O-Shaped Busway Meter Pack Section for Compact Power Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing meter centers or meter packs for high-rise buildings occupy significant space and are complex, limiting their ability to accommodate multiple feeder buses, which restricts their current-handling capacity and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A simplified meter center or meter pack design featuring an open-shaped bus with a compact circuit interrupter, allowing for multiple feeder bus connections in a minimal space configuration, enabling efficient power distribution to both sides of the housing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a traditional meter center or meter pack design is used, then it can accommodate multiple feeder buses, but it occupies significant space and has complex structure
Solution Approach 1:
The circuit interrupter is positioned inside the opening formed by the O-shaped bus, nesting one component within another. This allows the circuit interrupter to occupy space that would otherwise be empty, achieving a compact planar layout that reduces overall device footprint while maintaining the ability to handle multiple feeder buses
Solution Approach 2:
The O-shaped bus configuration creates a planar layout where components are arranged in two dimensions rather than extending in three dimensions. This dimensional approach allows multiple feeder bus connections to be accommodated within a compact footprint by utilizing the planar space efficiently
2Area of stationary object
If a simplified meter center structure is used, then it occupies minimal space, but it may not accept multiple feeder buses
Solution Approach 1:
The O-shaped bus is designed with an opening that can universally accommodate multiple feeder bus configurations. The same basic structure can accept single, double, triple, or multiple runs of feeder bus by simply adding more buses to the available connection points, making the device multi-functional without requiring structural changes
Solution Approach 2:
The busway center tap is divided into separate modular components: the O-shaped bus structure and the circuit interrupter. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the O-shaped bus provides flexible feeder bus accommodation while the circuit interrupter provides protection, and they can be configured together in a compact arrangement
Data Source
AI summary
A busway center tap 102 for a meter center 100, comprises an open-shaped bus 112 located in a housing 101, including three phased open-shaped bus bars 112A-C connected to respective feeder bus bars 104A-C, the open-shaped bus forming an opening 115 through which a cross bus 120 may be accessed. A circuit interrupter 116 is preferably mounted in the housing and compactly positioned in the opening formed by the open-shaped bus. The circuit interrupter includes three phased line side connectors 114A-C connected to respective open-shaped bus bars and three phased load side connectors 118A-C coupled to respective cross bus bars. Positioning the circuit interrupter in the opening formed by the open-shaped bus, achieves a compact, planar layout occupying minimal space with minimal complexity, enabling reduction in overall size of the busway center tap. The open-shaped bus bars may alternately be directly connected through the opening, to the cross bus bars.