A common aspect of energy storage is that energy, and therefore current, can flow in both directions. The system can be charged or discharged. Another characteristic is that storage systems, primarily based on batteries of various technologies or supercapacitor systems, require high connection currents when discharged.For these types of applications, KOLBI presents the new CS310 family of DC contactors from SCHALTBAU. These contactors are 100% bidirectional, allowing them to safely open the circuit in either direction at voltages up to 1500 Vdc.
The patented technology and alloys used in their contacts enable them to withstand current peaks of up to 2500 Amps in contactors with a nominal current of 150, 300, or 500 Amps. This eliminates the need for pre-charge circuits or current limiters. The contactor can supply the storage system with the high initial current peak, which will decrease exponentially as the system charges.
In case of overload or short circuit, the CS310 contactors can withstand currents of up to 3000 Amps/1 second. This ensures that the contactor will survive these adverse circumstances, allowing the circuit protection devices time to extinguish the operation causing the fault.
All of this is done with system safety as the top priority. Air switching is used to prevent unwanted accidents that can occur due to overpressure in gas chamber contactors.
Thanks to its long history in the railway sector, SCHALTBAU brings over 70 years of experience working with DC voltages. This know-how is now being applied to the field of energy storage. They have created much lighter and smaller contactors to bring the safety of railway systems to the fields of electromobility and energy storage systems.
The benefits of this new family of DC contactors are:
• Safe switching of DC circuits up to 1500V.
• Bidirectional contactor.
• High switching current.
• Withstands high current peaks and overloads.
• Compact size.
