General Electric Company

Joseph P Smith

David J Lesslie

Dennis C Zuffelato

Anilkumar Dinker Pandit

Thuong Phung

Alberto Anibal Figueroa

Charles Stephan Pitzen

Madhu Sudan

K V Sridhar

A Ramadevi

M Natarajan

Kadaba Venkatarangan Sridhar

Sujit Kumar Piri

Natarajan Mani

Ramadevi Agali

Jose F Gonzalez

Efrain Ralat

Chakrapani Shankar Ganesh

Robert J Cassagrande

An electronic circuit for use on a contactor is disclosed. The electronic circuit may be encased in a housing and mounted to a coil cover on the front of a contactor for applying control power to the coil for a selected time period to enable the contactor to change its state and be held in the changed state. Thereafter, the electronic circuit disconnects the supply to the coil thereby preventing coil burn out. The control power is only applied after initiation of an input signal from a switch and after a controller in the electronic circuit has slept for a first predetermined period of time so as not to register any bounce from the input signal. The electronic circuit may include an auxiliary contact status check for providing error free activation of the mechanically held contactor when changing state of the contactor. A contactor employing the electronic circuit of the present invention and a method of using the electronic circuit on a contactor are further disclosed.

Electronic actuation for mechanically held contactors

A field configurable contactor is disclosed. The contactor preferably includes a plurality of spaces adapted to receive any number, up to its limit, of contact modules. Each contact module preferably includes a pair of contacts and a spring biased cam follower which opens and closes the contact pair when a cam profile of the contactor moves according to energization or de-energization of the contactor. The contact module can be either &ldquo;normally open&rdquo; or &ldquo;normally closed&rdquo; depending on its initial placement onto the contactor relative to the cam profile. A latch assembly in the contactor may hold the contactor mechanically during de-energization.

Field configurable contacts and contactor

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Dorchester, MA, United States of America

Joseph P Smith