I know roughly what contact wetting is but, how is it physically acheived in the context of a circuit. I have an applicaton where I need to "wet" a relay contact with minimum load current of 10mA. How is it done?
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Thanks
Kruger1

 

Wetting current is a consequence of the physical contact design. If 10mA is below the wetting current of your relay contacts, then you need a different relay.

Gold plated contacts have very low wetting currents.

 

Originally posted by kruger1@Jan 24 2006, 06:51 AM
I know roughly what contact wetting is but, how is it physically acheived in the context of a circuit. I have an applicaton where I need to "wet" a relay contact with minimum load current of 10mA. How is it done?
---
Thanks
Kruger1

[post=13418]Quoted post[/post]​

If your relay specification says it needs 10 mA wetting current, you may not have to do anyting. I'll make some assumptions to illistrate. If you have a 12V system and the relay load is 1K, then your current is 12 mA and you don't have to do anything. If your load was 2K, then your current is 6 mA and you must select a different relay or change the circuit to get more current. You could just add some resistance in parallel with the load to get more current through the relay contacts.