Control device (10) for determining switching times of an
electromagnetic actuator (1), comprising: - a first
process module (11) designed to determine a course of a concatenated
magnetic flux as a function of a current intensity for controlling the
electromagnetic actuator (1) as an actual characteristic curve (200); - a second
process module (12) designed to provide at least one reference characteristic curve (300) for the
magnetic flux as a function of the current intensity for controlling the
electromagnetic actuator (1), wherein the reference characteristic curve (300) has a first characteristic curve section (301), wherein the first characteristic curve section (301) has a linear profile with a defined gradient and a negative offset (320), wherein the negative offset (320) is selected such that during a switching operation in which the electromagnetic
actuator (1) is not moved, the first characteristic curve section (301) of the reference characteristic curve (300) is not exceeded, and wherein the slope of the first characteristic curve section (301) corresponds to a slope of the actual characteristic curve at the beginning of switching off the electromagnetic
actuator (1), wherein the reference characteristic curve (300) has a second characteristic curve section (302) whose gradient corresponds to the actual characteristic curve at the beginning of switching on the electromagnetic
actuator (1) and which includes a positive offset, and wherein the switching off begins with switching off the power supply of the electromagnetic actuator (1); and - a third
process module (13) designed to determine a
switching time of the electromagnetic actuator (1) using a comparison of values of the actual characteristic curve (200) with values of the at least one reference characteristic curve (300).