<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Drawing Environment > Symbol Insert Tool > Buttons, controls and views > Resource category view > 0-7: Help symbols and contact mirrors > 5 Main make contacts

 

Resource category 5 contains main make contacts of different kinds.

 

A main contact is dimensioned to handle a load, and is therefore a different kind of contact compared to a help contact.

 

"Make" is the correct term according to the IEC standard. Other popular terms for the same thing is "normally open", "NO", and "closing".

 

Please note that when contacts are booked towards contact mirrors, different kinds of make contacts are separated. A main make contact and a help make contact are for example not considered to be same thing.

 

At delivery, only one function code for make main contacts is predefined. Would a need for additional types occur, it is easy to add more.

 

Make main contacts are not considered to have a direction and not to be asymmetric, even though that is not true geometrically speaking. From a functional perspective, it is however true. Therefore, these symbols are available in two versions each, one vertical and one horizontal.

 

Three and four pole main make contacts occupy multiple contacts in the corresponding contact mirror.

 

Variants of these symbols with our without the half circle that is supposed to differ main contacts from help contacts are functionally identical. In other words, you can choose either one, depending on what you prefer. To avoid any risk of confusion, the one with the half circle might however be the better alternative in most cases.