Electricity: conductors and insulators – Insulators – Through wall or plate
Reexamination Certificate
1993-03-18
2001-07-24
Paladini, Albert W. (Department: 2841)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Insulators
Through wall or plate
C174S156000, C174S157000, C174S167000, C174S068300, C174S068300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06265670
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to the field of enclosures for electrical connectors and more particularly to grommets for use with enclosures for terminal blocks for interconnecting service and distribution cables of telephone wires.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the telecommunications industry telephone distribution cable is introduced to individual telephone sites such as residences, mainly through use of a splice of pairs of tip and ring signal wires of the cable to tip and ring wires of a respective service cable at a junction located outside the house. The junction is housed within a protective enclosure which is mounted usually to an outside wall of the house.
A variety of enclosures are known, mountable to poles or walls, within which are mounted one or more terminal blocks used to interconnect tip and ring wires of distribution cable and a plurality of service cables, including a rugged enclosure such as disclosed in U.S. The enclosure includes arrays of openings along both side edges of the rear wall and to each side of the array of terminal blocks, and also through the bottom wall, through which extend respective service cables. Sealing about the openings around the cables is provided by a pair of elongate strips traversing the array of openings, held in place by the structure of the enclosure. A first strip adjacent the rear wall includes discrete slits aligned with the wall's openings, and a second strip outwardly of and adjacent the first strip includes small diameter holes punched therethrough aligned with the centers of the cable openings, all permitting insertion therethrough of cable ends and sealing therearound, and also closing off any particular opening into which no cable is inserted.
Other such enclosures are disclosed in U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 098/032,890 and Ser. No. 08/085,129; both filed Mar. 18, 1993; assigned to the assignee hereof; the enclosures similarly contain terminal blocks mountable therein each interconnecting conductors of a distribution cable and an array of service wires, or two arrays of service wires, and which are easily openable to stable positions permitting access thereinto.
It is desired to provide a grommet for a telephone line enclosure having a plurality of cable exits which provides for environmental sealing about the cables extending through the respective cable exits.
It is also desired to provide such a grommet that seals about each of a plurality of such cables and closes off unused ones of the cable exits, and is replaceable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a grommet for an enclosure in which are mountable interconnection or crossconnection modules, and into which extend ends of a plurality of service cables for the tip and ring conductors thereof to be connected to a distribution cable or crossconnected to each other. An array of recesses define individual service cable exits and are provided along the forward edge of the front wall of the box, with edge grommet members secured along the forward edge providing sealing about the respective cables and closing off unused exits.
The edge grommet is molded of elastomeric material and includes sections associated with the cable-receiving recesses of the enclosure which coextend from a top edge which will extend along the forward edge of the front wall of the enclosure, as the sections are disposed within respective ones of the cable-receiving recesses. Each section includes a vertical virtual slit from and through the thick top edge to the thick bottom edge and which is openable as a cable is moved laterally into the section from the top edge, and which is somewhat stiffly elastic to grip the cable and close off the recess about the cable. The edge grommet is so formed that the portion adjacent the edge surfaces of the enclosure comprising the forward edge of the front wall and also the side and bottom edges of each cable-receiving recess is thick and sturdy, and the thickness is reduced between the thick top and bottom edge portions in each cable-receiving section extending from opposing sides to the slit to define a diaphragm. The thick contoured edge includes outer and inner lips or flanges defining a channel into which the edge surfaces of the enclosure wall are received to provide a sealed interface.
Preferably the edge grommet is mechanically securable to the enclosure front wall. The front wall includes a plurality of upstanding wall sections of limited width between the cable-receiving recesses and also beside the outer recesses, which are receivable into close fitting apertures through the thick contoured edge of the edge grommet. Latching projections are formed on the upstanding wall sections adjacent the forward edge of the front wall, which latchingly engage corresponding latching recesses of the edge grommet at trailing ends of the close fitting apertures after the edge grommet has been fully inserted onto the front wall. This arrangement permits removal and replacement of an edge grommet if desired.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide an enclosure adapted to permit mounting in the interior thereof of terminal blocks and modules useful in interconnecting service cables to a distribution cable of a telephone line, and which environmentally seals the interior.
It is additionally an objective to provide a grommet member for sealing a plurality of cable-receiving entrances into an enclosure for an array of service cables.
It is further an objective to provide a grommet member which is easily assembled to the enclosure and which is removable and replaceable.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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AMP Catalog No. 82257, “AMP Quiet Front Terminal Block”, 6 pages, Sep., 1991; AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, PA.
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U.S. application No. 07/839,970.
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Duesterhoeft Scott Stephen
Robertson James William
Shay Francis Joseph
Paladini Albert W.
The Whitaker Corporation
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