This is zoom of the image below showing the gaps and seeimingly insufficient electrical contacts between bus bar and breaker spring clips. Siemens seems to treat it as normal. So let's compute instead.
An electrical engineer told me:
"Compute the area as you would any rectangle. Remember that there is still a gap for a short distance below the edge of the feeler gauge.
I've never investigated that. But it would seem the contact area would have to be no less than the cross sectional area of the maximum wire size for the breaker… and probably a little more because of the added resistance due to the pressure contact versus the continuous metal of a wire."
To compute it, must I use the table for 60c, or 75c or 90c in the following?
https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/a7/a767224b-82d0-41a6-a02f-316c94392ce1.pdf
Original message:
Does anyone know where I can get thin copper conductor sheet. The spring clip and bus bar of original Siemens breaker and Siemens original listed enclosure panel is not making full contact (only at bottom) and Siemens won't admit they are incompatible.
So if I can insert thin copper sheet cut to the bus bar size.. then it can make spring clip and bus bar establish full contact. The bus bar thickness is short by 0.5mm or 1mm.
Best Answer
All Siemens load center bus systems are exactly the same and have been for decades, going back to when they were ITE brand before Siemens bought them in the 1980s. Nothing has changed. If this were a design issue, there would be countless fires, lawsuits etc. Siemens is the world's largets electrical company, something that lawyers drool over. So they would be all over this like stink on a pile of poo.
So there are three possibilities here;
1) You have a COUNTERFEIT breaker, which has been happening a lot with breakers being sold over the internet, even through big outlets like Amazon.
2) You bought a used / "refurbished" (no such thing) breaker and it had been subjected to a lot of heat, likely due to overloading, to where the springs have lost their tension.
3) You have a defective breaker. It happens, but generally Siemens catches it and issues a recall. Now, as it so happens, there WAS a recall of this series of breakers by Siemens back in 2010 for this EXACT reason! So whomever you bought this from either failed to notice that, or pulled them out of a garbage can back in 2010 and is selling them at 100% profit. If you can prove that you bought this from an AUTHORIZED dealer of Siemens equipment, they will likely replace it for you. If you bought it from FleaBay or Amazon or some surplus site, good luck with that... When the price looks too good to be true, it is.
https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/1998/cpsc-siemens-energy-automation-inc-announce-recall-of-gfci-circuit-breakers-used-with