Cutlery – Means for cutting elongate – strand-encircling sheath – Longitudinally
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-16
2001-10-30
Payer, Hwei-Siu (Department: 3724)
Cutlery
Means for cutting elongate, strand-encircling sheath
Longitudinally
C030S090800, C030S090900
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308417
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a tool for producing circular and/or linear cuts of a cable's end in one operation. Particularly, the invention relates to a hand-held device for stripping end portions of cable jackets by a rotatable blade that controllably penetrates the cable jackets at a predetermined uniform depth during subsequent circumferential and linear cuts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Cables having relatively thick cable jackets are difficult to prepare for connections since conventional cutting means such as knives or tools with enclosed blades are inefficient for stripping cable jackets. A plurality of stripping tools has been developed so as to efficiently deal with cables having relatively thin cable jackets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,652 to Ducret discloses a stripping apparatus for jackets having a cable receiving portion, a slidable carriage which has a rotatable cutting member adjustable so as to penetrate the cable's jacket at a predetermined depth. In order to perform circumferential, longitudinal or/and helical cuts of the cable's jacket one must rotate cable stripping apparatus between different positions and periodically reposition a cable so that a desirable cut can be produced.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,137 to Matthews discloses a stripping tool including a clamping member positioning a cable to be stripped off a jacket an a cutting assembly freely rotatable to produce different cuts and controllably adjustable to penetrate the jacket at a desirable depth.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,426 discloses a stripping tool including a plurality of differently sized, independently rotatable sheaves and a depth adjustable cutter which is freely rotatable and is movable relative to a spool member so as to have a cable jacket cut at a desirable depth.
Inasmuch as some existing tools have a rotating blade to perform ring cuts and straight cuts in one operation, they only work on thin cable jackets. Still other known devices, which are capable of preparing thick cable jackets, are bulky and do not lend themselves to making connections in tight quarters.
Accordingly, what is desired is a stripping device, which suitably severs the jackets off a variety of cables with high precision and without repositioning a cable in the device so as different cuts can be performed in one operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With a cable stripper in accordance with the invention, one can suitably strip relatively thick jackets of cables in tight quarters by setting a desirable blade penetration that remains unchanged during controllable displacement of a blade performing subsequent circumferential and axial cuts.
This is implemented according to one aspect of the invention, wherein a cable stripper has a cable adjustment assembly that moves along a support to accommodate differently sized cables and has a dial member defining a uniform blade penetration during subsequent circumferential and axial cuts of a cable's jacket.
Adjustment of the cable stripper can be provided in a stepwise manner. First, the invention teaches a push button system for rapidly adjusting the stripper to enable differently sized cables to be gripped. Second, upon completing rapid adjustment, a fine adjusting system permits a precise adjustment of the blade penetration creating a no-play condition on a clamped cable and keeping an accurate blade penetration.
Upon penetration through the jacket at a desirable depth, the blade is positioned to provide either a ring cut or an axial cut. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the cable stripper is provided with a blade retracting assembly allowing repositioning of the blade so as to make these ring and axial cuts in sequence without removing a cable from the stripper. The blade retracting assembly converts rotational displacement of a blade holder into a linear retraction of the blade from its initial cutting position. Upon further rotation of the blade holder, the blade is guided angularly and then again linearly to penetrate the jacket at the preliminarily established depth to orient itself at a 90° angle with respect to the initial position. As a consequence of this displacement, the blade is able to slice the jacket along its longitudinal axis upon pulling the cable away from the cable stripper.
According to still anther aspect of the invention, the cable stripper has further a generally V-shaped bottom provided with a plurality of rollers which are preferably arranged to form a generally X shape. The rollers permit the rotation of the cable stripper radially when performing ring cuts, and after turning the blade at a 90° angle to a straight cut position, the rollers allow the user to pull the cable stripper axially with effective lower friction.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a cable stripper, which is capable of stripping cable jackets with high precision.
It is another object of the invention to provide a cable stripper capable of cutting a cable's jacket in a sequentially manner, i.e., circumferentially and linearly.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a cable stripper that enables self-adjustment to clamp differently sized cables to be stripped.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cable stripper allowing relatively easy displacement of a cable to be stripped in mutually perpendicular planes relative to the cable stripper in a clamped position of the cable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cable stripper that is compact and lends itself perfectly to making connection inside a panel box, even with large diameter cables.
Yet another object is to provide a method for operating the cable stripper according to the invention, so as to produce sequential cuts of the cable's jacket in an economical and efficient manner.
REFERENCES:
patent: 843353 (1907-02-01), McKenna
patent: 2346227 (1944-04-01), Martin et al.
patent: 2778105 (1957-01-01), Carta
patent: 3599514 (1971-08-01), Fornkahl
patent: 3665603 (1972-05-01), Bilbrey et al.
patent: 3946487 (1976-03-01), Bieganski
patent: 4104791 (1978-08-01), Sunahara
patent: 4489490 (1984-12-01), Michaels et al.
patent: 4955137 (1990-09-01), Matthews
patent: 5301426 (1994-04-01), Regan
patent: 5487220 (1996-01-01), Saitou
patent: 5809652 (1998-09-01), Ducret
Payer Hwei-Siu
St. Onge Steward Johnston & Reens LLC
LandOfFree
Tool for separating and removing cable jackets and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Tool for separating and removing cable jackets and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Tool for separating and removing cable jackets and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2594580