Cycle Test
A cycle test is measuring the endurance of a relay, contactor, button or mechanism by subjecting it to a defined number of on/off or movement repetitions. Mechanical life and electrical life are evaluated separately: a relay may perform millions of cycles unloaded but stay far below that number under load.
For the test to be meaningful, the cycle must imitate real usage.
- Load type: a resistive load and an inductive load are not the same. With inductive loads such as motors, coils or solenoids, the arc that forms at the moment of interruption accelerates the wear of the contacts.
- Cycle rate: repeating too quickly removes the cooling interval that would occur in reality and can make the result look worse than it is.
- Monitored quantity: not only "is it working", but also the change of contact resistance with cycle count and the drift in pick-up and drop-out times are monitored.
This test directly determines which relay type will be selected on remote control and control boards with relay outputs. In applications with inductive loads, using a snubber element to extend contact life is usually more effective than increasing the size of the relay. The same approach is also applied to buttons, microswitches and mechanical transmission elements.
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