Electrical Contactor

Electrical Contactor

This days I’ve been contacted by a customer, saying that he wants me to go and to install a contactor for his woodcarving machinery. And, obviously, when I went there, it was a new contactor that had to be installed. And I took the job.

This job reminded me of a  beautiful memory because the last time I was installing contactors on longer time, it was in school. And, obviously, I’ve installed it, and he was surprised. “Oh, that’s not something easy, and it’s not something which you do every day?”

And I said to him, “Well, I actually have done it in school for four years. So I know how to do it.” And to my surprise, I realized that not many people know how to work with contactors these days, which was his surprise, as well, that I managed to do it in such a quick time.

Also, it was very nice speaking to him. He has a beautiful garden with flowers, which he takes care of. And in the garden shed, he had this woodcarving machinery, with the which, he was making furniture. He was a pleasure full person to speak to, and then seeing the job was done I carried  onto another job, which was a kitchen  extension.

Speaking about contactors, they have been used in the past mainly, because of their open and closing contacts. Practically, they are called industrial computers, which these days are no longer used as much because we have PLCs which are, again, industrial computers, but more like a proper computer where you can type in and use a proper program with a computer and say to the machine which contact to open, when to open, to close, so that you can make, for example, a robot in the factory to do certain specified actions.

More than that, contactors can control baggage carousel at the airport which is automatized and goes into a full stop if something goes wrong with it. Star delta stop/start for motors, how to pass from 230 volts to 415. And other installations, which  can be used, by wiring the contactors. Despite the fact that it’s not a dirty job, it could be challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you know what you’re doing and you do it all the time, then it can become easy.

And in any case, like in this situation, I had these days, it is good to know it.  Looking in the future, I don’t think people will use it that much longer, but it will be good that it is still teached  to electricians or technicians of the futures.