Soft starter can be found in every country in the world doing very important work and it is most likely something that the average person has never heard of. What is a soft starter? Well in order to best answer that question we turn to the biggest of the internet’s references Wikipedia. “A Soft starter is a device or group of devices that serves to govern in some predetermined manner the performance of an electric motor. A soft starter might include a manual or automatic means for starting and stopping the motor, selecting forward or reverse rotation, selecting and regulating the speed, regulating or limiting the torque, and protecting against overloads and faults.”

Soft Starters – In the House

Electric motors are used domestically in personal care products, small and large appliances, and residential heating and cooling equipment. In most domestic applications, the soft starter functions are built into the product. In some cases, such as bathroom ventilation fans, the motor is controlled by a switch on the wall. Some appliances have provisions for controlling the speed of the motor. Built-in circuit breakers protect some appliance motors, but most are unprotected except that the household fuse or circuit breaker panel disconnects the motor if it fails.

Soft Starters – Industrial Uses

Many industrial applications are dependent upon motors (or machines), which range from the size of your thumb to the size of a railroad locomotive. Soft Starters can be built into the equipment, installed separately, installed in an enclosure along with other machine control equipment or installed in motor control centers. Soft starter centers are multi-compartment steel enclosures designed to enclose many motor controllers and soft starters. It is also common for more than one soft starter to operate a number of motors in the same application. In this case the controllers communicate with each other so they can work the motors together as a team.


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