A Novel Breaking Strategy for Reduced Response Time of Electromagnetic Contactor by Reverse Voltage Application

This paper proposes a novel breaking strategy for dramatically shortening the response time of a single, stable electromagnetic contactor. A reverse voltage was applied across the excitation coil to increase the decay velocity of the magnetic field in the iron core, leading to a dramatic reduction of the electromagnetic force when the contactor initiated the breaking process. The applied time of the reverse voltage was determined by numerical computation of circuit, magnetic field, and forces. The polarity of source voltage was overturned by controlling switching devices in the bridge drive circuit. A co-simulation coupling magnetic field, machinery, and circuit was carried out using Maxwell and Circuit Editor software. Experimental results are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed breaking strategy for shortening the response time of an electromagnetic contactor.