A heavy-duty power relay that operates from solenoid action is shown in Fig. 6-20. In this device, a spring pulls the solenoid core, or armature, away from the electrical contact when the current is off. When current flows, the armature is pulled toward the coil. An electrical contact connected to the armature is either closed or opened by this action. Note that the electromagnetism can be used either to open or close the relay. The action taken depends on the design of the relay. The relay contacts can be arranged for a variety of functions, such as SPST, SPDT, DPDT, or any other combination.
The advantage of a relay is that a substantial pulling power can be developed with a small coil current. The contacts can be made quite large and can handle or switch high values of electrical power. An extremely small amount of control power thus can be used to switch much higher voltages and currents in a safe manner (see Fig. 6-21).
