive load. Name two types of load devices that require
this value to be de-rated.
How many amperes of current can a relay contact rated for 10 A at
250 V AC safely switch at 125 V AC?