A novel strategy of energy reclaiming for electromagnetic contactor with controlled actuator

Traditional electromagnetic contactor suffers from a lack of controllability when opening. In this paper, the new contactor with the controlled actuator having structure of segregated magnetic path is designed, which generates electromagnetic force in opposite directions. A new control module featuring energy reclaiming and power management for fast opening is proposed. The compensation network is designed by simulated results to confirm that the voltage and current loop is stable during energy storage stage and energy release stage. Cosimulation, in which Multisim software simulates the circuitry and LabVIEW software executes the model of the new controlled contactor, is carried out to analyze energy reclaiming strategy for the closed loop control of opening process. The experiment is reported to validate the accuracy and effectiveness of the module design and the reclaiming strategy.