Soft Starters: What are the key benefits of soft start?

Soft start enhances motor start performance in many ways including:

• smooth acceleration without the torque transients associated with electro-mechanical reduced voltage starters.
• voltage or current is applied gradually, without the voltage and current transients associated with electro-mechanical reduced voltage starters.
• lower start currents and/or shorter start times because constant current control gives higher torque as motor speed increases.
• easy adjustment of start performance to suit the specific motor and load.
• precise control over the current limit.
• consistent performance even with frequent starts.
• reliable performance even if load characteristics vary between starts (eg loaded or unloaded starts).

In addition to superior starting performance, soft starters also provide a range of features not available from other reduced voltage starters. This features include areas such as:

• soft stop (which helps eliminate water hammer)
• braking
• motor and system protection
• metering and monitoring
• operating history and event logs
• communication network integration

The extra features built into soft starters can reduce the overall installed cost of the equipment and reduce the long-term maintenance requirement.