A saturable reactor was a special form of inductor where the magnetic core could be deliberately saturated by means of a dccurrent flowing in a control winding. Once saturated, the inductance of the saturable reactor dropped dramatically.
Saturable reactors provided a very simple means of remotely and proportionally controlling the flow of ac current into a load such as an incandescent lamp; the flow of ac was roughly proportional to the flow of dc in the control winding. In addition, because of the particular arrangement of the power windings, the control winding, and the core, the control winding was well-isolated from the ac power.
Because the required inductance to achieve dimming varied with the size of the load, saturable reactors often had multiple taps, allowing a small inductance to be used with a large load or a larger inductance to be used with a smaller load. In this way, the required magnitude of the control current was also held roughly constant, no matter what the load.
The principal disadvantages of saturable reactors was that they were physically large and heavy and somewhat expensive. Today, they have been supplanted by thyristordimmers using triacs or SCRs.
A saturablereactor is a special form of inductor where the magnetic core can be deliberately saturated by means of a dccurrent flowing in a control winding.
Saturablereactors provide a very simple means of remotely and proportionally controlling the flow of accurrent into a load such as an incandescent lamp; the flow of ac is roughly proportional to the flow of dc in the control winding.
Because the required inductance to achieve dimming varies with the size of the load, saturablereactors often have multiple taps, allowing a small inductance to be used with a large load or a larger inductance to be used with a smaller load.
A reactor recirculation system in accordance with claim 22 wherein said lead compensation circuit comprises: an engagement switch that electrically couples said lead compensation circuit to said regulator; a current limiting resistor in electrical parallel with a switch contact; and at least one capacitor.
A reactor recirculation system in accordance with claim 29 wherein said at least one capacitor comprises a plurality of capacitors and shorting contacts configured to selectively bypass each capacitor when said shorting contacts are in a closed first position and to not bypass said capacitor when in an open second position.
Saturablereactor 228 is magnetically coupled to a primary winding (not shown) in power rectifier circuit 134 and a secondary winding (not shown) in negative and positive feedback circuit 154.
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