Plug-in bus duct

Claim 1

A plug-in bus duct comprising a group of elongated, generally flat busbars each of which extends the length of said duct, said busbars each being made up of a plug-in section located between two sandwich sections, an elongated housing having side walls of a height substantially greater than the width of said busbars, said side walls being comprised of individual lengths of sandwich sections and plugin sections, and having a common top wall and common bottom wall that extend the entire bus duct length, locator ribs fixed to said sandwich sections'' side walls, said plug-in section''s side walls being configured such that said walls are captured within a pocket defined by said locating ribs and said top and bottom walls and are held in position by said ribs and said top and bottom walls, thereby cooperating with said sandwich sections'' side walls to provide side walls that extend the entire bus duct length, said busbars being laterally spaced one from the other and from the sides of the housing in the plug-in section to provide sufficient space to allow engagement of a plug unit''s stabs with the busbars, and being positioned in side-by-side relation in the sandwich sections, insulator means within said sandwich sections that is of a thickness substantially less than the thickness of said busbars disposed between said busbars and the sides of said housing, said insulator means separating said busbars one from the other and from the sides of said housing, structure defining a stab access opening in at least one of the top and bottom walls of said housing, said stab access opening communicating with said plug-in section, and an insulator template within said plug-in section that is interposed between said stab access opening and saiD busbars, said template defining a series of stab holes insulated one from the other such that each hole can receive one stab from the plug unit through said stab access opening in electrical contact with the exposed portion of a busbar.