Maximum safe wattage for solenoid and duty time

Question

Please can somebody put my mind at rest?

I work on a machine that is unpowered until fully assembled and it has a push-pull solenoid (195222-237).

It has become apparent that we need to cycle this solenoid In order to allow setup of a vacuum gate (the solenoid keeps locking while we are trying to set it up).

I purchased a plug in 24 V PSU adapter rated at 1 A (24 V) and cut off the jack connector then made a rudimentary connection to the solenoid and it pulls! :)

This was a success, however I am worried that the wattage may damage the solenoid if left on too long.

Please can someone advise what the maximum duty time would be with this power supply? Ideally we would be able to leave it on for 2-3 minutes at a time.

If this is not possible is there a discrete inline resistor of something I can connect to the cable to allow the duty required?

24 V Power Supply Adapter for Hypervolt Portable Massage Gun, with ON OFF Switch, 110-240V AC to DC 24 Volt 1A PSU DC Connector.

Solenoid datasheet

Answer 1

Datasheet says it can operate continuously; a power supply can supply power up to a limit but it’s rare you supply too much current to the load (unless it’s through the load) since in a sense the component is what is driving the wattage not the powersupply

components usually blow because either it continues to pull more electrons through it with more energy (leds usually) or a downstream component pulls more electrons through the component and overloads it

Answer 2

The 195222-237 Saia-Burgess Linear Solenoid, 24 V dc, 3.5N datasheet has the following performance data:

Where the part number breakdown is:

Which means the 195222-237 has a 37 awg coil which is rated a 23.8 VDC (nom), and with a 24 V dc supply has a maximum ON time of infinity.

The datasheet contains the following about a recommended heatsink:

Recommended Minimum Heat Sink : Maximum watts dissipated by solenoid are based on an unrestricted flow of air at 20°C, with solenoid mounted on the equivalent of an aluminium plate measuring 51 mm square by 3.2 mm thick

The question was:

This was a success, however I am worried that the wattage may damage the solenoid if left on too long.

Is the recommended heat sink fitted to the solenoid to allow for the 4 W dissipation when used with a 24 V dc supply?

I'm not sure how quickly the temperature will rise if 24 V dc is left applied and an insufficient heat sink. The datasheet doesn't seem to specify the maximum working temperature.

Answer 3

Not likely, 24V^2/141Ω (the resistance of the solenoid) yields ~4W which is the rated value. It would be unusual to have a solenoid that could not operate continuously.

However the datasheet suggests it needs a heatsink:

Maximum watts dissipated by solenoid are based on an unrestricted flow of air at 20°C, with solenoid mounted to the equivalent of an aluminum plate measuring 51mm square by 3.2mm thick

Another thing that you could try is use a hit an hold strategy which activates the solenoid with a higher voltage but then uses a lower voltage to hold (holding takes lower energy). This strategy would only work if the solenoid has a higher activation energy, consult with the manufacturer or conduct testing.