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10 Key Benefits of Pickering Reed Relays


Considering Pickering for your Reed Relay requirements? One big question you may have is,  what are the advantages of Pickering Reed Relays over other typical industry reed relays? The short answer is Pickering Relays are highly reliable due to superior manufacturing and quality control processes, however, the below table goes into more detail to explain the top 10 key benefits of using Pickering Relays over other typical industry relays.

Key Benefit Pickering Reed Relays Typical Industry Reed Relays

Instrumentation Grade
Reed Switches

Instrumentation Grade Reed Switches
with vacuum sputtered Ruthenium
plating to ensure stable, long life up to
5x10E9 operations

Often low grade Reed Switches with
electroplated Rhodium plating resulting
in higher, less stable contact resistance.

Formerless Coil Construction

Formerless coil construction increases
the coil winding volume, maximizing
magnetic efficiency, allowing the use of
less sensitive reed switches resulting in
optimal switching action and extended
lifetime at operational extremes.

Use of bobbins decreases the coil
winding volume, resulting in having
less magnetic drive and a need to use
more sensitive reed switches which
are inherently less stable with greatly
reduced restoring forces.

Formerless Coil Construction Vs Coil On Bobbin

Magnetic Screening

Mu-metal magnetic screening (either external or internal), enables ultra-high PCB side-by-side packing densities with minimal magnetic interaction, saving significant cost and space. Pickering Mu-Metal magnetic screen - interaction approx. 5%

Lower cost reed relays have minimal
or no magnetic screening, resulting in
magnetic interaction issues causing
changes in operating and release
voltages, timing and contact resistance,
causing switches to not operate at their
nominal voltages. Typical industry
screen - interaction approx. 30%

Magnetic Screening X Ray Comparison

SoftCenter™
Technology

SoftCenter™ technology, provides
maximum cushioned protection of the
reed switch, minimizing internal lifetime
stresses and extending the working life
and contact stability.

Transfer moulded reed relays (produced using high temperature/pressure), result in significant stresses to the glass reed switch which can cause the switch blades to deflect or misalign leading to changes in the operating characteristics, contact resistance stability and operating lifetime.

SoftCenter Compared to Hard Mould Relay

100% Dynamic
Testing

100% testing for all operating
parameters including dynamic contact
wave-shape analysis with full data
scrutiny to maintain consistency.

Simple dc testing or just batch testing
which may result in non operational
devices being supplied.

100% Inspection
at Every Stage of
Manufacturing

Inspection at every stage of
manufacturing maintaining high levels
of quality.

Often limited batch inspection.

100% Inspection at Every Stage of Manufacturing

100% Thermal
Cycling

Stress testing of the manufacturing
processes, from -20°C to +85°C to -20°C,
repeated 3 times.

Rarely included resulting in field failures.

100% thermal cycling

Flexible
Manufacturing
Process

Flexible manufacturing processes allow
quick-turn manufacturing of small
batches.

Mass production: Usually large
batch sizes and with no quick-turn
manufacturing.

flexible manufacturing process

Custom Reed Relays

Our reed relays can be customized
easily, e.g. special pin configurations,
enhanced specifications, non-standard
coil or resistance figures, special life
testing, low capacitance, and more.

Limited ability to customize.

Custom Reed Relay

Product Longevity

Pickering are committed to product
longevity; our reed relays are
manufactured and supported for
more than 25 years from introduction,
typically much longer.

Most other manufacturers discontinue
parts when they reach a low sales
threshold; costing purchasing and R&D
a great deal of unnecessary time and
money to redesign and maintain supply.

25 Years Product Longevity

And there you go, the top ten benefits of high quality reed relays.

To enjoy designing applications without the worry of high failure rates and discontinuation of components, request a quote or a free evaluation sample from Pickering today.

This table is also available to download in different languages, please select a version below:

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