{"id":2026,"date":"2023-02-22T11:41:34","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T10:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/approfondimenti\/%tipologia_approfondimento%\/i-contattori-di-sicurezza-e-il-loro-utilizzo\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T13:50:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:50:47","slug":"i-contattori-di-sicurezza-e-il-loro-utilizzo","status":"publish","type":"approfondimento","link":"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/insights\/functional-safety-300321\/i-contattori-di-sicurezza-e-il-loro-utilizzo\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety Contactors and their usage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n    \n        <section\n            data-name=\"Contenuto testuale con immagine\"\n            class=\"bow-gte-testo-media u-spacer-base\"\n            id=\"\"\n        >\n            \n<div class=\"o-text-media px-side-spacer sm:px-side-spacer-sm lg:px-side-spacer-tablet 2xl:px-side-spacer-desktop flex flex-wrap items-start md:block\">\n\n    \n        \n                    <div\n                class=\"h-auto mb-6 md:mb-4 lg:mb-8 xl:mb-9 float-left mr-6 md:mr-4 lg:mr-8 xl:mr-9  overflow-hidden shadow-content-image w-full md:w-1\/3\"\n            >\n                \r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                    <picture\r\n                        class=\"\"\r\n                                            >\r\n                                                                                                        <source\r\n                                media=\"(max-width: 150px)\"\r\n                                width=\"150\"\r\n                                height=\"150\"\r\n                                srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Capture655.png-150x150.webp\"\r\n                                type=\"image\/webp\"\r\n                            \/>\r\n                                                                                <source\r\n                                media=\"(max-width: 300px)\"\r\n                                width=\"300\"\r\n                                height=\"190\"\r\n                                srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Capture655.png-300x190.webp\"\r\n                                type=\"image\/webp\"\r\n                            \/>\r\n                                                                                <source\r\n                                media=\"(max-width: 448px)\"\r\n                                width=\"448\"\r\n                                height=\"284\"\r\n                                srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Capture655.png.webp\"\r\n                                type=\"image\/webp\"\r\n                            \/>\r\n                                                                                <source\r\n                                media=\"(max-width: 448px)\"\r\n                                width=\"448\"\r\n                                height=\"284\"\r\n                                srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Capture655.png.webp\"\r\n                                type=\"image\/webp\"\r\n                            \/>\r\n                                                                            <img\r\n                            class=\"a-image transparent border-image h-auto  w-full\"\r\n                                                        srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Capture655.png.webp\"\r\n                                                        title=\"Capture655.png\"\r\n                                                        type=\"image\/webp\"\r\n                        \/>\r\n                    <\/picture>\r\n\r\n                \r\n\r\n                    \r\n    \r\n            <\/div>\n        \n                    <div class=\"relative w-full\">\n                \n<div class=\"a-text font-text text-base normal mt-8 first:mt-0 space-y-4\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>THE DOUBT:<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0What is a safety contactor and is their usage compulsory in a Safety related control circuit?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>CONSIDERATION 1:<\/strong> There are 2 main types of contactors used in Machinery: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Power Contactors:<\/strong> <em>they must be in compliance with <strong>IEC 60947-4-1<\/strong>: Contactors and motor-starters &#8211; Electromechanical contactors and motor-starters<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Auxiliary Contactors:<\/strong><em> they must be in compliance with <strong>IEC 60947-5-1<\/strong>: Control circuit devices and switching elements \u2013 Electromechanical control circuit devices<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: left;\">Power contactors have <strong>Mirror Contacts<\/strong>, to monitor their Status, while Auxiliary contactors have <strong>Mechanically Linked Contacts.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;\">Both Power and Auxiliary Contactors are recommended by all safety Standards, that in High Demand mode are <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/technical-standards\/en-iso-standards\/en-iso-13849-1-performance-level-estimation\/\">ISO 13849-1<\/a><\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/technical-standards\/en-iec-standards\/iec-62061-functional-safety-of-machineries469677178\/\"><strong>IEC 62061<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;\">Normally, all those contractors have the possibility, using a small screw driver for example, to close their Normally Open contacts. That is a risk! Imagine a person who entered a safeguarded area: all contactors are de-energised and therefore all relative movements are stopped. However, if a person opens the control panel and forces a contactor with a screw driver, a dangerous movement restarts and the person may be subject to a hazard (unexpected start-up).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;\">That, of course, is a risk to be reduced. Normally that risk is reduced with a correct implementation of the \u201cControl of Hazardous Energy\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/insights\/electrical-hazard-and-arc-flash-mitigation\/lockout-tagout-analysis\/\">ANSI Z 244-1<\/a>) or &#8220;Prevention of the Unexpected Start-up&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/technical-standards\/en-iso-standards\/iso-14118\/\">ISO 14118<\/a>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;\"><strong>CONSIDERATION 2:<\/strong> Since a few years, component manufacturers have added, so called, Safety Contactors to their range. Those are normal Power contactors, compliant with IEC 60947-4-1, without the possibility to force them to close, for example, with the use of a screw driver.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;\">Normally, they are equipped with both <strong>Mirror contacts<\/strong> and <strong>Mechanically Linked Contacts<\/strong>; these latterss are normally mounted on the body of the contactor and are \u201csealed\u201d: that guarantees they cannot be detached from the contactor main body.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>CONCLUSION: <\/strong>Safety contactors are a recent product, added to the range of power contactors, by several component manufacturers. They have the advantage of making it impossible to operate them manually and they are normally equipped with both <strong>Mirror <\/strong>and <strong>Mechanically Linked Contacts<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">Despite the fact that they have these advantages compared with normal contactors, compliant with the same standards, their usage is not required by any functional safety standard. Moreover, <strong>their usage does not allow to reach a higher level of reliability<\/strong>. Statements like &#8220;with one safety contactor you can have SIL CL 2&#8221; <strong>are incorrect,<\/strong> since that is not supported by any current (2024) functional Safety Standard. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">Therefore, you can decide to continue using normal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/insights\/electrical-hazard-and-arc-flash-mitigation\/contactors-used-in-safety-applications\/\">Power Contactors<\/a> in compliance with IEC 60947-4-1 in your Safety-related Control Systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>            <\/div>\n        \n        \n                <div class=\"clear-both\"><\/div>\n        \n\n    <\/div>\n        <\/section>\n\n    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE DOUBT:&nbsp;What is a safety contactor and is their usage compulsory in a Safety related control circuit?<\/p>\n<p>CONSIDERATION 1: There are 2 main types of contac&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32240,"parent":0,"menu_order":36,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tipologia_approfondimento":[48],"class_list":["post-2026","approfondimento","type-approfondimento","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tipologia_approfondimento-functional-safety-300321"],"acf":{"sottotitolo":"","allegati":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Safety Contactors and their usage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE DOUBT:\u00a0What is a safety contactor and is their usage compulsory in a...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gt-engineering.it\/en\/insights\/functional-safety-300321\/i-contattori-di-sicurezza-e-il-loro-utilizzo\/\" \/>\n<meta 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