Electricity: conductors and insulators – Insulators – With insulator-supporting or attaching means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-03
2001-04-24
Kincaid, Kristine (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Insulators
With insulator-supporting or attaching means
C174S0450TD, C174S173000, C174S15800R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06222134
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an LP insulator assembly attached to an electric post or another post for connecting electric wires, and a method for assembling the same.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
An LP insulator (line post insulator) is an outdoor insulator for frequent use especially in U.S. The insulator for supporting an electric wire is, as shown in
FIG. 2
, mainly constituted of a shaft body
23
of an organic insulating material provided with a clamp or engaging member
24
on a tip end and a base or support fitting
25
on the other end. The shaft bodies
23
are supported by fixing the bases
25
onto a multiplicity of posts
21
such as electric posts, pyla, and the like. By engaging electric wires with the clamps
24
on the tip ends of the shaft bodies
23
, the electric wires are arranged/connected for use.
For the purpose described above, a multiplicity of LP insulators are used at the same time. Therefore, in the conventional art shown in
FIG. 3
, two spacers or support members
29
are pre-arranged perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the LP insulators to be contained in a box housing
28
of plywood. A plurality of LP insulators are alternately arranged in such a manner that the bases
25
and the clamps
24
are alternately arranged on the top face of the support members
29
. As the case may be, the arrangement is repeated in a plurality of stages, stacked, and assembled in the box housing
28
for transport.
However, in the assembling method using the box housing, there are problems that the installation of the spacers into the box housing is laborious, it is difficult to assemble heavy insulators in a deep box housing, box housings adapted for various product lengths or sizes are necessary, the total weight including the box housing is heavy, a large storage space is necessary for unused box housings and that unnecessary box housings after transport generate an enormous amount of waste materials even if disassembled. These problems remarkably add to the transport cost of LP insulators.
Moreover, since the occupancy volume of the support fitting of the LP insulator is very large relative to that of the shaft body, the box housing cannot be densely filled with the insulators. Additionally, since the weight of the support fitting is also heavy, the box housing needs to be rigid sufficiently to bear the load concentrated onto the outer periphery of the housing. Therefore, the conventional assembling method is not necessarily efficient.
Furthermore, in order to mount the insulator onto the post or the like, the engagement member on the tip end is lifted with a crane or the like. In this case, the insulator needs to be once raised to direct the shaft body upward before lifted. Therefore, it cannot be said that the assembling method is developed by sufficiently considering the structural and operational characteristics of the LP insulator.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been developed in consideration of the problems of the conventional art described above, and an object thereof is to provide a method for assembling LP insulators in which no box housing is used, assembling operation is facilitated, and various product lengths can be handled, and to provide an LP insulator assembly which is lightweight because of a small amount of packing materials, produces only a small amount of waste materials after unpacking and whose insulators are easily lifted.
The present inventors et al. have studied the above-mentioned problems, noted that the shaft body of LP insulator is rigid against bending stress and has a cantilever type support fitting, and have developed the present invention.
Specifically, the present invention provides an LP insulator assembly which comprises an LP insulator mainly constituted of a shaft body formed of an organic insulating material for carrying a mechanical load, an engaging member attached to a tip end of the shaft body for supporting an electric wire and a support fitting for mounting the shaft body onto a post; a pallet in which at least one flat plate is arranged on at least two spacer members arranged in parallel and perpendicularly to the spacer members to form a deck surface and on which the LP insulator is vertically placed; a fixing member for fixing the support fitting to the pallet; and a tying member for tying the engaging members. The support fittings are fixed to the pallet deck surface by the fixing members, a plurality of LP insulators are vertically placed, and the engaging members of LP insulators are tied to one another.
In the assembly of the present invention, two groups of LP insulators are preferably arranged in parallel on the deck surface of the pallet, and more preferably arranged in parallel in the same direction as the longitudinal direction of the spacer member of the pallet.
Moreover, in the LP insulator assembly in which attachment holes are made for mounting LP insulators onto the post, the support fittings are preferably fixed to the pallet deck surface by engaging the fixing members in the attachment holes. A wood screw is used as the fixing member. By screwing the wood screw on the pallet deck surface, the support fittings are preferably fixed to the pallet deck surface.
When the wood screw is used as the fixing member, the pallet deck surface is preferably formed by arranging two or more flat plates with no gap made thereamong on the spacer members. A cushion member is preferably inserted between the head of the wood screw and the support fitting, and the inserted cushion member is more preferably divided for each wood screw.
Moreover, when the LP insulator assembly includes the LP insulator whose shaft body is inclined relative to the support fitting and the pallet which is provided with a step in the center part of the deck surface, the LP insulator is preferably placed more vertically by fixing to the step one end of the support fitting on the side to which the shaft body is inclined and fixing the other end to the deck surface.
Furthermore, in the assembly of the present invention, at least a lower half of the vertically placed LP insulator is preferably covered with a protecting member.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a method for assembling a plurality of LP insulators. Each of the LP insulators is mainly constituted of a shaft body of an organic insulating material for carrying a mechanical load, an engaging member attached to a tip end of the shaft body for supporting an electric wire and a support fitting for mounting the shaft body onto a post. At least one flat plate is arranged on at least two spacer members arranged in parallel and perpendicularly to the spacer members to form a deck surface. A plurality of LP insulators are arranged on the deck surface of the pallet, the support fittings are fixed to the pallet, and the engaging members of LP insulators are tied to one another.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2443202 (1948-06-01), Smith
patent: 2446914 (1948-08-01), Fallert et al.
patent: 2584762 (1952-02-01), Vossenberg
patent: 3267202 (1966-08-01), Leonard
patent: 3445582 (1969-05-01), Herrenkohl et al.
patent: 4679672 (1987-07-01), Seddon et al.
patent: 4852330 (1989-08-01), Carangelo
patent: 5750936 (1998-05-01), Wheatley et al.
Aoyama Kunitoshi
Kawamura So
Kincaid Kristine
NGK Insulators Ltd.
Parkhurst & Wendel L.L.P.
Walkenhorst W. David
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