scope:

This standard is applicable to a.c. contactors and/or contactor-based motor starters designed for indoor installation and operation at frequencies up to and including 60 Hz on systems having voltages above 1 000 V but not exceeding 12 000 V. It is applicable only to three-pole contactors and starters for use in three-phase systems, and single-pole contactors and starters for use in single-phase systems. Two-pole contactors and starters for use in single-phase systems are subject to agreement between manufacturer and user. Contactors and/or starters dealt with in this standard are not normally designed to interrupt short-circuit currents. Therefore, suitable short-circuit protection (see 3.4.110.12 and IEC 60282-1 and IEC 60644) forms part of the installation, but not necessarily of the contactor or the starter. In this context, this standard gives requirements for: - contactors associated with overload and/or short-circuit protective devices (SCPD); - starters associated with separate short-circuit protective devices and/or with separate short-circuit and integrated overload protective devices; - contactors or starters combined, under specified conditions, with their own short-circuit protective devices. Such combinations, for example combination starters (see 3.4.110.9), and rated as units. Contactors intended for closing and opening electric circuits and, if combined with suitable relays, for protecting these circuits against operating overloads which may occur therein, are covered by this standard.