Bus Bar Insulation via Cover Partition Walls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current bus bar designs for electrical installation distributors lack effective insulation, leading to potential flashover and inadequate creep distances, which can result in safety hazards and non-compliance with standards like UL 508.
Innovation Solution
The bus bar design incorporates a cover part and bottom part made of insulating material with chamber partition walls and additional partition walls on the cover part to increase creep distances between connecting lugs, ensuring reliable insulation and fixation without increasing the overall size, using an extrusion profile or injection molded elements for cost-effective production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If connecting lugs extend through chamber partition walls to enable connections, then ease of operation is improved, but insulation effectiveness deteriorates due to reduced creep distances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a third dimension by adding partition walls on the cover part that extend vertically between connecting lugs. This vertical dimension creates additional insulation paths without interfering with the horizontal connection function, thereby maintaining ease of operation while improving insulation effectiveness through increased creep distances.
Solution Approach 2:
The partition walls on the cover part act as intermediary insulating elements between adjacent connecting lugs. These partition walls mediate the insulation function by providing additional creepage paths, allowing the connecting lugs to maintain their connection function while being electrically isolated through the insulating material of the partition walls.
2Reliability
If air distance requirements are increased to meet safety standards, then safety is improved, but device size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes the vertical dimension by adding partition walls on the cover part that extend downward between connecting lugs. This approach increases creep distances and effective insulation without requiring larger horizontal air gaps, thereby maintaining compact bus bar dimensions while meeting safety standards through enhanced vertical insulation structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The partition walls are strategically positioned only in critical areas where connecting lugs are adjacent and insulation is most needed. This localized approach provides enhanced safety and creep distance protection precisely where required, without unnecessarily increasing the overall bus bar volume in regions where insulation is already sufficient.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention is a bus bar comprising a cover part made of an insulating material, and a bottom part comprising two chambers each for the reception of one pole connector. A chamber partition wall is arranged between each set of chambers, wherein at least one connecting lug is arranged on a corresponding pole connector. The cover part can be set on the bottom part in such a way that each of the pole connectors is covered, and each of the connecting lugs extends out through corresponding openings in the cover part. At least one partition wall is arranged on the cover part, which is positioned between two adjacent connecting lugs when the cover part is set on the bottom part. The bottom part is closable on its front side by a set of one or more end caps.