An electric heater on temperature control switches every few seconds, all shift, for years. A contactor in that spot is a wear item. A Celduc solid state relay switches at the zero crossing with nothing to wear out, and the diagnostic versions tell the PLC the moment a heating element goes open.
Celduc has designed and built relays in Sorbiers, France since 1964. Dynamic is the Celduc rep for Northern California and Northern Nevada, sizing relays and heatsinks against the real cabinet for machine builders.
See the relay familiesSend us the heater schedule
On paper a heater is the easiest load there is: resistive, power factor close to 1, little inrush. In practice it is the load that wears out contactors, inside a cabinet that runs hotter than the datasheet assumed, next to drives and supplies adding their own heat. Three things decide whether the relay lasts, and none of them show up on a catalog comparison.
Datasheet current assumes about 40 °C ambient and an ideal heatsink. A 40 A relay with a 1.6 V on-state drop turns more than 60 W into heat, and every link in the thermal chain adds to it. Real designs end up 1.5 to 2 times oversized against the cabinet temperature, not the room.
celpac SUL and SILD ship with the heatsink matched to the rating, so the thermal calculation is already done.At end of life an element almost always goes open circuit, and an ordinary SSR keeps driving nothing while the zone drifts and the product scraps. Celduc's patented diagnostic relays watch the load, the mains and their own output.
SOD and SILD: load lost, mains lost or output shorted on an NC contact and LED, under 100 ms, no auxiliary supply. ESUC watches five heaters on one celpac.Thyristor life follows junction temperature. Celduc bonds a thick copper layer directly to an alumina substrate and uses multiple bond wires in place of a copper bridge, to cut thermal stress and carry overload current. When a Celduc relay wears out, it tends to fail open: a reliability difference, not a rated safety function.
Design for 20 to 30 °C of junction margin. We help you measure it in the real cabinet, not only calculate it.The 45 mm workhorse for resistive heaters, 12 to 125 A up to 690 VAC, with captive screws or push-in spring terminals.
Patented SOD and SILD relays, 35 to 125 A, that report a dead element before the zone drifts.
Three-phase relays to 3 x 85 A and 660 VAC for heater banks and small motors.
22.5 mm wide on 35 mm DIN rail, up to 75 A, built for crowded panels and multi-zone heater banks.
For heaters that need more than on and off, and for inductive loads.
Where Celduc started: sensing with no moving contact to wear.
Also from Celduc: DC solid state relays for 24 and 48 V heater rails and higher-voltage DC systems, interface relays and custom builds. See the Celduc unique products page.
Yes, and it is the ideal case. A resistive heater, utilization category AC-51, has no power factor problem and no motor-style inrush. Use a zero-cross SSR, size it for the 1.4 times cold-start current the AC-51 category assumes and for the real cabinet temperature, and mount it on a heatsink chosen for the watts it will dissipate.
If the temperature controller cycles the heater more often than every few minutes, or runs a time-proportioning output, use an SSR. A contactor in that position pits, chatters and eventually welds. Keep a contactor in series as the high-limit safety break, because an SSR is not an isolating device.
The on-state voltage drop turns roughly 1 to 1.5 W of every amp into heat, so a 40 A relay can produce over 60 W. The datasheet rating assumes about 40 °C ambient and an ideal heatsink. A missing thermal pad, an undersized heatsink or a hot cabinet pushes the junction toward its limit, and every 10 °C rise roughly halves the life.
With an ordinary SSR you find out when the zone temperature drifts. Celduc SOD and SILD power SSRs detect load loss, mains loss and a shorted output in under 100 ms and signal it on a normally closed contact and an LED, with no auxiliary supply. The ESUC module monitors up to five heaters in parallel from one celpac.
On a three-wire load a two-phase SSR such as the Celduc SOB switches two lines and leaves the third connected, which cuts relay dissipation by about a third compared with a three-pole relay. Use a three-pole relay where the design or the code calls for all three lines switched.
Most Celduc SSR families carry UL and cUL recognition and CE marking. We confirm the listing for the specific part and the required semiconductor fuse against your panel at quote time.
Dynamic Measurement and Control Solutions is the Celduc representative for Northern California and Northern Nevada. We size the relay, the heatsink and the diagnostics against your cabinet with you and the factory in France.
See every line in design order on the design path, or the whole line card on the products page.
The element type and current per phase, the controller's cycle time, the cabinet temperature, or just the part number of the contactor you are replacing. You get a relay, a heatsink and a derating number you can defend. If your duty cycle calls for a contactor, we carry those too.
Answer what you can. Only email is required, and a drawing or schedule helps most.