Placing Branch Fuses After Safety Contactor in Control Circuit for Small Loads—Is It OK?

Generally, I have always designed my control circuit to utilize individual contacts of my safety or master contactor following the fuses for each circuit to protect. However, in this specific control application I have very small loads that need individual protection and very little panel space and was considering to place a main fuse prior to my safety contactor contact and then place branch circuit fuses after the contact for the individual loads. This seems OK to me but is not my common practice. This will save me from having to add additional parallel contactors to facilitate all of the contacts I would need to have an individual contact for each load. In a nut shell, I will be placing fuses after the safety contact for individual loads. Anyone see a problem?

Hi John,

Well, I think that's fine assuming that the rating of your contactor can withstand the system rating.

The problem of using a single contactor for multiple loads is that you can't isolate easily the components during maintenance and repair.

And sometimes you need to turn OFF everything in order to have some changes within the system.

Hope it helps.

Best,
Neil