27th International Conference on Electrical Contacts, June 22 – 26, 2014, Dresden, Germany

Magnetic Switch Mechanism for Circuit Breakers

Enrico Bindl1, Holger Neubert1, Jens Lienig1, Andreas Krätzschmar2, Stefan Beyer2
1
Institute of Electromechanical and Electronic Design, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
[email protected]
2
Siemens AG, Sector Industry, Industrial Automation, Amberg, Germany
[email protected]

Abstract—Nowadays, motor starter combinations for to the mechanical lock when a fully electronic tripping
tool-less plug connection or compact starters are used to system is used.
ensure safe operation of electric motors in industrial
applications. According to requirements these types of The next logical step in advancing this switchgear is
devices have separate actuators for driving the main the use of only one actuator interacting with one contact
contacts for motor protection and operational switching. In system and the electronic control unit. In our study, we
our study, we present a new magnetic actuator for frequent present a new magnetic switch mechanism for that
normal switching, fast circuit breaking and resetting after purpose.
tripping as well. The actuator has been designed using
simulation models for system design and design
optimization in form of coupled multi-domain network
models of the actuator system and finite element models of
the magnetic circuit. Prototype actuators were designed,
assembled and experimentally characterized.

Keywords—switchgear, circuit breaker, polarized

magnetic actuator, network models, system design,

I. INTRODUCTION
Motor starter combinations or compact starters for
low-voltage applications are of major importance in Fig. 1. Principles of motor control: (a) Standard setup with circuit
industrial automation and are continually developed breaker 1 for protection and contactor 2 for control; (b) Compact starter
further. Higher nominal current per volume, lower power 3; (c) Fully electrically controlled compact starter 4 with new magnetic
consumption, additional functionality like wider setting actuator and microcontroller (MCU)
ranges or fully electrical controllability and a same or
better performance are the challenges for new innovative This actuator offers the additional functionality of
product generations to be achieved by a cost efficient fully electrical controllability even after tripping. In
design in short development time. combination with a current transformer (CT-Coil) and a
microcontroller (MCU) it enables a new class of fully
A. Motor Starter Arrangements electrically controlled switchgear (Fig. 1.c). The pre-
development process of these actuator was realized for a
Conventional motor starter combinations consisting of standard contact system with nominal currents up to 32 A
a separate contactor and a separate circuit breaker have (approx. 15 kW / 400 V). DIN EN 60947-4-1 defines the
two main contact systems in series driven by a particular system requirements for these devices [1].
actuator each (Fig. 1.a). A magnetic actuator drives the
contactor and a mechanical switch locks the circuit B. Design Requirements of the Operating Modes
breaker. The magnetic actuator is controlled by the
external control voltage whereas the switch lock is tripped The merged functionality of a circuit breaker and a
by internal overload and short tripping units. Normally, contactor requires an actuator which enables the operating
manual resetting is necessary after an overload or short modes according to TABLE I. A rather different dynamic
circuit break directly on the device. behaviour is necessary between the closing and opening
of the contact system in case of normal operation mode
Recent compact starters have also such two actuators (like a contactor) and the fast contact opening in case of
inside but they act in parallel on only one contact system short-circuit. In connection with the static forces and
(Fig. 1.b). This leads to a more compact design, a reduced permissible power losses, these dynamics are the major
wiring effort as well as less thermal losses and less challenge in the actuator design.
required material compared with motor starter
combinations. Like standard motor starter combinations, The rough actuator design parameters have been
compact starters need two different actuators to achieve derived from the properties of the known standard contact
fully electrical functionality up to now. Even a third systems, which are technically mature for its device class.
actuator is required to transduce the detected short-circuit Contact force and stroke, spring rates and moving mass

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 27th International Conference on Electrical Contacts, June 22 – 26, 2014, Dresden, Germany

determine the static working point and the inertia of the happens in case of overload detection. The control voltage
mechanical system. The optimum contact velocities are then will be internally switched off by the MCU.
known from life time tests.

TABLE I. REQUIREMENTS OF FUNCTIONALITY

Values Specification
Contactor mode
Time to CLOSE / OPEN the
< 30 ms
contacts
Velocity for CLOSE contacts 0,5 m/s …0,75 m/s
Overload protection mode
Time to OPEN contacts < 30 ms
Circuit Breaker mode
Short circuit break time (incl.
detection, contact opening and < 5 ms
Fig. 2. Principle actuator design: 1 spring, 2 coil-A, 3 permanent
arcing)
magnet, 4 coil-B, 5 contact system with contact spring, 6 yoke, 7
Velocity for OPEN contacts 2 m/s … 5 m/s
armature
Resetting and CLOSE
After short circuit break
contacts like contactor
Fail Safe In case of a short-circuit requiring a fast opening of the
After elimination of supply OPEN contacts by self- contacts, the coil-B (4) is additionally fed and accelerates
voltage actuating the armature. Furthermore the mechanical momentum of
General the armature and the plunger is exploited to open the
Accord. 3-phase system, contacts by impact. This impact should be designed to
Contact Forces
32 A
have low dissipation. In practice certain losses will occur
Holding Power 0,5 W … 1 W
Shock Resistance 20 g by the endless stiffness of the parts, the hardness of their
Range of Temperature -20°C … 70°C surfaces and friction effects as well.
Life Time > 100.000 cycles
III. MODEL DESCRIPTION
Compared to other actuation principles, e.g. electrody-
namic [2] or solid state actuators, the electromagnetic A. Modeling of the Actuator
principle has the best overall properties concerning force, The design of magnetic actuators is an iterative
stroke and velocity and the highest design flexibility to process which requires descriptions and methods of
adapt the design on the specific requirements. calculation at different levels of detail [6]. In order to
simulate the whole actuator dynamics, models are
II. WORKING PRINCIPLE OF THE MAGNETIC required which are able to calculate the transient
behaviour of the different subsystems and physical
ACTUATOR
domains as well, namely the electrical circuitry, the
The developed magnetic actuator is a polarized type magnetic circuit and all mechanical loads and elements.
having coils and permanent magnets as well. This kind of Therefore two different models have been developed and
actuators is of high volumetric energy compared to used:
unipolar solenoids. It is particularly suitable for
applications with short switching times or high forces • a multi-domain lumped element network model in
despite of limited installation space [3]. Polarized order to simulate the whole system dynamics and
magnetic actuators can be designed for bistable and • a static finite element models of the magnetic
monostable behaviour by type of structure [4]. circuit in order to compute flux linkage and
Appropriate to [5], we have applied a parallel acting magnetic force.
magnetic structure, consisting of two coils, two working The dynamic network model applies the results of the
air gaps and fixed permanent magnets. Design variants static magnetic model in form of look-up tables [7, 8].
with moving magnets or magnets arranged directly in the
This coupling has a lot of the advantages, especially the
force flux are discarded due to the high mechanical impact
loads. Fig. 2 illustrates the principle actuator design in low computational effort compared to a transient finite
interaction with the contact system of the compact starter. element model which involves the actuation by a
comparatively high precision of the calculated fluxes and
In normal power-off or fail safe mode, the contacts magnetic forces. In turn, the low computational effort
have to be in open position. In this case, the forces by the allows a further coupling of the network model to
compression spring (1) and the permanent magnets (3) optimization tools for numerical design optimization
push the armature (7) against the contact system (5). purposes. In our work, we applied the software tools
Coil-A (2) provides for the contactor functionality SIMULATIONX [9] for the network model, FEMM [10] for
(contact closing). If it is powered by the control voltage, 2D- and ANSYS [11] for 3D magnetic force calculations
the contacts will CLOSE. Switching off the control and OPTIY [12] as optimization tool.
voltage opens the contacts again. Something similar

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 27th International Conference on Electrical Contacts, June 22 – 26, 2014, Dresden, Germany

B. Static Magnetic Finite Element Models only the 2D models have been applied for design
2D and 3D static magnetic models have been used to optimization.
calculate the look-up tables necessary for the simulation
of the system dynamics with network models. Depending C. Multidomain Network System Model
on design and material parameters, including the The network model couples multiple physics domains
geometry of the magnetic flux path, air gaps, coil winding and simulates the system dynamics. It is implemented in
section and permanent magnets, nonlinear material SIMULATIONX. The model includes lumped elements for
characteristics, the characteristic maps of the actuator moving masses, springs, dampers and further components.
force F, and the flux linkages of both coils Ψcoil-A/coil-B Fluxes and magnetic forces are modelled by the above
have been computed for numerous combinations of the mentioned look-up tables. The components of the
coil currents i1 and i2, and armature positions x: electrical circuitry are described by common electric
network elements. Furthermore the model contains a
F = f (icoil − A , icoil − B , x) , (1) logical control of all time and system states. In contrast to
reluctance forces, electrodynamics Lorentz and Holm-
Ψcoil − A = f (icoil − A , icoil − B , x) , (2) forces are neglected, because of their little influence on
the system behaviour up to medium short circuits.
Ψcoil − B = f (icoil − A , icoil − B , x) . (3)
Mainly, the network model solves for the equation of
Fig. 3 shows the calculated actuator force F(x) for 2D- motion for each mechanical component balancing the
and 3D-FEM for an exemplary design compared to inertia, magnetic and elastic forces. Exemplarily it is
measurements. given for a contact using the look-up table of the magnetic
force:
mc ⋅ x = F (icoil − A , icoil − B , x) − Fload ( x) (4)

with mc – mass of movable contact and Fload – force of

contact system.
The induced coil voltages Ucoil-A/coil-B are derived from
the look-up tables of the flux linkages. They couple back
to the electrical network:
dΨcoil − A / coil − B (icoil − A , icoil − B , x)
U coil − A / coil − B = (5)
dt
Fig. 5 depicts the structure of the network system
model with its electrical, magnetic and mechanical
domain.
Fig. 3. Static actuator force F(x) for 2D- (square) and 3D-FEM (circle) The network model allows for the dynamic simulation
compared to measurement (dashed) for Rev.1 (i1 = 0 A, i2 = 0 A) of all operating modes and functionalities:

Of further interest are the magnetic cross section loads • Short circuit tripping - contacts OPEN,
of the iron parts. Ideally, the material should remain • Contactor ON - contacts CLOSE,
below saturation in all operation modes. Fig. 4 shows
critical sectors of flux density (Bmax) for the contactor (a) • Contactor OFF - contacts OPEN,
and circuit breaker (b) functionality.
• Fails safe - contacts OPEN.

D. Numerical Design Optimization

We applied the OPTIY software to perform the design
optimization process.
In a first step, a sensitivity analysis was performed to
Fig. 4. Flux density for Rev.1: (a) – contactor with 2500 ampere turns analyse the influence of several design parameters. The
and Bmax = 1,7 Tesla, (b) – circuit breaker with 2200 ampere turns and four design parameters which have most influence on the
Bmax = 2,0 Tesla system dynamics have been used as variables in the
design optimization for the objective of maximum contact
Although the results of the 3D-FEM are more accurate opening velocity in the fast switch off operating mode.
than those from 2D models, they cannot be used for The optimum design is characterized by specific values of
optimization purposes because of the huge computation the idle stroke Xfree, the number of turns of the coil-A
time for the calculation of the look-up tables (about 6500 (contactor) and coil-B (circuit breaker) and the tension of
minutes for one design). In contrast, the 2D model needs the spring 1.
just 20 minutes using a standard desktop PC. Therefore

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 27th International Conference on Electrical Contacts, June 22 – 26, 2014, Dresden, Germany

Fig. 5. System Network Model: 1 Ideal circuit, 2 look-up tables from finite element model, 3 armature and plunger of actuator with spring and
damper, 4 contact system

IV. FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM DEMONSTRATOR

A. Design Engineering of Functional Samples

Three revisions of functional samples (Rev.1 - 3) were
model-based developed with different research goals:
• Rev.1 evidence of principal functionality,
analysis of static force level, eddy currents and
system stiffness,
• Rev.2 optimization of friction and overall size,
analysis of different magnetic influences, Fig. 7. Functional sample Rev.2: 1 armature in a bearing of brass,
2 permanent-magnets, 3 contactor coil-A, 4 yoke (laminated magnetic
• Rev.3 improving of short circuit break time, steel), 5 pole piece of coil-A, 6 actuator spring1, 7 circuit breaker coil-
reducing of power consumption and analysis of B, 8 pole piece of coil-B
the temperature influence.
The contacts are normally open by static force
The simulation models have been adapted and balancing. For closing them, coil-A is fed by the full
simplified in each case to the specific research goals. control voltage. After a specific time, when the contacts
However, the general workflow with coupling the are definitely CLOSED, coil-A is further driven by pulse
dynamic network and the static magnetic model in form of width modulation (PWM) for reduced power loss. For
look-up tables was maintained for all three revisions. For contact operation OPEN the PWM is switched off. This is
example, the network model of Rev.1 contains only spring also the case for the fast contact opening operation. For
and stop elements in the mechanical and signal blocks in the circuit breaker functionality coil-B is fed by power
the electrical domain. In contrast, the Rev. 2 Model was supply and provides additional reluctance forces to
substantially extended by shock absorbers in the accelerate the armature. In order to achieve a fast opening
mechanical and idealized electrical switches in the of the contacts, the coil-B works together with the
electrical domain. Moreover, it was coupled to the switching off coil-A controlled by MCU.
optimization tool. The model of Rev.3 additionally
contains the major circuit components in form of ideal Some issues have to be considered to achieve
electronic and thermal elements. outstanding dynamics. Brass bearings have been used to
reduce friction on the armature. The magnetic energy
The different functional samples of these revisions are stored in coil-A counteracts a fast acceleration of the
shown in Fig. 6. The fundamental design structure of armature due to reluctance forces. Therefore, its fast
these three samples is similar. Fig. 7 show details of degradation after switching of coil-A is necessary. In
Rev.2. addition, switch-off voltage peaks must be limited. For
that purpose, several circuitries are known [6]. Fig. 8
schematically shows the circuit for coil-A and coil-B.
A switchable Zener diode controlled by an MCU and
in series to a normal diode gives the best damping and
discharging performance of the contactor coil. This
Fig. 6. Functional samples: (a) Rev.1, (b) Rev.2, (c) Rev.3
circuitry has the advantage of low power consumption and
fast tripping time compared to other circuitry concepts. A
small duty cycle (DC) of PWM is sufficient for retaining
the contacts closed.

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 27th International Conference on Electrical Contacts, June 22 – 26, 2014, Dresden, Germany

Fig. 9 illustrates the time differences from switch OFF

signal until to OPEN contacts for the two discharge
concepts in case of circuit breaker tripping for Rev.2.
TABLE II. compares key performance parameters of the
different functional samples.

B. Experimental Verification
The contact system of a Siemens 32 Amps compact
starter from the shelf was used to test the functional
samples. The functionality was tested successfully for all
of them. Fig. 10 illustrates the experimental setup.
The displacement of the contact bridge was measured
by a laser triangulator (KEYENCE LK-G32). The
displacement signal allows to calculating the velocity of
the contacts with sufficient accuracy. The displacement
Fig. 8. Simplified electrical circuit controlled by MCU for the
contactor coil-A and the circuit breaker coil-B (coil-A driven by pulse signal was recorded together with the electrical switching
width modulation, coil-B driven by power supply ) signals by an oscilloscope (Lecroy Wave Surfer 400 MHz,
2,5 GS/s).

Fig. 10. Experimental Setup with Rev.1: (1) Laser triangulator, (2)
contact system, (3) magnetic switch mechanism Rev.1, (4) oscilloscope

The dynamic system behaviour was analysed in all

operation modes. Fig. 11 shows the result for short-circuit
Fig. 9. Contact OPEN time for different electrical discharge concepts
tripping of Rev.3 which is the best compared to the other
at Rev.2: Diode (square), Diode + switchable Z-diode (circle) and
circuit breaker tripping (triangle) revisions. The contacts open when the motion of contacts
starts. The circuit breaker coil-B was activated by power
supply and the induction voltage peak of coil-A was
TABLE II. KEY PERFORMANCE PARAMETER OF FUNCTIONAL limited by a switchable Zener-Diode.
SAMPLES
Rev.1 Rev.2 Rev.3
Armature Characteristics
Cross section
Square Cylindrical Cylindrical
design
Electrical Actuation Drive Concept
Contactor coil- Power PWM,
PWM, 20kHz
A Supply 10kHz
Circuit Breaker Power Power
Power Supply
coil-B Supply Supply
Fast discharge None,
Switchable
concept of coil- voltage peak Zener diode
Zener diode
A accept
Switching Results (Time and Velocity)
Contactor 13,8 ms 21,5 ms 26,2 ms
CLOSE 1 m/s 1,2 m/s 0,8 m/s
Contactor 15 ms 7,1 ms 27,1 ms
OPEN 1,5 m/s 1,0 m/s 0,6 m/s
Circuit breaker 2,8 ms 3,6 ms 2,45 ms Fig. 11. Final experimental result of dynamic behaviour of Rev.3 at
OPEN 2,5 m/s 1,7 m/s 1,7 m/s short circuit tripping – contact OPEN after 2,45 ms with a velocity of
Overall Size 1,7 m/s
Length x Width
99,2 cm³ 72 cm³ 148 cm³
x Height

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 27th International Conference on Electrical Contacts, June 22 – 26, 2014, Dresden, Germany

The static actuator and the dynamic system models REFERENCES

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Fig. 12. Measurement results (contact position, velocity, current) und zum Entwurf von elektromagnetischen Systemen mit Hilfe der
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V. SUMMERY
In our study we have designed a new magnetic switch
mechanism for a new class of fully electrically controlled
compact starters. The bi-stable magnetic actuator fulfils
all requirements concerning short-circuit tripping and
contactor closing. The dynamics at short-circuit trip is
comparable to that of a mechanical switch-lock. The
electronic trip unit can work together with the main
actuator directly. The actuator achieves mono-stable fail
safe behaviour in interaction with the contact system and
other mechanical components.
It must be pointed out that the actuator design was
optimized for only one specific contact system of such a
compact starter. Other variants, especially other contact
forces or mechanical systems can influence the magnetic
design considerably.
In general, this feasibility study has shown, that
polarized magnetic circuits are suitable for fast-switching
actuators and offer a high potential for further dynamic
applications with asymmetric motion behaviour. The high
complexity of the actuator, but also the all-inclusive
design consideration requires a model based development
and the use of quite complex system simulation tools too.
The practical usability of such a simulation based
approach was also demonstrated.

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