A bus assembly system typically includes two or more bus assembly sections, one or more joint packs or bus assembly connectors, as well as a plurality of plug-in units. Each bus assembly section includes one or more phase-conductors and a housing. For example, in a three-phase system, the bus assembly section may include three live phase-conductors, or three live phase-conductors and one neutral-conductor, depending on the type of system architecture being employed. To draw power, various plug-in units or electrical components may be directly connected to one or more plug-in connection sites spaced along the bus assembly sections. Each joint pack is used to physically and electrically connect two sections or sets of bus assembly sections together.
A requirement in assembling a joint pack is that all of the required phase members which make up the joint packs must be assembled correctly and in the correct order to ensure that the joint pack will operate effectively. Many existing joint packs include discrete spacer standoffs that are inserted between phase members to ensure that the required spacing between the phase members is satisfied. However, these spacer standoffs are additional components that are not part of the phase members themselves, and one common problem is that such spacers may be inadvertently omitted during the assembly of the joint pack. This omission may prove costly as the joint pack will not operate effectively if one or more spacers are left out during assembly.
A common problem in assembling such joint packs is that one or more phase members may be incorrectly oriented with respect to the other phase members. Another common problem is that a conductor plate of one or more phase members may be placed at the incorrect phase location (i.e. phase A, B, or C) when assembling the joint pack. Another problem occurs when a portion of a phase member, such as a conductor plate, is inadvertently omitted when assembling the joint pack. These types of errors may cause the joint pack to not able to be installed in a bus assembly system.
Yet another problem occurs when the existing joint pack is decreased in size to make the overall size of the joint pack more compact. In particular, as a result of decreasing the sizes of the individual phase spaces within the joint pack, an unintended change may occur in the amount of creepage and/or through-air clearance that occurs between the phase members, thereby rendering the joint pack no longer satisfactory for the particular creepage and clearance guideline standards for which it is intended to be used.
Thus, a need exists for an improved joint pack that satisfies one or more of these needs and solves these problems.