Most of the contactor manufacturers share necessary information in datasheets. Thus, a wise approach would be making a comparison table to cover basic specifications like thermal and mechanical initially. After pre-selection based on datasheet values, we should consider system specifications.
The current carry performance reduces at higher temperatures and with a lower cross-section of busbars. Therefore, battery designers should design busbar or cable sizes according to contactor capability. “ GV240 Series “, Gigavac LLC, 2018, accessed 07 Jan. 2022.
This is because there are intermediate elements like inverters, DC-DC converters, or external chargers with their protection circuits during charging. If we look at the datasheet, we can see that the contactor can handle short circuit currents up to 4000A for 20ms. Therefore, this contactor option is suitable for our application.
Temperature affects contactor selection significantly. Contactor manufacturers make tests to specify how the temperature affects contactor performance. The current carry performance reduces at higher temperatures and with a lower cross-section of busbars.