It terminates wires via a screw-driven rising cage clamp — the screw tightens a brass clamp plate that pulls the wire up against a tin-plated brass contact bar, giving a gas-tight connection without a ferrule. The black PA66 housing carries the Buchanan series interlocking feature on the side, so multiple 796949-3 blocks can be snapped together to build a wider multi-circuit strip without a separate jumper bar.
Wire Range and Termination Reality
The 796949-3 accepts wire from 12 AWG to 30 AWG — that is a wide span, but the 12 AWG end is where the 17.5 A rating becomes usable. At 12 AWG the rising cage clamp has enough contact area to carry the full current without excessive temperature rise; at 30 AWG the clamp still grips, but the current should be derated because the wire itself limits the ampacity. The M3 screw has a specified torque of 0.79 Nm (7.0 Lb-In) — that is the setting to apply with a torque driver. Under-torquing leaves the clamp loose and the connection resistive; over-torquing can strip the PA66 threads or deform the brass clamp plate. The screw and clamp are both brass with nickel plating, which resists corrosion in industrial atmospheres better than plain steel.
Rated 17.5 A per position at 300 V. The 17.5 A figure is per-circuit, not total — a 3-position block can carry 17.5 A on each of the three circuits simultaneously as long as the total temperature rise stays within the PA66 limit.