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4 Point Starter - Working Principle and Construction of Four Point Starter

1. A 4 point starter functions similarly to a 3 point starter by limiting the starting current of DC motors to protect the armature. 2. The main difference is that the 4 point starter's no voltage coil is connected independently to the power supply through a fourth terminal and resistance, rather than being connected to the field circuit. 3. This ensures the no voltage coil always produces sufficient force to hold the starter handle in the RUN position regardless of changes to the field circuit.

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Mohd Rashid Siddiqui
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332 views

4 Point Starter - Working Principle and Construction of Four Point Starter

1. A 4 point starter functions similarly to a 3 point starter by limiting the starting current of DC motors to protect the armature. 2. The main difference is that the 4 point starter's no voltage coil is connected independently to the power supply through a fourth terminal and resistance, rather than being connected to the field circuit. 3. This ensures the no voltage coil always produces sufficient force to hold the starter handle in the RUN position regardless of changes to the field circuit.

Uploaded by

Mohd Rashid Siddiqui
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4 Point Starter | Working Principle and Construction of

Four Point Starter


Working Principle of Four Point Starter
The 4 point starter like in the case of a 3 point starter also acts as a protective
device that helps in safeguarding the armature of the shunt or compound
excited DC motor against the high starting current produced in the absence of
back emf at starting.
The 4 point starter has a lot of constructional and functional similarity to a three
point starter, but this special device has an additional point and a coil in its
construction. This naturally brings about some difference in its functionality,
though the basic operational characteristic remains the same. The basic
difference in circuit of 4 point starter as compared to 3 point starter is that the
holding coil is removed from the shunt field current and is connected directly
across the line with current limiting resistance in series. Now to go into the
details of operation of 4 point starter, lets have a look at its constructional
diagram, and figure out its point of difference with a 3 point starter.
Construction and Operation of Four Point Starter
A 4 point starter as the name suggests has 4 main operational points, namely
1. 'L' Line terminal. (Connected to positive of supply.)
2. 'A' Armature terminal. (Connected to the armature winding.)
3. 'F' Field terminal. (Connected to the field winding.)
4. Like in the case of the 3 point starter, and in addition to it there is, A 4th point
N. (Connected to the No Voltage Coil NVC)
The remarkable difference in case of a 4 point starter is that the No Voltage Coil
is connected independently across the supply through the fourth terminal called
'N' in addition to the 'L', 'F' and 'A'. As a direct consequence of that, any change
in the field supply current does not bring about any difference in the
performance of the NVC. Thus it must be ensured that no voltage coil always
produce a force which is strong enough to hold the handle in its 'RUN' position,
against force of the spring, under all the operational conditions. Such a current
is adjusted through No Voltage Coil with the help of fixed resistance R
connected in series with the NVC using fourth point 'N' as shown in the figure
above.
Apart from this above mentioned fact, the 4 point and 3 point starters are similar
in all other ways like possessing is a variable resistance, integrated into number
of sections as shown in the figure above. The contact points of these sections
are called studs and are shown separately as OFF, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, RUN, over
which the handle is free to be maneuvered manually to regulate the starting
current with gathering speed.

Now to
understand its way of operating lets have a closer look at the diagram given
above. Considering that supply is given and the handle is taken stud No.1, then
the circuit is complete and line current that starts flowing through the starter. In
this situation we can see that the current will be divided into 3 parts, flowing
through 3 different points.

1. 1 part flows through the starting resistance (R1+ R2+ R3…..) and then to the
armature.
2. A 2nd part flowing through the field winding F.
3. And a 3rd part flowing through the no voltage coil in series with the protective
resistance R.
So the point to be noted here is that with this particular arrangement any change
in the shunt field circuit does not bring about any change in the no voltage coil
as the two circuits are independent of each other. This essentially means that
the electromagnet pull subjected upon the soft iron bar of the handle by the no
voltage coil at all points of time should be high enough to keep the handle at its
RUN position, or rather prevent the spring force from restoring the handle at its
original OFF position, irrespective of how the field rheostat is adjusted.
This marks the operational difference between a 4 point starter and a 3 point
starter. As otherwise both are almost similar and are used for limiting the
starting current to a shunt wound DC motor or compound wound DC motor, and
thus act as a protective device.

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