Contactor control system and method for controlling a contactor

Abstract

A contactor control system includes a switching member, a high voltage load, a high voltage energy storage, a bi-directional DC/DC-converter operatively connected to the switching member, a high-voltage capacitor operatively connected to the high-voltage load, and a low voltage energy storage operatively connected to the bi-directional DC/DC-converter, wherein the switching member is adapted to connect and disconnect the high voltage energy storage to and from the high voltage load, where the bi-directional DC/DC-converter is adapted to pre-charge the high-voltage capacitor to a predefined voltage value from the low voltage energy storage before the switching member is closed and adapted to discharge the high-voltage capacitor to the low voltage energy storage when the switching member has been opened. The advantage of the invention is that a DC-link capacitor can be charged from and discharged to a low voltage battery by using a bi-directional DC/DC-converter. Energy losses can thus be minimized.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.