United Kingdom
Pickering Relay
United Kingdom
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SoftCenter™

Pickering reed relays are encapsulated using a soft inner material to greatly reduce physical stresses on the glass/metal seal of the reed switch capsule.

SoftCenter™ Technology

Providing our customers with the highest grade relay switches

Pickering’s SoftCenter™  technology is an advancement in high grade relay switches. Our expert engineers have developed this technology to meet the demands and long life required by todays equipment manufacturers. 

Physical stress on the on the inner material of the encapsulated relays is greatly reduced, ensuring less damage and distortion.

Soft Centres (SoftCenter™)

Pickering reed relays are encapsulated using a soft inner material to greatly reduce physical stresses on the glass/metal seal of the reed switch capsule. Different materials have different expansion characteristics and the very hard compounds used by most manufacturers can cause stresses that can damage seals or distort the reed switch thereby changing switch blade alignment. This will degrade contact resistance stability and life expectation.

 

Built-in, Mu-Metal Magnetic Screening

Reed switches are operated by the magnetic field from a coil which is wound around the reed switch capsule. Without a magnetic screen, this field will spread some way outside the confines of the relay package and will de-sensitize other reed relays mounted alongside. As an example, an unscreened relay mounted on 0.2 inches (5.08mm) pitch, will require a coil voltage about 25 percent higher to operate it, when other relays alongside are also in an operated state.

This falls to between 1 and 5 percent, according to type, if magnetically screened. Smaller Pickering relays on 0.15 inches (3.81mm) pitch, would have an interaction figure as high as 40 percent if unscreened.

The effect of magnetic interaction is compounded when temperature is also considered.

The operating coil is wound using copper wire which has a co-efficient of resistance of approximately 0.4 percent per degree Centigrade. This means that a temperature increase of 50 degrees Centigrade will increase the coil resistance by a further 20 percent.

The coil current and therefore the level of magnetic field, will fall by this same amount. A corresponding increase in drive voltage will therefore be required to generate the necessary magnetic field to operate the reed switch.

SCREENING IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL FOR SMALL REED RELAYS.

Formerless Coils

Relay operating coils are commonly wound on bobbins. The great majority of Pickering relays are manufactured with self supporting coils, thus avoiding the space required for these bobbins. In the case of the smaller relays types, this gives around 50 percent more room for the coil winding, allowing the use of less sensitive reed switches with their inherent advantages of higher operating and restoring forces. In some ranges, this technique allows Pickering to achieve extremely high coil resistance figures.

Pickering have designed our own coil winding machines in-house to allow us to quickly implement future developments aimed at increasing quality or, expanding the boundaries of the machine’s capability. We produced much of the metalwork in-house on our own CNC’s as well as fully designing the hardware & software. These machines are entirely catered to our needs to produce the most reliable reed relays.

Highest Grade Reed Switches

Pickering relays feature the very highest quality ‘instrumentation grade’ reed switches to meet the exacting demands and long life required of today’s equipment manufacturers.

Pickering relays are 100 percent tested for all operating parameters including, operate and release voltages, operate, release and contact bounce times, contact resistance, contact resistance stability and insulation resistance.

 

Pickering has created a short animation to further explain how they uniquely construct reed relays.
To watch this video click below:

Pickering's useful technical guides

REEDRELAY MATE

Educational book about Reed Relays aimed at engineers. View online instantly or download for reading and referencing later.

CONCISE TECH GUIDE

Maximize the reliability of your design whilst switching with Reed Relays. Read online or download for reading and referencing later

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Glossary of commonly used terms relating to Reed Relay products.

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