To which domaine do belong these rotary switches ?

Hello everyone.

I am working on reverse engeneeing some rotary switches and i have successfully started transforming or lets say re-engeneering some on/off switches to Delta/star ones for three phase motors.

Do they belong to miniature electromechanical domaine or something else ?

here is an example :



Table of truth examples :

They belong in the category https://lmgtfy.com/?q=cam+switches&s=l

Another specific category is "changeover switch".

They come under Industrial Controls Equipment, see any of the large manufacturers such as Siemens. . Group Schneider etc
Max.

I have seen them used to switch from shore power to generator on boats.

thanks for your precious replies.

I am trying to reverse engeneer them to use them for different motor control applications.

There is only a few resources for schematics . not even internet resources.

They are generally produced for certain common functions as standard parts, with the data for those usually available from the switch manufacturer or distributor.

They are also made in special configurations for specific companies that need a certain set of contact operations in each position, for use in that companies products. There will be little or no data on those, other than possibly in the manuals for the machine a specific switch was used in.

Someone I know used to work in a factory assembling them. Each batch of switches has it's own parts list showing the cams etc. in each bank and number of banks in the final switch.


Any that you have with makers names and part numbers should have technical info available, if the are a standard function - eg. many types are shown here:

(The one in your photo appears to be a Kraus & Naimer type).

They can also be reconfigured by the end user. I had to replace one on my metal lathe but couldn't find one that was setup the same from any supplier. So just bought one that looked like it had the right number of layers/poles. and took it apart to get what I needed.

As you originally posted, it should be fairly simple to reverse-engineer the ones you have, the one shown appears to be a simple FWD/Off/REV function for either a 1ph or 3ph motor.
Max.

MaxHeadRoom78 said:

As you originally posted, it should be fairly simple to reverse-engineer the ones you have, the one shown appears to be a simple FWD/Off/REV function for either a 1ph or 3ph motor.
Max.

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Yep this is what ive done to some types turned them from discrete 8 position ones to delta/star 3 phase motor starters or 2 speeds dahlander controllers.

I just need to train more on how to play with the internal mechanics .
they usually need some cam modifications to make contact in desired fashion.

The hardest part is adapting a schematic to a cam combination or vice versa.

BGAmodzX said:

they usually need some cam modifications to make contact in desired fashion.

Click to expand...

Maybe the ones you have do. The one I have when you take the stack apart(be careful you don't lose any internals) The shaft is square going through the cams. The cams have a hole with a double square, 8 points like a sheriffs star. By switching how the shaft goes through the hole it changes the timing on the cam. Took a couple of tries but got mine to work correctly. The broken switch I was replacing wasn't available any where, so this got my lathe up and running again.

So these

shortbus= said:

Maybe the ones you have do. The one I have when you take the stack apart(be careful you don't lose any internals) The shaft is square going through the cams. The cams have a hole with a double square, 8 points like a sheriffs star. By switching how the shaft goes through the hole it changes the timing on the cam. Took a couple of tries but got mine to work correctly. The broken switch I was replacing wasn't available any where, so this got my lathe up and running again.

Click to expand...

So these switches are only a tiny portion of industrial control equipement. Tricky though