What is a Motor Starter? | How does a Motor Starter work?

A motor starter reduces the load and torque in the powertrain and electric current surge of the motor during start-up. It is a protection device that overloads relay functions and integrates circuit breakers. It protects the electrical motor from short-circuit, overload, and phase loss. After detecting a short circuit or overload, the motor starter disconnects all phases from the supply and isolates the motor from the supply. In addition, motor starters increase the device's reliability by reacting quickly. Finally, it protects load-side circuits against damage.

How does a Motor Starter work?

A starter is an electrical device used in turning the motor on and off easily. For example, we can turn the small motor on and off with the manual starter. The hand-operated lever is operated manually by moving the contact position and turning it on and off. The disadvantage of a manual starter is that it has to be restarted in a power failure. In other words, both its actions are done manually.

Occasionally such a position can be caused by the motor winding force due to the high current being carried in the motor. Due to this situation, this starter is not used much. That is why other alternative motor starters with protection, such as automatic starters, are used instead.

Automatic starters use electrochemical relays and contractors, which are used to switch the motor on/off operation. When powered, the power passes through the contactor coil and forms an electromagnetic field, which pulls or pushes the contacts to connect the motor windings to the power supply.

The starter uses pushbuttons called start and stops, which cause the motor to start and stop. Next, the contractor is de-energized using stop buttons. Then coil leads to de-energies. Thus a spring is used between the contactor's contacts so that the contactor returns to its original position and the motor stops working.

Types of Motor Starters:

Smart Starters — It provides complete protection for your Pump & Motors. In addition, it can be operated remotely via landline, smartphone, laptop, or web application.
Semi-Automatic Starter (SASD) Starters — It is a highly reliable & time-tested starter & suitable for a wide range of agriculture & industrial applications. It offers complete motor protection against overload, single phasing, phase reversal & severe unbalanced voltages conditions.
Fully Automatic Starter (FASD) Starters — FASD starters are basic electrical starters with contactor and relay combinations for ON-OFF operation and overload protection of the pump sets.
Direct-on-Line (DOL) Starters — DOL Starter is an electromagnetically operated switch that provides a safe method for starting an electric motor with a large rush current.
Auto Start Direct-On-Line (DOL) Starters — It starts the motor automatically when power resumes in auto mode. In addition, it checks power supply conditions before restarting, and it has an inbuilt feature of time delay before restarting.
Star Delta Starter — It is used for controlling AC motors up to three-phase and offers complete motor protection against Overload, Single Phasing, and severely unbalanced voltages.
Mini Manual DOL Starter — It is designed for non-reversing control of all types of squirrel cage motors with an intermittent duty of 15 starts per hour (utilization category AC3), complying with the performance requirements of IEC-292.