Electrical contactor
AssigneeJohnson Electric S.A.
InventorRichard Anthony Connell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrical contactor for switching a load current having an AC waveform, has a fixed electrical contact, a movable electrical contact, an actuator arrangement having a drive coil drivable for opening and closing the movable and fixed electrical contacts, and a power supply having a controller for outputting truncated-waveform drive pulses to the electrical actuator arrangement, so as to prevent contact separation prior to peak load current.
Claims20
An electrical contactor comprising:
- a fixed electrical contact, a movable electrical contact, an AC dual-coil actuator having a drive coil drivable for opening and closing the movable and fixed electrical, and a power supply having a controller for outputting truncated-waveform drive pulses to the drive coil, and wherein the AC dual-coil comprises a feedback coil to induce a reverse flux to temper and stabilize a net flux, and a contact closing time of the movable electrical contact is controlled to shift to or adjacent to an AC load waveform zero-crossing point.
A method of limiting or preventing electrical contact bounce and arc duration, the method comprising the step of driving an AC dual-coil actuator to open and close electrical contacts of an electrical contactor, a drive pulse being applied to drive the AC dual-coil actuator having a truncated-waveform, a reverse flux is induced to temper and stabilize a net flux by a feedback coil of the AC dual-coil actuator, and a contact closing time of the movable electrical contact is controlled to shift to or adjacent to an AC load waveform zero-crossing point.
A method of controlling electrical contact closing and opening delay, the method comprising the step of driving an AC dual-coil actuator to open and close electrical contacts of an electrical contactor, a drive pulse being applied to drive the AC dual-coil actuator having a truncated-waveform, a reverse flux is induced to temper and stabilize a net flux by a feedback coil of the AC dual-coil actuator, and a contact closing time of the movable electrical contact is controlled to shift to or adjacent to an AC load waveform zero-crossing point.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.