Optical waveguides – Accessories – Splice box and surplus fiber storage/trays/organizers/ carriers
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-02
2001-07-31
Epps, Georgia (Department: 2873)
Optical waveguides
Accessories
Splice box and surplus fiber storage/trays/organizers/ carriers
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269214
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a device for interconnecting optical fiber cables. It relates more particularly to a watertight splice box for interconnecting optical fiber cables, such a device being referred to as an “optical organizer” box. It also relates to an optical organizer, in particular suitable for equipping such a box.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An optical organizer box comprises a watertight box made up of a fixed bottom and of a removable lid, which box receives at least two optical fiber cables and at least contains one or more “cassettes” for storing splices and surplus lengths of optical fiber, and often also contains storage means for storing standby fibers waiting to be used, e.g. fibers from a “through cable”, i.e. a cable merely passing through the box with its fibers broken out and optionally stripped, standing by in said box for subsequent use.
Such a box, and its contents constitute a structure comprising various elements that must perform the following four functions:
Function I: securing and sealing the optical fibers in inlets;
Function II: directing the optical fibers towards the optical organizer proper;
Function III: storing the splices and the surplus lengths of optical fiber in cassettes equipping the organizer proper; and
Function IV: optionally storing standby optical fibers, in particular optical fibers of a “through cable”.
The structure of organizer boxes currently sold by the Applicant includes, inside the box, a metal securing plate for securing the optical cables, followed by a zone in which the optical fibers are directed and in which the standby fibers are stored, which zone lies under a metal plate for receiving the cassettes for storing the splices and the surplus lengths of optical fibers.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a watertight optical organizer box which is, in particular, more compact, more simple, more universal because it is modular and therefore capable of accepting a number of cassettes that is chosen as a function of needs, and more user-friendly and practical by being easier to fit and to use, than previously known devices of this type. Another object of the invention is to provide an optical organizer that is practical, simple, modular, and functional, such an organizer being, in particular, suitable for equipping such a box.
To this end, the invention provides a watertight device designed for interconnecting optical fiber cables, the device being in the form of a watertight box referred to as an “optical organizer” box which is made up of a substantially flat bottom and of a lid, and which includes means for performing the following four functions:
securing and sealing the optical fibers in inlets;
directing the optical fibers towards the optical organizer proper;
storing the splices and the surplus lengths of optical fiber in pivotally-mounted cassettes equipping said organizer; and
optionally storing standby optical fibers, in particular optical fibers of a “through cable”;
wherein:
for each cable, the device includes an inlet device for providing a watertight cable inlet and for securing the strength members of the cable, which inlet device is fitted to the cable prior to inserting said cable into the box, the outer sheath of the cable then being secured directly on said watertight inlet device and upstream from its sealing means;
all of the watertight inlet devices then being received by being plugged into the same side of the box and then being locked therein merely by keying;
the optical organizer which is separated from the inlet devices by an empty transit space through which the broken-out optical fibers pass, includes a pedestal which is fixed to the bottom of the box and which receives one or more cassette-holding modules for holding cassettes for storing splices and surplus lengths;
each module receiving one or more cassettes so that each cassette can tilt, in known manner, through at least 90 degrees about its base; the modules being stackable in nested manner and in a direction that slopes, in known manner, relative to the plane of the bottom of the box sufficiently to enable each cassette to tilt in this way;
the means, acting by clipping, are organized to hold each cassette in either one of its two end-of-tilt positions;
the pedestal is followed by a second empty space optionally organized to receive other optical fibers referred to as “standby” optical fibers; and
the edges of the box bottom are of a height that is sufficiently small as to enable all of the cassettes in the stack to be accessed freely from the sides.
Preferably, the invention provides such an optical organizer box;
wherein:
a) for the optical cables, the optical organizer box includes respective watertight cable-inlet devices that are disposed side-by-side in row abreast on the same side of the box, and that are positioned in a plane parallel to the plane of the bottom of the box, each of the respective cable-inlet devices comprising:
at the front: a rigid securing solepiece provided with orifices or slots into which central strength members and/or side strength members of the cable are inserted, each of these orifices or slots co-operating with a clamping member typically acting by a screw being rotated to clamp the strength member(s) that it receives;
at the rear: a nut for clamping a stuffing box, which nut is also shaped to receive a retaining member for retaining the outer sheath of the optical cable; and
between the front and the rear: a sealing tubular body whose front portion engages telescopically into said securing solepiece, means being provided for fixing the sealing body to the securing solepiece in the engaged position, the rear portion of the tubular body co-operating with a sealing ring to form the sealing stuffing box that is complementary to said clamping nut, the stuffing box achieving the sealing by clamping on the outer sheath of the cable;
the sealing body also receiving means for providing the sealing relative to the inlet passageway in the chamber or container, and further including an abutment member which is designed to co-operate with a complementary shape of said inlet passageway to limit the insertion of the device through said inlet passageway, the abutment position then being such that the head of the device emerges inside the chamber or container, keying means then being provided for locking the device in this position;
b) said pedestal is made of a plastics material and has an outside wall that is orthogonal to the bottom of the box, which wall is rounded to guide the optionally stripped optical fibers of said cables without damaging them on either side of said pedestal;
the pedestal receiving in plug-in manner support blocks, each of which supports in hinged manner one or more cassettes for storing splices and surplus lengths of fibers, the support blocks being superposable by plugging into one another in nested manner with a stepped offset being provided from one cassette to the next in the stack, this offset being provided, in a manner known per se, at an offset angle of about 45 degrees which corresponds to a step length substantially equal to the thickness of a cassette, so that it is possible in conventional manner to pivot each cassette of the stack through 90 degrees;
each of the support blocks being provided with clipping means for locking each cassette in two positions, namely a first locking position in which the cassette is parallel to the plane of the bottom of the box, and a second locking position in which the cassette has been rotated about its hinge pins and on its support block through one fourth of a turn so that it is orthogonal to the plane of the bottom of the box; and
c) the pedestal and the box bottom are designed to delimit a second empty space between the pedestal and the box side that is opposite from the cable inlets and from said transit space, which second empty space is suitable for receiving standby fibers, at least a portion of the second empty space being situated under the first cassette at the bottom of the stack whe
Brunet Hervé
Corbille Christophe
Naudin Thierry
Epps Georgia
Gilly Richard P.
Magee John J.
Pouyet S.A.
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