I want to know if I can operate a 12v 2A solenoid from 4 penlight AA batteries and what the current draw be will it have a negative impact on the life of the solenoid.

 

If it's designed to run on 12V, i doubt it would work well on 6V, no it won't do any damage.

 

AA Cells can not generate 2-Amps of Current,
and will simply die in a very few minutes.
.
.
.

 

Why do you want to feed a 12V solenoid only 5.2V and less?

A Name Brand (Duracell) AA alkaline battery cell has trouble producing 1A then its brand new voltage begins at 1.3V and quickly drops to zero.
Your solenoid has a resistance of 12V/2A= 6 ohms. Then four AA batteries in series produce only 5.2V when brand new and the solenoid will not work.

 

I want to know if I can operate a 12v 2A solenoid from 4 penlight AA batteries

No.

what the current draw be will it have a negative impact on the life of the solenoid.

That depends on the coil resistance. Without knowing that this part of your question can not be answered. You state it's 12V @ 2A. That predicts (with poor accuracy) the coil resistance is 6Ω. Four fresh AA's with 1.56V each is 6.24VDC. 6.24 ÷ 6Ω = 1.04A. IF your batteries could maintain that power level for 1 hour then in 1 hour your battery would be dead. And no, it won't last for an hour. In short order it will drop out.

I've operated 24V relays on 12V with some success. Particularly in an automotive application. When the car starts the DC voltage can go as high as 15 volts. Usually stays under 14V though. And that seems to have been enough to click in a relay. I have no idea how a 12V solenoid is going to click in at 6 1/4V.

And one more thing I see here all the time is people look at a power supply with its rating and assume that because it's rated for 2 amps that means the circuit it runs - runs on 2 amps. I have a 50 amp PS and run low power projects all the time. I've run things as low as 5 milli-amps (0.005A). Even though the PS is rated to supply power at 50 amps.

 

will it have a negative impact on the life of the solenoid.

No.

IF it's rated at 2 amps then at 12V it will have to dissipate 24 watts of heat. Running that same coil (at 6Ω) at 6 volts will only have to dissipate 6 watts. Does that make no sense? Well, at 12 volts and 2 amps is 24 watts whereas half the voltage would be 6 volts and 1 amp would be 6 watts. 12V x 2A = 24 watts while 6V x 1A = 6 watts. Four times cooler. And four times less likely to work. But it won't damage it.

 

What travel and what force are you looking for? Buy a 5V solenoid and try it

 

There is a switching arrangement where the 4 AA cells can charge two super-capacitors in parallel and then discharge them in series to operate the 12 volt solenoid for several seconds. Fairly simple but not really cheap.

If the TS is willing to share some more information about the requirements of the application they might get more help.