METHOD FOR DETERMINING A SWITCHING TIME OF AN ELECTRICAL SWITCHING DEVICE

In order to provide a method for determining a switching time of an electric switching device comprising an interrupter path (1) disposed between a first line section (2) subjected to a driving voltage (4) and a second line section (3) that forms an oscillating circuit after the switching device undergoes a shut-off step, said method being used for determining the best possible switching time for an electrical switching device to minimize transient voltage surges, it is proposed that either - a temporal progression of a voltage that develops along the interrupter path (1) is determined during a scanning period (tl), - the resonance frequency of the oscillation circuit is determined from the temporal progression, and a time window (?t) is in turn determined from the resonance frequency, - and a switching time is established by determining a zero crossover of an envelope of a future progression after a defined time period (t2) following the shut-off process within the time window (?t), said future progression being calculated using the temporal progression, said envelope corresponding to the resonance frequency; or that a temporal progression of a voltage that develops along the interrupter path (1) is determined during a scanning time (tl), - a future progression of the voltage along the interrupter path and the resonance frequency of the oscillating circuit are determined from the temporal progression along with a time window (?t) which in turn is determined from the resonance frequency, - and a switching time is established by determining a zero crossover of the voltage along the interrupter path after a defined time period (t2) after shutoff within the determined time window (?t), said crossover being weighted with criteria of the driving voltage and oscillation circuit voltage.