Joints and connections – Biased catch or latch – Leaf spring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-17
2001-02-27
Browne, Lynne H. (Department: 3629)
Joints and connections
Biased catch or latch
Leaf spring
C403S326000, C403S309000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06193434
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to wire cable trays and concerns a coupling for assembling unit sections of such cable tray and ready-to assemble cable tray unit sections so obtained.
As is well known, cable trays in general and wire cable trays in particular are intended to bear and guide all types of high or low tension electrical cables for a wide variety of uses, and in general all resilient conductors or channels which span between different points, such as optical fibres.
Such wire cable trays are formed by a wire structure, generally of metal, formed as a mesh. They are generally but not exclusively in the form of a guttering, normally but not exclusively in a U form, and comprise transverse wires, also known as weft wires, which produce the transverse gutter shape and are regularly disposed along the length of the cable tray, which transverse wires are joined by welds or analogous joints to longitudinal wires also known as warp wires distributed over the whole periphery of the guttering. In this way, a bottom and two lateral sides are present in such cable trays, the upper parts of the sides terminating in a longitudinal edge wire. Other configurations are possible.
Such cable trays can be installed in any possible position, non limiting examples of which are with the bottom horizontal, vertical or inclined to the horizontal.
The present invention relates to assembly of all types of wire cable trays, whatever their shape and the distribution, number, cross section, shape, or nature of the various longitudinal and transverse wires or components which constitute the cable tray, a non limiting example of which is described in European patent EP-A-0 298 825.
Such cable trays are generally formed by unit sections of a predetermined length and must be assembled end to end on site to the desired length and in the desired configuration.
Assembly is achieved using assembly parts which can mechanically join two successive unit sections of cable tray. The assembly parts are generally known as couplings. The term coupling or assembly coupling will be used in the present document.
Numerous couplings for wire cable trays are already known.
Such couplings are available to users as accessories which are sold separately from the cable trays, requiring the user to calculate his coupling requirements. In addition, mounting such couplings normally requires the use of tools or supplementary mounting parts.
Further, such couplings can only be mounted on the cable tray when the unit sections to be assembled have been positioned in the workplace in the precise position for mounting.
Mounting thus takes place under uncomfortable conditions or even where access is difficult as it is generally high up.
French patent FR-A-2 691 590 describes self-fixing cable tray unit sections constituted by asymmetric cable tray modules. In that document, one end of a coupling is permanently welded to one end of the module, the other end of the coupling comprising a coupling pin which links to the end of the next module to be assembled.
The use of couplings which are permanently and immovably mounted on the cable trays overcomes some of the difficulties mentioned above but creates other problems for the manufacturer and the user of such cable trays, in particular: supplemental welding operations, and a double stock of cable trays with welded couplings and without welded couplings. Further, if a module is cut because of the length of the installation, according to FR-A-2 691 590, separate couplings must be employed in order to be able to use the portion which does not include the welded couplings.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a coupling which is advantageously free of the disadvantages described above.
The present invention seeks to provide a coupling for wire cable trays which is universal in nature, i.e., which can be sold or used separately, or pre-mounted on one end of a cable tray unit section, the cable tray unit section and the coupling being sold in this case as ready-to-assemble with another cable tray unit section, but the coupling can always be dismantled easily.
The invention also seeks to provide a coupling which can be mounted on and can remain in position on a single end of a first cable tray unit section, assembly of a second cable tray unit section using the same coupling not requiring any dismantling of said coupling from the first unit section and being effected very easily.
The invention also seeks to provide a coupling which has the smallest possible play and which produces the most rigid possible bond between cable tray unit sections, which can however be dismantled, and which also ensures good electrical continuity of the cable tray.
We have sought to provide a coupling with which the cable tray unit sections can be mounted and dismantled easily without requiring specific tools or accessory parts.
We have also sought to provide couplings which are positioned in advance on cable tray unit sections to allow the most compact possible stacking thereof for transport.
The invention provides a coupling for assembling two wire cable tray unit sections, which coupling is longitudinally divided into two arms, each arm being provided with mounting means for latching it removably in position on the end zone of a first unit section and on the end zone of a second unit section respectively. The means for mounting the first arm are independent of those of the second arm and can alone render the coupling solid with the first unit section, the means for mounting the second arm on the second unit section comprising at least one resilient catch means which can co-operate with a transverse wire of the second unit section during assembly of the two unit sections.
In general, the wires of the cable trays are metal wires and the coupling is also metal with strength and resilience characteristics which ensure good assembly conditions.
Thus the means for mounting the first arm can autonomously and independently be used to assemble and latch the coupling on the end of a first cable tray unit section, such an assembly being able to be dismantled at any time.
In order to assemble the second unit section on the first unit section provided with the coupling of the invention, the end of the second cable tray unit section is displaced by a relative coupling-cable tray movement and engaged on the second arm of the coupling, the resilient catch means of the second arm alone latching the second unit section in position following the first unit section.
Assembly is achieved by leaving the first arm of the coupling completely latched and mounted on the first unit section, the coupling being in a kind of block with the first unit section.
Advantageously, the coupling is constituted by a part which is generally in the form of a strip, which may or may not be longitudinally or transversely profiled, the dimensions of which are advantageously such that it can be housed between two longitudinal, preferably successive, wires of the cable tray unit sections to be assembled.
The coupling is advantageously but not exclusively positioned in the mesh constituted at the end of each unit section by two successive longitudinal wires and two successive transverse wires, one of these wires being the transverse wire positioned at the end of the unit section to be assembled.
When the cable tray is provided with lateral sides, the mesh comprising the longitudinal edge wire is advantageously selected.
In a preferred embodiment, the strip constituting the coupling has, except for clearances, a width which equals the distance separating two successive longitudinal wires and between which it is to be mounted.
The strip constituting the coupling can be profiled towards the inside or outside of the cable tray by lapping the edges of the strip to produce a coupling which is more rigid where desired.
In a first embodiment, the mounting means for the first arm, which means are used to position, fix and latch the coupling on the first unit section, are constituted by a longitudinal surface which bears on at least one longitudinal wire of
Badey Claude
Deciry James
Durin Michel
Browne Lynne H.
Cottingham John R.
Jacobson Price Holman & Stern PLLC
Metal Deploye S.A.
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