Reed Relay Protection

NI Switches

Reed Relay Protection

The life expectancy of a reed relay can be greatly affected by the nature of the load. To prolong the life of reed relays, consider the following list when using switches with reed relays:

In general, reed relays are vulnerable to contact welding from high currents. Parasitic capacitance within a system can unavoidably create high inrush currents that can damage the reed relay. To minimize inrush current, decrease or isolate external capacitance by:

  1. Using lower switching voltages.
  2. Avoiding large capacitive loads to the switch.
  3. Isolating external capacitance with series impedance Rp such that:

V/Rp< switching current rating of the relay