5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ?

Types, Working and Applications

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What is a Contactor ? Types, Working

and Applications
 Electrical Technology 5  6 minutes read

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What is a Contactor? Construction, Working, Types, and

Applications

Table of Contents

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

What is an Electrical Contactor?

Micro Switch
Construction of- Contactor
Greetech Switch OPEN
Working of Contactor
stomized Subminiature Sealed Micro Switch Manufacturers & Suppliers &
Types of Contactors
reetech-switch.com
Knife Blade Switch
Manual Contactor (Double Break Contactor)
Magnetic Contactor
Application of Contactors

What is an Electrical Contactor?

A contactor is an electromechanical control device that used to make or
break the connection between the load and power supply. The use of a
contactor is similar to the relay. But the device used for higher current
carrying application is known as a contactor and the device used for lower
current applications is known as Relay.

A contactor has several contacts as per the application and load.

Generally, these contacts are normally open (NO) contact. And hence the
load is shut off when the coil of the contactor is de-energized. But the
contactor can design for both normally open and normally close
applications. The most common application of contactor is in the starter
that used to turn ON and OFF the equipment like motor, transformer, etc.

A contactor is an electrically controlled switch used for switching a power

circuit, similar to a relay except with higher current ratings. A contactor is
controlled by a circuit which has a much lower power level than the
switched circuit. Contactors are oftenly used for 150 Hp motor.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Magnetic Contactor

Magnetic contactor is a device or switch which operates magnetically and

close or open the electric circuit when needed. More details are as follow.

Construction of Contactor
A contactor has three main parts;

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Coil or Electromagnet
Encloser or Frame
Contacts

Coil or Electromagnet

The coil is wound on electromagnetic core and behaves as an

electromagnet. Generally, it has two parts, one is a fixed part and the
second is a movable part. A spring is connected between both parts.
Hence, there is a spring return arrangement. A rod is connected with the
moving part. This rode is also known as an armature. When a force of coil
is more than the force of spring, both contacts are connected and when
the force of spring is more than the force of the coil, both contacts are
extracted with each other.

A very small amount of current will flow through the spring from the supply
or external control circuit to excite the core of the electromagnet. For AC
applications, the electromagnetic core is made up of laminated soft iron to
reduce the eddy current. For DC applications, there is no issue of eddy
current, the core is made up of solid steel.

Encloser or Frame

The encloser is used to protect the internal parts of the contactor. It is

made up of plastic, nylon 6, ceramic, or Bakelite. It provides housing to
the electromagnet and contacts. The encloser is used to insulate the

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

contacts and provide protection from the dust, oil, weather, and other
explosion hazards. It avoids direct touching of contact when it is powered.

Contacts

This is the only component from which the entire load current will flow.
Hence, it is a very important component of the contactor. The contacts
are classified as power contact, auxiliary contact, and contact spring.
There are two types of power contact; stationary contact and movable
contact.

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The material used for the contacts has stable arc resistance and high
welding resistance. These materials must withstand mechanical stress,
erosion, and arc. The resistance of this material is as low as possible
because the full load current will pass through the contacts. For the low
current application, these contacts are made up of silver cadmium oxide
and silver nickel and for high current application and DC current, it is
made up of silver tin oxide.

The armature of the electromagnet is connected with the moving contact.

Hence, the moving contact moves with the action of an electromagnet
and connect/disconnect with the fixed contact.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Working of Contactor
An electromagnetic field produced when the electromagnetic coil is
energized. As we have seen in the construction, the moving contact of the
contactor is connected with the armature (metallic rod) of an
electromagnet.

When an electromagnetic field produced, the armature experiences the

force and pulls towards the fixed contact. The force produced by the coil
is more than the force of the spring. Both contacts remain in this position
until the coil is not de-energized.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Once the coil is de-energized, the electromagnetic force is zero and the
armature pulls back due to the force of spring. And return in the normal
condition (OFF position). The contactors are designed for the rapid ON-
OFF operation.

The input of the contactor coil may be AC or DC or in some cases, the

universal coil is used as an electromagnetic coil. The universal coils
operate on AC and DC both. A small amount of power loss occurs in the
contacts and an economizer circuit is used to reduce this loss.

While making and breaking of contacts, an arc is produced between the

contacts. This arc may reduce the life of contactor as it increases the
temperature of contacts. Due to arc, harmful gases are produced like
mono-oxide. Hence, there are several methods are used to control and
extinction of arcs.

The contactors are selected base on load current and voltage, the control
range of voltage, and application based on utilization category. If you
want to check the connection of contacts are open or close, you can
check it with the help of ohm-meter. Connect the ohmmeter between the
input and output contacts, if the meter shows infinite reading the contacts
are open and if the meter shows zero reading the contacts are closed.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Small DC
Gearboxes

Kinmore Motor

Types of Contactors
Knife Blade Switch
This is the oldest type of contactor that used ON and OFF electric motors.
It consists of a metal strip with a lever. The lever is used to pull-up and
pull-down metal strips. This is a manual contactor. And it is very difficult to
fast turn ON and OFF manually. There is also a chance to wear out the
contacts.

The full load current will pass through the contacts and hence for large
motor, the full load current is very high. In this condition, there is a
problem of arc production between the contacts and it is difficult to
quench the arc. The second problem is the power loss. As the current is

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

very high, a large amount of power will drain by the contacts. And the
third problem is safety. Therefore, this type of contactor needs
improvement. The life of this contactor is very short as there is a chance
of corrosion of contacts due to moisture. Due to the problems and risks of
the operation, this contactor is rarely used.

Manual Contactor (Double Break Contactor)

There are lots of disadvantages to knife blade contactors. Hence, to
overcome these disadvantages, a manual contactor was invented. This
type of contactor is safe to operate with a smaller unit.

It allows you to work with more current in a smaller space. The double
break contacts divide the connection and create two sets of contacts. As
the name suggests, it cannot control by the remote or wireless, it must
operate by manual control. So, the operator turn-on and off manually.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Small DC Moto

Custom design Micro

manufactured in Chin

Kinmore Motor

Magnetic Contactor
The design of this type of contactor is most advanced among all other
types of contactors. This is an electromagnetic type contactor and it can
operate automatically. It requires a small amount of control circuit to turn
on and off the load. Therefore, the operation of this contactor is safe
compared to manual contactor. This is the most used contactor in
industrial applications. It operates electromechanically and hence; it
requires a very small amount of current to make a connection between
the load and power supply.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

What is the difference between contactor and relay?

The contactor is used for high voltage switching applications and the
relay is used for low voltage switching applications. Generally, if the
load current is more than 15A, the contactors are used and if the
load current is less then 15A, the relay is used.
The size of the contactor is large compared to the size of the relay.
The maintenance of contactor is easy while in most of the
conditions, the relay cannot repair.
In most cases, the contactors are connected in normally open
contacts and the relays are connected as normally closed contacts.
The switching time of the contactor is slow compared to the relay.

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5/12/23, 9:30 AM What is a Contactor ? Types, Working and Applications

Main Difference between Contactor and Starter

Difference Between Relay and Circuit Breaker

Application of Contactors
The contactor is used in the following applications.

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The most common application of contactor is in the motor starter. It

is used with overload and short circuit protection for the industrial
motor.
The contactors are used for the automation of lights for industrial,
commercial, and residential lighting applications. For this type of
application, latch type relay is used. In this type of relay, two coils are
used. One for open contact and second for close contact.
Single pole contactors are used to operate 12VDC load in the
vehicle.
The use of contactors with the circuit breaker assures the safety of
the operation of load in industries. And in such an application, it is
used to fast switching of a load.
It is used in mercury relay and mercury-wetted relay.
Two-pole (3-wire, 1-phase) contactors are used to operate 240VAC
load like air conditioner.

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