Seal for a joint or juncture – Seal between relatively movable parts – Relatively rotatable radially extending sealing face member
Patent
1994-01-28
1996-10-01
Maki, Steven D.
Seal for a joint or juncture
Seal between relatively movable parts
Relatively rotatable radially extending sealing face member
156291, 156294, 174 92, 277 34, F16J 1546
Patent
active
055606180
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to the formation of a duct seal, either to seal around an article such as a supply line passing through it, or to block the duct completely. The term "duct" as used in this specification includes not only passages through walls or other bulkheads, but also articles such as cable enclosures, particularly cable splice cases. A cable splice case, for example, may comprise a generally tubular housing (the "duct") and seals at one or each end to the ingoing or outgoing cables.
Duct seals, as defined above, are required to isolate one part of (for example) a cable network from another. A cable may be installed underground in a duct that passes between manholes in which portions of the cable are spliced together. Since it is important to protect the splice from water and since it is necessary from time to time to have access to the splice, it is desirable to prevent the manhole from filling with water. Duct seals are therefore provided to seal the annular space between the duct and the cable it carries to prevent water flowing along the duct and into the manhole.
Another use for duct seals is to seal around a cable as it passes through the wall of a building or other bulkhead. Such seals are more usually referred to as "feedthroughs", but the term duct seal as used herein includes them.
Cable splice closures have the following form and function. A cable splice is made by removing cable jacket from the ends of the cables to be spliced, and then electrically connecting together the individual conductors of the cables. The cable splice, which in the case of telephone cables may contain many hundreds of connectors and be bulky, is surrounded by a so-called liner to provide mechanical protection. It is then necessary to provide environmental protection around the splice from intact cable jacket at one side of the splice to intact cable jacket at the other side of the splice. This can be done by providing a generally tubular housing around the splice and sealing the ends of the housing to the ingoing and outgoing cables. In this way, moisture and other contaminants are kept away from the conductors of the cables.
In each of these examples of duct seals, the problem is the formation of a good seal between the end of the duct and the cable (or, in the absence of a cable the formation of a complete block).
Some prior an duct seals may be briefly mentioned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,750 (Sovish et al.) discloses a duct seal comprising a hollow body member having a plurality of spaced apart external deformable flanges and provided with a sealant on its external surface preferably between the flanges. The device may be used to seal a supply line within a duct by pushing it within the duct so that the flanges are deformed. The hollow body member may then be sealed to the supply line using, for example, a heat-shrinkable sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,011 (Ewers) discloses a pneumatically sealed cable enclosure comprising half-shells and inflatable seal means at each end of the half-shells.
EP-B-0152696 (Raychem) discloses an assembly for sealing a duct, comprising a flexible envelope that is arranged to be wrapped on itself for insertion into the duct, the envelope having an opening therein for receiving an expansible or expanding filler material. An adhesive or sealant is located on or associated with at least pan of the outer surface of the envelope. The envelope may be provided with an additional element, for example an external flap or extension, which extends from an edge of the envelope and which is provided on at least part of its surface with a sealant or adhesive. Alternatively; the sealant or adhesive may instead of being a direct coating on the surface of the envelope, be or be part of an additional element, for example an independent film, layer or self-supporting element positioned over the appropriate portions of the envelope, duct or cable.
In spite of the variety of designs of prior art duct seal, a problem remains with ducts having non-uniform cross-section. In particular, slit ducts may
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Bentz Winfried
Roosen Dirk
Uytterhoeven Luc
Wambeke Alain
Wandels Jean-Pierre
Burkard Herbert G.
Maki Steven D.
N.V. Raychem S.A.
Novack Sheri M.
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