Solenoids

[Silent Jack]

When building and powering a solenoid, is more voltage/capacitance better for a strong fast field generation?  Or is it something of a balance between the two?  Secondly, how much does saturation come into play were the plunger portion is concerned?

[Hero999]

The capacitance should be as low as possible because it slows it down and can cause resonance.

Saturation is the point at which the iron core becomes saturated so an increase in current results in less of an increase in field. When core saturation occurs, the inductance drops to the point where the core is effectively not there.

[Silent Jack]

So oversaturation could result in damage to the circuit through blowby?

[Hero999]

What does blowby mean?

At DC, the current through a coil is determined by the series resistance not the inductance. Whether the coil is damaged or not depends on the power dissipation (P = I²R) and its ability to dissipate heat.