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Bingo. Also sometimes used for Wye Delta motors, although not absolutely necessary there.
This switch can have fuse holders mounted in it.
Actually you can parallel contacts in a switch to increase the overall current, it's done all the time. But you can't do it for a motor starting contactor because there is no way all 6 contacts will close at EXACTLY the same time. However in this case, a 3 pole 400A switch would usually be less expensive than a 6 pole 200A switch, so there is no point. Where they start doing things like parallel switches is when the size requirement is larger than whatever is made as a single device. For example vacuum contactors, the biggest made might be 320A but if you need 1000A you get three of the 320A contactors in parallel because they don't make a 1000A vacuum bottle. Can't start a motor with them however.I found the GE catalog page for this series. List price is over $7,500.
Catalog just says "4 poles", but it's obviously good for 4 to 6. As already mentioned, uses might include multiple motors, multiple-winding/-speed motors or unusual poly-phase systems. For three-phase motors, this switch is rated for 50HP at 480V and 60HP at 600V.
I am pretty sure it's not allowed to parallel switch contacts for greater current/HP capacity, so that would not be a good use for this switch.
For static switching, yes, I agree. However, this is a safety switch intended for use as a live disconnect. For live disconnects, I stand by my statement that paralleling contacts for greater current capacity is generally prohibited. The exceptions are carefully engineered to ensure the last-broken contact has sufficient interrupting capacity for the entire load. You can't just take a recognized multiple pole device and wire the poles in parallel. The result is not an approved use of a recognized device.
