The need to achieve high-power switching in minimum board space is vital for electric vehicle (EV) charging, renewable power and industrial automation applications.
These two design goals are the basis for the performance delivered by PCB-mount electromechanical relays from Panasonic Industry Europe . By mounting directly on the PCB, the compact housing of these relays offers significant space savings adds to switching efficiency by integrating a unique contact structure.
The mirror contact in the PCB relays means that the Form A and Form B contacts do not close at the same time. When the Form A contact is welded, a minimum contact gap of 0.5 mm is maintained in Form B. For added design flexibility and safety, the Form B contact can be used as an auxiliary contact for monitoring the condition of the Form A contact.
The PCB relays include a relay which sets the standard as a main 3-phase system switching element. With a contact arrangement of 4 Form A, or 4 Form A, 1 Form B, each of the four normally open (NO) contacts in the AHER4 relay can switch 40 A. A sophisticated thermal design is added to a 490 mW coil holding power, with dc voltage options of 14 V or 24 V.
As a 1-phase system main switching element, the 80 A AHER2A PCB-mount relay complies with the UL 508 standard for use in the USA. The contact arrangement of the AHER2A is 2 Form A, or 2 Form A, 1 Form B.
With coil holding power of 170 mW, the energy-saving AHES relay has switching current of up to 40 A, with switching voltage of 480 V ac. The compact package is 30 mm x 36 mm x 40 mm and the relay adds protection against surge voltages, in addition to extremely low contact resistance. The contact arrangement of the AHES relay is 2 Form A, or 2 Form A, 1 Form B. The mirror contact in the 1 Form B relay is compliant with the EN 60947-4-1 standard for safety circuits, and conforms to EN 61851-1.
As a PCB dc relay, the AHEV is rated for 1,000 V switching voltage, and withstands surge voltage of 100,000 V. The switching capability is 20 A and the compact 2 Form A housing has coil holding voltage which can be reduced to 33% of the rated coil voltage to give a holding power of 210 mW.
All of these PCB power relays offer significant space and cost savings in addition to the unique contact structure which offers an integrated feedback contact.