The difference between contactor and circuit breaker

Contactor and circuit breaker are electrical equipment, but their functions and applications are different.

The functional differential circuit breaker is mainly used to protect the circuit from overload and short-circuit damage.

It can automatically disconnect the circuit in case of short circuit or overload to prevent circuit damage. The circuit breaker has the very good short-circuit current interrupting ability, can turn on under the abnormal condition, bears the certain time and breaks the current. Contactors are mainly used to control the opening and closing of high-power circuits, usually used to start and stop the motor. The action power of the contactor comes from the electromagnet, which controls the opening and closing of the contact by the magnetic force generated by the electrification of the coil. The main contacts of contactors are usually only normally open, while the auxiliary contacts usually have two pairs of contacts with normally open and normally closed functions.

Differences in structure and usage;

The differential circuit breaker has many operation modes, such as manual operation, electric operation and energy storage operation, and the operating power of contactor mainly comes from electromagnet. The rated current of the circuit breaker is generally larger than that of the contactor, and has better short-circuit current interrupting ability. Contactor is suitable for frequent operation, its rated current cut-off times more than circuit breakers.

Apply differences in scenarios：

Differential circuit breakers in application scenarios are widely used in connection, disconnection and automatic protection of power lines and electrical equipment. It can not only switch on and off the current under the normal circuit conditions, but also can bear the current under the specified abnormal conditions for a certain time. Contactor is more widely used in the control loop, used to control the starting and stopping load such as motor.

Differences in maintenance and replacement:
Maintenance and replacement of differential circuit breakers in the event of a short circuit or overload will automatically trip, play a protective role, it can be reused, life in general thousands to tens of thousands of times. The contactor in the use of the process may be due to frequent operation and need to change the contact. To sum up, contactor and circuit breaker have obvious differences in function, structure, application scenario, maintenance and replacement. Understanding these differences will help you choose the right electrical equipment for your application.