The invention relates to a switchgear having a turn and twist mechanism. The switchgear has a contact system for electrical current conduction and bus transfer switching. The contact system has a fixed contact assembly and a movable contact assembly. The turn and twist mechanism drives the movable contact assembly for engagement/disengagement of the movable contacts with the fixed contacts. The turn and twist mechanism comprises a cylindrical pipe and a driving assembly. The driving assembly comprises a driving base, a floating carrier and a driving pin arrangement, for driving the cylindrical pipe for the engagement/disengagement. The driving base drives the floating carrier for turning the cylindrical pipe about a first axis, and drives the driving pin arrangement for twisting the cylindrical pipe about a second axis.

In a switch in which one end portion of a blade is pivotally attached to a fixed contactor and another end portion of the blade is brought into pressure contact with a fixed contactor by rotational operation of the blade, at least one slit is provided in each of a conductive contact surface, with respect to the fixed contactor, of the one end portion of the blade and a conductive contact surface, with respect to the fixed contactor, of the other end portion of the blade, so as to divide each of the conductive contact surfaces, thereby achieving multi-point contact on each of the conductive contact surfaces, and a thickness of a contact-pressure spring fixing portion of the blade at which a contact-pressure spring for bringing the other end portion into pressure contact with the fixed contactor is made smaller than that of the other end portion.

A metal-clad compliant grounding/earthing switch device configured for use within conventional switchgear is described. The device is equipped with adequate and compliant insulation of all bus connections, and is configured to close during maintenance outages grounding the live parts of the circuit feed by a particular breaker. The device enables electricians to perform maintenance and repairs in the event of an outage safely, and without the need to manually install a temporary Ground-and-Test Device. An insulated clam shell is present to limit fault propagation from live components until components are confirmed as grounded prior to maintenance of the switchgear.

A metal-clad compliant grounding/earthing switch device configured for use within conventional switchgear is described. The device is equipped with adequate and compliant insulation of all bus connections, and is configured to close during maintenance outages grounding the live parts of the circuit feed by a particular breaker. The device enables electricians to perform maintenance and repairs in the event of an outage safely, and without the need to manually install a temporary Ground-and-Test Device. An insulated clam shell is present to limit fault propagation from live components until components are confirmed as grounded prior to maintenance of the switchgear.

A method for assembling a switching apparatus for medium voltage electric systems is provided. The method includes, for each electric pole of the switching apparatus, providing a mounting assembly. The mounting assembly includes a support structure, a vacuum interrupter, a motion transmission mechanism, and an auxiliary contact. The method further includes providing a first semi-finished structure of the switching apparatus, where the first semi-finished structure includes, for each electric pole of the switching apparatus, a first pole terminal and a first fixed contact electrically connected to the first pole terminal. The method further includes, for each electric pole of the switching apparatus, installing the mounting assembly on the first semi-finished structure.