Bus Plugs Blog – Expert Safety and Usage Information

Replacement Square D 100 Amp Bus Plugs, Catalog No. PQ4610 – Available at www.swgr.com

MIDWEST had a customer who used MIDWEST’s field services for over 20 years and did not realize there was a secondary market for electrical bus plugs and other electrical switchgear that no longer is manufactured. He was speaking to a MIDWEST Field Service Engineering Technician and was complaining that he might have to replace a 1600 amp bus duct run because the bus plugs were obsolete. He was not an electrician or the electrical supervisor. His job was in purchasing. The electricians asked him to get a replacement Square D 100 amp bus plug because the handle broke on one of theirs.  It is strange how many handles get broken on electrical equipment. It is understandable on some of the older stuff that has been in service for 40 plus years. Gets old, tired, and finally breaks.  Our Electrical Technician told him MIDWEST deals in the secondary market for obsolete electrical equipment and we would have completely reconditioned bus plugs to replace his obsolete defective stuff. He was extremely happy and looked forward to telling his boss he could save 1000s of dollars. On top of it all, they also ordered GE General Electric FVK425R bus plugs to boot. MIDWEST’s Switchgear Division said they run into this a lot. Frequently they get emergency calls to repair an obsolete piece of equipment as fast as possible and end up just replacing the defective equipment with a reconditioned direct replacement. The secondary switchgear market at its best.

Every day MIDWEST’s Switchgear Division receives interesting calls, mostly about technical stuff. Often just plain old problem solving. And sometimes an emergency request for a replacement bus plug. Every once in a while we are asked whether the bus plug we sold was new or used. They couldn’t tell the difference. An example is a call about a Square D PQ3603G bus plug. The customer thought we made a mistake and sent them a new bus plug instead of a used PQ3603G. He was a bit surprised when we told him it was used, but had been reconditioned by MIDWEST. The reconditioning process is a full detailed disassembly, reconditioning of components, reassembly and final quality control testing and inspection. Thirty years ago, the common practice for some companies may have been to just wipe a used bus plug off and send it out the door. Those days should be long gone. Unfortunately there are suppliers that still don’t do much more than cosmetics. MIDWEST has a huge advantage.  We are a full service electrical testing and switchgear maintenance company and have been for over 30 year. In addition to high current and high voltage test equipment, we have test stations to simulate normal installation and operation of electrical equipment. Reconditioning a used Square D PQ3603G bus plug to look like new is routine work at MIDWEST.  But it is always nice to get a compliment from our customers.  We passed it on to the Switchgear Services Shop.  We have received similar compliments about other equipment, such as fused panel board switches, circuit breakers, transformers, etc.

Cutler Hammer Bus Plugs For Sale – Cat. #CP2HD465

Sometimes the biggest challenge MIDWEST runs into, when reconditioning old bus plugs and obsolete bus plugs, is rust. Ironically this biggest challenge usually has the easiest solution, scrap out the bus plug. Sometimes healthy parts can be harvested from the rusted bus plugs, but care has to be taken to assure the recovered parts have not also been damaged by rust. The problem with rust is that it can be very insidious. Let’s say we want to recondition a Square D bus plug, Siemens Bus Plug or Cutler Hammer bus plug. It doesn’t make any difference. The rust doesn’t care. The problem is, we frequently don’t know the extent of the rusting until we have disassembled the bus plug and started the metal refinishing. The surface preparation may reveal severe structural rusting that was not fully apparent cosmetically. Now we’re not talking about full blown metal failure where you could push your finger through the metal. That’s obvious. We are referring to non cosmetic deterioration that prevents professional surface reconditioning. And this is not always visually apparent. It might not even be discovered if a company just repaints on old ITE or Westinghouse bus plug, for example. MIDWEST is very carful of equipment from facilities that have been out of service and unheated for any period of time. Extensive moisture damage can occur and not be visible until MIDWEST begins the full reconditioning process. This is another reason we recondition and test our equipment. There can be hidden defects. Some structural, some functional, some electrical, and any of them could turn a bus plug into a piece of scrap metal.

MIDWEST was asked by a retired electrician why we bother disassembling a bus plug to recondition it. He worked for a contractor for years and they serviced bus plugs and bus duct a few times. But all they had to do was clean them off and operate them a couple

ITE RV366 Bus Plugs Available at www.swgr.com

times. They never found any problems. They didn’t bother removing them from the bus duct. He said he worked on GE General Electric bus plugs, Square D bus plugs and westinghouse bus plugs. He wanted to know what we would find that they didn’t. The obvious area of concern would be the disconnect fingers on the back of the bus plugs. These are not visible unless you remove the bus plug from the bus duct. It’s not unusual for disconnect fingers to be misaligned, bent or damaged by overheating due to improper fit on to the bus duct. In addition, we often find fuse holder supports or operating mechanism supports actually broken. A broken support for an operating mechanism is a disaster waiting to happen. It’s especially dangerous because it will fail right when you are operating the bus plug. And that’s a bad place to be if you are the one switching the bus plug. The concern is for the safety of the person doing the switching. It’s easy to repair or replace equipment. But it’s not so easy to repair or replace people or body parts.

Square D PBQ4640 Bus Plugs Available at www.swgr.com

Whether it’s an ITE RV366 bus plug or RV364 or Square D PBQ4640 bus plug, any bus plug can have these defects. Many defects are more related to the installation and environment than to the particular manufacturer. The big deal is we know all the things that can go wrong with electrical bus plugs and most of these failures can not be found with a quick visual inspection of an installed bus plug by someone inexperienced, who has never tore one apart, or repaired one after it has broken or failed mechanically or electrically.

Cutler Hammer CP2HD366 Bus Plugs For Sale by MIDWEST

Much of the demand for reconditioned and new surplus bus plugs is because the user has to replace bus plugs that are defective.  One of the worst things that happen is the bus plug operating mechanism breaks when you try to open or close it. It is very dangerous if the bus plug is half open or one pole opened and the other two are half closed yet. This type of failure is due to the lack of maintenance, specifically the lack of exercising the bus plug operating mechanism periodically. The other enemies are dirt, moisture, heat, and, as we have said many times, fork lifts.  Sometimes folks are very surprised that so many reconditioned bus plugs are used to replace damaged or defective bus plugs rather than just for additional load or expansion.

Federal Pacific LSP1432 Bus Plugs For Sale by MIDWEST

For every Cutler Hammer CP2HD366 bus plug purchased for an expansion project, we might also replace a Federal Pacific LSP1432SN bus plug because the customer’s existing bus plug failed to operate properly. When it comes to bus plugs, run to failure is the standard operating mode. The perception is they don’t need maintenance because the never do anything. They just sit on the bus duct. And that is true, but it is also the reason they eventually may fail to operate properly when needed.

The only real pattern may be the use of newer style replacement bus plugs for expansion projects than for replacement of defective equipment

MIDWEST’s Switchgear Shop received an unusual request for blue Square D bus plugs and black General Electric bus plugs. Plus, we were asked if we could paint ITE and Cutler Hammer bus plugs other colors and if we could put a unique label on each bus plug. Of course the answer was yes, but this was different. We have reconditioned Westinghouse bus plugs and Cutler Hammer Bus Plugs that were already painted black and we had to repaint them gray.  We had some Square D bus plugs and General Electric Bus Plugs that were a 1950’s kitchen cream color and looked like they had been repainted every ten years. But this was the first time that a customer requested a specific color, other than the manufacturer’s original color, which is usually gray.

They had a lot of 30 amp and 60 amp bus plugs. Quite a few 100 amp bus plugs and a couple 200 amp bus plugs and one large 400 amp bus plug. But what was really unusual was their reason for the color coding and labeling. It appears that, in some states, bus duct and bus plugs that are used only on a specific manufacturing machine or production process, are exempt from state tax. If they buy replacement bus plugs or have service on the existing bus plugs, the replacements and service is non taxable.  If the bus plugs or bus duct are used on something other than a specific manufacturing machine or process, service and equipment is taxable. They wanted the bus plugs for a specific process to be all the same color. They also wanted the bus plugs to be painted the same color as the bus duct and to be labeled for the specific manufacturing machine or process.  We are not state tax experts, but, as they explained it, it seemed to make sense.

MIDWEST was asked why the total capacity of all the bus plugs connected to a 1600 amp bus duct was over 2500 amps. The particular facility had one 400 amp bus plug, four 200 amp, eight 100 amp, and twelve 30 to 60 amp bus plugs on the old bus duct.  These were mostly very old bus plugs and a few reconditioned or new bus plugs. Purchasing wanted to order two new 60 amp bus plugs but didn’t know how it was possible to have over 2500 amps connected to only a 1600 amp bus duct and then add more. Actually the equipment he wanted was no longer manufactured, so he would have to use old reconditioned or refurbished bus plugs. It was a maintenance man asking purchasing the question.  This was a case were the maintenance man was doing production equipment repair one day and electrical maintenance the next. But he was not an electrician by trade.  MIDWEST explained.  The size of the bus plugs is nominal. The actual fuse or breaker in the bus plug may have a lower rating. For example, a 100 amp bus plug may have a 60 amp fuse. Or 250 amp fuses in a 400 amp bus plug.  In addition, all connected load is not on all at the same time. There is a diversity factor. The diversity of an old or new bus duct system might result in only 50% loading. It would not be unusual for a 2000 amp bus duct to have less than 1200 amps on it. We get extremely nervous if the load approaches 80%. We see a huge increase in problems when this equipment is operating anywhere near full rating.  When we infrared scan a bus duct that is heavily loaded, the whole bus duct and many of the bus plugs just seem to light up under infrared. So usually old and new bus plugs and bus ducts are not loaded to full rating, but when they are, bad things start to happen. If the load is not known, it may be easy to spot measure the load on the bus plug feeders. Do this safely at the load. Do not measure load at the bus plugs. That would be extremely dangerous.  Always, safety first.

Buy FVK363R General Electric Bus Plugs

MIDWEST receives many requests from folks that want to sell us their used bus plugs. These requests come from all over the country.  Usually we ask for a little biography on their old bus plugs.  If we are interested, we may ask them to send us some digital pictures of what they have.  To recondition bus plugs, there is a huge difference in the cost between bus plugs that look like new bus plugs and those that have been painted several times and are damaged. Refurbishing damaged bus plugs is a waste of time.  Along with all this, there is a need to have a sense of humor. Just about all the folks that call MIDWEST are great people, but they sure don’t know our business.  Here is a recent quick example.  We received a call from someone wanting to sell us several pallets of like new bus plugs. They described them; Gave us some catalog numbers; And said they just want to get rid of them. We asked for some digital pictures and they were happy to accommodate.  When we reviewed the pictures, all their used bus plugs looked just great.  Perfect candidates for refurbished bus plugs. But the pallets were outside on a nice sunshiny day. Good light for great pictures. But it rains outside and bus plugs do not like rain.  We called the owners and they said their like new bus plugs were located in an area that was always warm and seldom rained. Seldom doesn’t mean never.  It means occasionally does. Occasionally means at least once and at least once means rust. And rust means disaster for bus plugs.  MIDWEST is not interested in rusty old bus plugs, even if they look like new bus plugs.

10.0    Why look down when you can look up. 

9.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs come in various colors. Take your pick as long as it’s grey.  

8.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs are guaranteed to bring good luck to those who use them. Just ask any of our happy customers.

7.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs come with a standard one year warranty,

6.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs look and operate like new. Check them out and compare for yourself.

5,0       Our reconditioned bus plugs meet national testing standards.

4.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs are readily available. Manufacturers do not keep inventories of many types of new equipment. Lead times for new equipment orders can run into weeks or even months.

3.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs are fast and easy to purchase. Check out our web site at www.swgr.com to see how easy it is.

2.0       Our reconditioned bus plugs receive the same care as rare pieces of art. Well not quite. But the fact remains, our technicians take tremendous pride in their work.

1.0       And the number one reason to buy a used bus plug is it saves you money, up to 70% off the cost of new.

Bus plugs that are reclaimed from actual industrial sites usually have many years of accumulated dirt and grime.  We frequently find them painted over to match a ceiling or wall or to indicate that this plug was from the (fill in your color) circuit.  When we find a really clean one from a spotless facility or one that looks like it saw little active service we still take them apart and recondition them on the inside.  Our reconditioned units carry a one year warranty so we have to know we have completely gone through them.  We would hate to take a chance on a shiny one without any scratches on the outside and sell it as-is.  The fine exterior could hide the fact that the fuse holders or other live parts, inside, sustained overheating or mechanical damage.  Then we are forced to take the damaged unit back under warranty.  The only time a piece of inventory leaves our shop in the ‘raw’ condition is if it is being purchased or traded to another company where we know the unit will be reconditioned by them before they sell it.