Nesting Dielectric Insulators for Compact Bus Connectors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current bus assembly connectors are bulky and reducing their size to make them more compact can lead to unintended changes in creepage and through-air clearance, causing operational issues and potential damage, and they often suffer from incorrect assembly errors such as misorientation or omission of phase members during assembly.
Innovation Solution
The use of dielectric insulators with axial sleeves that fit together in a nesting arrangement to form a central bolt, allowing for a compact design while ensuring proper assembly and securing the bus assembly, with features like poka-yoke configurations to prevent incorrect assembly and maintain necessary creepage and clearance standards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the size of the bus assembly connector is decreased to make it more compact, then the overall size is reduced, but the creepage and through-air clearance between phase members are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies nesting by placing one dielectric insulator inside another concentrically. The inner dielectric insulator is positioned within the outer dielectric insulator, creating a compact nested structure that reduces the overall volume of the bus assembly connector while maintaining adequate creepage and clearance distances between phase members. This nested arrangement allows the connector to meet size reduction goals without compromising electrical safety standards.
2Volume of moving object
If the phase spaces between phase members are reduced to decrease connector size, then compactness is improved, but incorrect assembly errors increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by providing distinctive features on the dielectric insulators that prevent incorrect assembly. The insulators have asymmetric characteristics such as different colors, shapes, or positioning features that allow them to be assembled in only one correct orientation and sequence. This asymmetric design eliminates assembly errors while maintaining the reduced phase spaces required for compact connector design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies color changes by providing dielectric insulators with different colors or color-coded features. This visual differentiation allows assembly personnel to quickly identify the correct insulator for each phase location and ensures proper assembly sequence. The color coding system prevents misorientation and incorrect placement errors even when phase spaces are tightly reduced for compactness.
3Reliability
If dielectric insulators are used to maintain clearance standards in a compact design, then electrical protection is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies merging by combining multiple functions into the dielectric insulators. Each insulator simultaneously provides electrical insulation, structural support for phase members, mechanical positioning features, and assembly guidance through asymmetric or color-coded characteristics. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, thereby maintaining adequate dielectric protection while limiting the increase in overall device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A bus assembly and bus assembly connector include one or more insulated members that have axial sleeves that fit within one another during assembly to form a nesting arrangement. The nesting arrangement of the axial sleeves allow reduction of the overall size of the bus assembly connector while satisfying power rating standards and dielectric clearances as well as allowing bolting of the bus assembly to thereby clamp and secure the bus assembly. The axial sleeves can be distinctively designed such that the phase members must be assembled in a predetermined order, with no components being omitted, to form the bus assembly connector or clamp the bus assembly.