| Author |
Message |
mowhoong@hotmail.com
Guest
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 Posted:
Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject:
True or False ? |
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Hello and good morning to all members. A retired electrician told me
that to prolong the life span on the contact point of the contactor,
you can add one capacitor between the two contact point. By theory it
sound acceptable, but i had not try it out,because this is to control a
ac 230 volts 1600 watts heater. Does any member can advise in this
issuse. Thanks.
Regards
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John Popelish
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject:
Re: True or False ? |
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mowhoong@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | Thanks John.I had a question on your capacitor rated voltage,why does
the dc voltage need to be 4 time higher then the ac rated vale and what
is the pupose on the 47 ohm resistor ?
Regards.
Line voltage can have some nasty spikes riding on it, occasionally. |
Class X, line rated capacitors are made with generous over voltage
ratings and safe failure modes (the metalizations tends to evaporate
around a hole burned through the film, rather than short and explode).
You can get some idea of the real voltage capability of a Class X1
capacitor by looking at some of the details on the data sheet I
referenced.
DC rated capacitors are not generally made with such over voltage in
mind, so you have to get the safety factor by using a much higher
voltage rating than the normal peak line voltage, and you are still
not necessarily getting the graceful failure modes.
The resistor is a current limit mechanism for when the contacts close
near peak line voltage (1.414 times 240 VAC RMS = 339 volts). There
will be a very large current pulse as the capacitor dumps all that
voltage while the contacts are bouncing together, and that inrush can
damage the contacts and/or the capacitor. The 47 ohm resistor will
limit that peak current to 339/47=7.2 amps (in addition to the current
of the heater). |
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John Popelish
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject:
Re: True or False ? |
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mowhoong@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | Hello and good morning to all members. A retired electrician told me
that to prolong the life span on the contact point of the contactor,
you can add one capacitor between the two contact point. By theory it
sound acceptable, but i had not try it out,because this is to control a
ac 230 volts 1600 watts heater. Does any member can advise in this
issuse. Thanks.
Regards
|
A capacitive arc snubber connected across a contact can reduce the
flash each time the contact opens. By diverting the load current to
the capacitor for a brief moment, it allows the contact to get enough
air between the points that and arc is not drawn between them.
However, that same capacitor can dump a big current into those points
when the contacts close, causing them to pit and possibly weld
together. For this reason, such snubbers also include a resistor in
series with the capacitor.
This sort of thing works best with inductive loads, like motors, where
the inductance causes the current to decrease more slowly than the
voltage does. Resistive loads, like heaters do not produce the extra
voltage at the moment contacts in series with them open, so a snubber
may not help much. You may just need a bigger contactor.
But if you want to try it you will need a 1 microfarad capacitor rated
for use with 240 volts AC or more (or 1000 volts DC) and a 47 ohm, 2
watt resistor. Connect them in series and across the contact points.
Here is a data sheet for an example of a capacitor type rated for
across the line, AC operation (class X), available from Digikey:
http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/components/pdf/abd0000ce30.pdf
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mowhoong@hotmail.com
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject:
Re: True or False ? |
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Thanks John.I had a question on your capacitor rated voltage,why does
the dc voltage need to be 4 time higher then the ac rated vale and what
is the pupose on the 47 ohm resistor ?
Regards. |
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Pooh Bear
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject:
Re: True or False ? |
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"mowhoong@hotmail.com" wrote:
| Quote: | Thanks John.I had a question on your capacitor rated voltage,why does
the dc voltage need to be 4 time higher then the ac rated vale
|
The 4x is misleading. The cap is subjected to pulse operation which makes
rather strenuous demands of it. Voltage 'derating' is helpful for pulse
operation.
| Quote: | and what
is the pupose on the 47 ohm resistor ?
|
To limit the current. Re-read what John said.
Using a cap without that R can result in some 'interesting' results.
Graham |
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mowhoong@hotmail.com
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:07 am Post subject:
Re: True or False ? |
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| Thanks John and Pooh for the reply and explaination in this issuse. |
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Dan Hollands
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:09 am Post subject:
Re: True or False ? |
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The capacitor or capacitor / resistor will have no effect on a resistive
(heater) load
--
Dan Hollands
1120 S Creek Dr
Webster NY 14580
585-872-2606
dhollan3@rochester.rr.com
www.QuickScoreRace.com
<mowhoong@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1132753823.331184.327610@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Hello and good morning to all members. A retired electrician told me
that to prolong the life span on the contact point of the contactor,
you can add one capacitor between the two contact point. By theory it
sound acceptable, but i had not try it out,because this is to control a
ac 230 volts 1600 watts heater. Does any member can advise in this
issuse. Thanks.
Regards
|
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