Tony M Apr 30, 2011:

Care! Seems precious few to me, and the problem is, it's conceivable that 'statique' could be qualifying 'sortie' and not 'relais'

However, having taken the time to check into it, I'm happy now that 'relais statique' is indeed a widely used term for 'SSR'; here's a Wiki ref. that might be informative for asker:

Contacteur statique - Wikipédia

Un contacteur statique ou relais statique est un dispositif permettant de commuter un courant électrique sans recours à des éléments mécaniques ou ...
Constitution - Détection de passage à zéro - Avantages et inconvénients - Annexes

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contacteur_statique

Hélène Curtis Apr 30, 2011:

@Tony Can't say I have a whole lot of time myself but I do get 608 Ghits for the term "sortie de relais statique".

Tony M Apr 30, 2011:

@ Hélène Yes, I'm aware of that entry in GDT, and did indeed mention it in my earlier discussion post. But I have to say it's not a term I've ever encountered personally. Sounds reasonable enough, I suppose, give that instead of being a mechanical relay, it is an all-electronic one, and hence has no actual moving parts. However, to be really convinced, I'd like to see it being used by some authoritative sources (haven't got time to look into that myself right now!)

Hélène Curtis Apr 30, 2011:

SSR In GDT «relais statique» is also the term given for «solid state relay»

Tony M Apr 30, 2011:

Désolé, mais... non That would be the wrong way round, Christiane.

It is a sortie that drives the relais — and not usually entraînement in an electrical context, I believe; I think 'commande' is probably the word you need.

My tentative suggestion would be something along the lines of 'sortie de commande de/du relais ***' — but you really should wait for confirmation from a FR native speaker expert, I can only really help you with how to interpret the EN source text. ;-)

(and yes, I do know a little bit about this field, I worked in electronics for 20 years before moving into translation!)

Christiane Allen (asker) Apr 29, 2011:

Tony, que pensez-vous alors de 'Relais d'entraînement à semiconducteurs'? Vous m'avez l'air d'en connaître un rayon en électricité :)

Tony M Apr 29, 2011:

'drive' Yes, I think it is redundant, up to a point!

However, I guess the writer put it there so it was clear that this output is intended to drive the relay, rather than being the output from the relay itself, if you see what I mean. So you need to find some way of avoiding the same ambiguity in FR, and perhaps 'commande' is necessary for that reason after all.

Not too sure about 'thyristor'; it may use thyristors, or triacs, but you might do better just to say 'semi-conducteur' — that and 'statique' are the 2 viable suggestions to be found in GDT (I believe that the 3rd option that offers is really not useable)

Christiane Allen (asker) Apr 29, 2011:

Vous avez raison, Tony. SSR peut être traduit par thyristor. Est-ce que 'drive' est redondant ici ? Je voudrais l'avis d'un ingénieur en électricité.

Tony M Apr 29, 2011:

SSR = Solid-State Relay