Human factors affecting bolted busbar reliability

Bolted busbar style connections on field installed power cords are common for high current electrical appliances mainly due to unique home appliance wiring which presents to the appliance either a three-wire or four-wire power outlet. This field installed situation creates an opportunity for significant variation which was the genesis for this study. A summary review of the applicable electrical joint theory related to the specific design adaptation of the bolted busbar under study is first reviewed. Then a wide inference space experimental investigation of human factors and variation sources is conducted to understand their effect on the junction tightness and contact resistance. Extrapolation of the findings in the study can be applied generally to any psychomechanical system where twist action tightness is accomplished through human haptic perception.