Hi ,
Thanks guys, had got a bit of a metal block as to which way to read the contact ratings.
Am actually switching 3 separate lines, 2 very small ac currents but the 3rd line is up to 5 amps @ 12vdc so that would have been too much for one contact if the 10amp rating was shared across the 3 contacts.
Good point from ReloadRon about not paralleling a load across multiple contacts.
Just off this particular point, but something that always made me wonder why, on some industrial machines at work, typically for turning on heating elements of around 5 to 12 amps @230vac ; they used a 16a relay and a power triac in parallel.
Heard various views as to why they used 2 devices though nothing convincing; any thoughts ?