bus bar thing (2025 Update)

Dec 26, 2024 Last reply: 1 year ago 12 Replies

Sometimes I can't find the right set of words to google what I'm looking for (or to find it on Amazon)



I'm designing a relay module, with some number of independent SPST power relays, and I thought it would be convenient for the customers, if any, to be able to buss one side of some of the relays sometimes. But without soldering.



If we had a row of holes on the board, one could bolt down strips of buss bar as needed. So I want to buy a flat metal strip with evenly spaced holes. A customer could, say, snip off a bit with 5 holes and bolt it down with 5 tiny screws to cluster 5 channels.



Searching for buss bar gets thousands of silly hits.



I recall companies that made this sort of thing, electronic pcb bus bars, standard and custom. Does anyone know of any?



Back in the DIP ics and double-sided board days, we'd sometimes use soldered-down bus bars for power and ground distribution.Maybe some people still do.



Plenty turn up here:

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Including this one which may or may not have something suitable:

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I could design a PCB that had various length bus bar jumper things, as breakaways, so users could snap off whatever they need.

2, 3, and 4 hole segments might work, in general. It's an interesting geometry puzzle.

Did you check keystone electric? Or what about the screwdowns that have the solder legs?

Cheers

Are you thinking of laminated busbars?

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Joe Gwinn

Use one s with two it's a kiss. (may help search results)

The bit that's left over when you've crimped all the terminals?

abuse something like this, with screws from the opposite side?

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M2.5 screws and afaict the pitch is 200mil

Searching my memory, I remember Rogers advertising bus bars in EDN and/or Electronic Design.

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Our mechanical engineers worked with us to design custom bus bars for our power distribution (100 A) as well.

Our latest idea is to have a row of eight fuseholders on the board, each connecting a channel to one common buss. Users can snap in fuses as desired, and it eliminates some absurd current possibilities.

That sounds like a good idea!

John

You can also use seperated screw terminals:

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