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What is the advantage of using Thermal Magnetic Circuit Breaker in
motor control?
04:44 Celestino Cole
There are two commonly used methods of motor control system used in the industry. The conventional method is the
3-component system where circuit breaker, magnetic contactor and thermal overload relay are installed to control
and protect the motor. However engineers and technicians found some problems coming out with this method. The
problem is mainly due to incompatibility of the motor protection in the system.
Electrical code such as NEC 430 require that the motor control circuit should be provided with thermal protection and
magnetic protection. Thermal protection protects the circuit against overload and locked rotor condition while
magnetic protection protect the circuit against short circuit condition.
Figure 1.
The provision provided by NEC 430 can be accomplish based on the circuit described in figure 1 where the circuit
breaker, magnetic contactor and thermal overload relay are installed to control and protect the motor. This method is
called 3- component system.
0
Three component system is an ideal interpretation of NEC 430 and it assumes that the circuit breaker is an
instantaneous trip (magnetic trip only) circuit breaker otherwise if it is inverse time (thermal and magnetic trip) it
is redundant.

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However if it is redundant it does not mean that we can no longer use the inverse time circuit breaker along with
thermal overload relay. If we look at the control circuit of a motor starter there is no other way to integrate the
inverse time circuit breaker (molded case) to that circuit other than installing an overload relay. One of the main
reasons why overload relay is used with inverse time circuit breaker (redundant) is that the overload relay has
contacts that can be connected in series with the control circuit.
The Problem
While the three component system is the best way to follow NEC 430, one should realize the fact that in this case the
thermal protection and the magnetic protection are two separate units. As such it is vulnerable to mismatching of
correct specification when either of the components are replaced. The worst effect when any of these components are
mismatched is non-coordination of the protection devices.
In three component system, redundant or non-redundant does not really matter except one thing--- "coordination" of
the protection system. Coordination means that during
should trip first
control circuit selected the proper ratings of the components
However there is a big possibility that the same shall not be followed during maintenance.
The solution
The solution is to adopt the use of 2-component system such as describe in Figure 2 where only Thermal Magnetic
Circuit Breaker (TMCB) and contactor are used.
Figure 2. Two component system
Based on Figure 2 the molded case circuit breaker is no longer in the motor starter because the Thermal Magnetic
Circuit Breaker has built-in overload relay and magnetic trip mechanism compact in one unit. Meaning to say the
vulnerability of mismatching of specification during replacement has been solved.
How to use Thermal Magnetic Circuit Breaker
Thermal Magnetic Circuit Breaker is capable of protecting the motor against overload and short circuit, viz:
Short Circuit Protection
Simply connect the magnetic contactor right after the TMCB as shown in Figure 3. The line current that will run
through the magnetic contactor which came from the motor will also run through TMCB. So if there is fault
downstream this unit will clear the fault just like what molded case circuit breaker do. And of course in sizing this unit
for short circuit protection one should not forget to conduct coordination study with the upstream protection devices.
Replacing busted components with a specification
any industrial plants. This happen when there are technical troubles that needs
available spare that matches the exact
technician has no idea about the coordination of the protection system.

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Figure 3. TMCB protection against short circuit
Overload Protection
Thermal magnetic circuit breakers contain contact platform that is usually concealed and located in the lower part of
the unit. Remove the cover and put the contact block inside the platform and you can already use it just like the
conventional overload relay.
Figure 4. TMCB protection against overload
Conclusion
The advantage of this during maintenance is if we replace the protection of the motor, then we are replacing both
thermal protection and magnetic protection since it comes out as a single unit. The risk of having non-coordinated
protection devices due to human error or any other reasons is eliminated.
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Resources
Schneider Electric Manuals
Coordinated Motor Circuit Protection, Allen-Bradley
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