Swapping Bus Plugs Between Manufacturers
Bus Plugs usually can not be swapped out from manufacturer to manufacturer much like your old beta movies will not play in a VHS videotape player or recorder. To put in the language of today the new Blu Ray movies will not play in a DVD player. Enough about film and on to bus plugs. Companies are often bought and sold so there are instances where the manufacturer of bus plugs purchases a company that makes its own bus plugs. The buyer will put their name on the bought out company’s product and so you are buying the same old bus plugs as before only they come in a box with a different logo. Then there are few swaps between bus ducts from one given manufacturer.
The way they fasten, the amp rating of the bus duct, the actual live conductor material ( aluminum or copper), the spacing of conductors, is the duct three wire of four wire can result in the lack of interchangeability even within a given product line. The manufacturers of the duct and the bus plugs would not invite competition from other manufacturers and would try to keep market share by making duct that could only accept their brand of bus plugs. The one time you can mix and match duct of different manufacturer is using duct with tap boxes and running ducts from different manufacturers in series. You have to make sure that the upstream duct has ample capacity to pass current to the downstream duct. Then each length or span of duct uses the appropriate bus plugs from that manufacturer.