Active contacts?

[Lc85]

Has anyone heard the term active contact before? is this the opposite to dry contacts? We have an auma actuator and the remote open and remote close signals are powered by 24VDC from the DCS to me these are dry contacts. Our client is saying that these two signals require a relay and they are active contacts. has anyone heard this before?

Thanks

 

[jraef]

I've noticed over the years that people make up their own terms sometimes. One issue is what you may have already surmised, that he is looking for a way to describe a set of contacts that are NOT "dry" (aka "voltage free"), but there really is no official name for them. Wet? Powered? I've seen many different interpretations, I always use powered, but I think active could be logical as well. The best course of action would be to contact whomever said it for clarification, the results of an ASSumption could be bad.

There is also a term used in machine safety circuits called "positive operation" contacts, which I have also seen called "active operation" which I think is a misnomer, because there IS a stated definition for "positive operation" in safety standards.

"Will work for (the memory of) salami"

 

[ScottyUK]

In the electronics world these would either be current sourcing or current sinking inputs, depending on whether they switch the positive or negative side of the input. Those terms,if not defined on a standard, ate industry standard. Just in a different industry!