Patent Application
20250116838
This patent application relates to pre-terminated cable pulling, unterminated cable pulling and more particularly to devices and methods for compact demountable attachments to pre-terminated cables as well as unterminated cables, to enable pulling as well as other devices and methods to enable storage of pre-terminated cables.
Pre-terminated cables are telecommunications cables factory pre-installed with connectors. They are inconvenient to pull because of their connectors which requires drilling holes or conduits sizes greater than the cable sheath outside diameter and sufficiently large to allow pulling through the connector as well. Pre-terminated cables, like unterminated cables, can be installed through ducts or other elements of infrastructure. Within outside plant these ducts are typically buried and run between one element of network infrastructure, e.g., central office, street cabinet, etc. to another element of network infrastructure. Other ducts or pipes may run from the outside plant to a pre-terminated panel position, integrated into a demarcation device designated as a network interface device (NID). The NID is typically located outdoor on the dwelling wall and designated as an outdoor NID.
Easy troubleshooting of customer installations for broadband services typically entails installing a separate indoor pre-terminated cable between the outdoor NID terminating the outdoor distribution network drop cable onto the outer wall of a building and the location where the customer premise equipment is to be located inside the dwelling. Oftentimes, such customer premise equipment includes built-in Wi-Fi and is best located centrally to the dwelling, thereby requiring that the indoor distribution cable be up to several tens of meters long, separating that location from the NID outside the building. The installation of such long indoor pre-terminated cables is labour intensive, involving pulling the pre-terminated cables in crawl spaces, ceilings, addicts, behind walls, piercing through walls & floors, etc. In a commercial building the matter is fundamentally not different. Minimizing the dimensions of the holes and facilitating pre-terminated cable pulling through potentially inaccessible portions of a building without creating substantial more damage to be repaired would be beneficial.
At present, “Kellem Grips” as described within U.S. Pat. No. 1,670,543, operating on the principle of a Chinese finger pulling toy, are commonly used for pulling larger diameter cables in large diameter pipes. Alternatively, textile sleeve tools exist for pulling pre-terminated cables but require affixing the textile sleeve with a tape or a crimp ring.
Accordingly, compact demountable attachments to pre-terminated cables to enable pulling of the cables through small holes in thin or thick materials such as wood, brick, concrete, plastic, metal etc. would be beneficial. It would be further beneficial for these compact demountable attachments to, be easily mounted/demounted to a pre-terminated cable, protect the connector on the end of the cable, allow for the pulling force to be distributed way from the connector onto the sheath of the cable, to avoid potential damage to pre-terminated cables connectors and be low cost/disposable and potentially re-usable. Such compact demountable attachments addressing these requirements have been established by the inventors. The same demountable attachments may also be employed to pull on cables without connectors.
Pre-terminated cables can be either assembled with fiber-optic strands, where the fiber-optic can either be single mode or multimode or metal strands, where such metal is typically copper. The metal stranded pre-terminated cables are typically referred to as unshielded twisted pairs (UTP), coaxial or twin-axial. In the data center industry, twin-axial pre-terminated cables where the connector is a complete transceiver is referred to as a “direct attached cable,” which is effectively an active pre-terminated cable rather than a passive pre-terminated cable. In the same datacenter industry, whereas the cable is made out of fiber optics permanently attached to an optical transceiver head, the pre-terminated cable is referred to as an “active optical cable.” Herein we consider active optical cables and direct attached cables as variants of pre-terminated cables. Pre-terminated cables can be composed out of several strands of optical fiber or several metal strands. For instance, fiber optic pre-terminated cables with MTP connectors typically bundle 12 strands of single mode optical fiber. Metal stranded Category 5, 6, 6A, 7 & 8 variants of UTP make use of 8 metal strands and an RJ-45 type connector. The UTP pre-terminated cables herein generalized as “electrical” pre-terminated cables are more precisely radio-frequency capable cables, which in the case of Category 8 UTP cables can support speeds up to 40 Gbps.
Accordingly, in order to support pulling pre-terminated cables the inventors have established demountable attachments to provide an attachment means to the pre-terminated cable for pulling. The underlying design concepts of such demountable attachments for pulling on pre-terminated cables are also beneficially applicable to pulling of unterminated cables as well as to devices for the storage of pre-terminated cables.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate limitations within the prior art relating to pre-terminated cable pulling and more particularly to devices and methods for compact demountable attachments to pre-terminated cables as well as unterminated cables, to enable pulling as well as other devices and methods to enable storage of pre-terminated cables.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for attachment to a pre-terminated cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method for attachment to a cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a design for attachment to a cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for attachment to a pre-terminated cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for attachment to a cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for attachment to a fiber optic cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for attachment to an unterminated cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of attaching a cable itself by the sheath in a helical grip device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there are provided devices and methods of pulling cables by employing an aramid rope or aramid strength member of one or all cables to the same cable pulling device with helical grip(s).
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device with two or more grooves formed helically, with a portion of the grooves serving to attach cables and another portion of the grooves serving to attach one of the aramid strength members of the locally attached cable or a common pull rope interconnecting all cable pulling devices within a daisy chain
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device with one or more grooves wherein the grooves are formed helically and have a re-entrant shape with an opening less than 180 degrees in order to allow press-fitting and snapping of the cable into the cable pulling device, at one of a beginning, end or intermediate point along the path of the helical groove in the cable pulling device.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device with one or more grooves wherein the grooves are formed helically and have a re-entrant shape with an opening less than 180 degrees in order to allow press-fitting and snapping of a pulling rope into the cable pulling device, at one of a beginning, end or intermediate point along the path of the helical groove in the cable pulling device.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of using the aramid strength member of the shortest cable in a bundle of cables as the pulling rope for a daisy chain of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention whereby the aramid strength member of the shortest cable is employed to form a pulling eye allowing the transfer of pulling force from device to device within the daisy chain
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of implementing a staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention which minimizes the overall diameter of the bundle of cables towards the tip of the bundle thereby providing greater maneuverability through sharp or small radius conduit bends, discontinuities in conduit bore diameter and easier handling for smaller hands.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of implementing a rooted staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention where all cables are pulled from one end with the pulling force being applied sequentially through the staggered configuration of pulling devices from that end to the other end.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of implementing a distributed staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention where cables are incrementally dropped through the staggered configuration.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling method which avoids stretching cables, by making it possible to pull not only on the cable, but principally on the aramid strength members inside the cables, thus avoiding plastic deformation of the cable sheath and excessive strain on one of the optical fiber or copper conductors inside the cable, thus avoiding either potential breakage of the optical fiber or loss of optical performance on fiber optic cable or disrupting the twisting configuration of twisted pair cabling and potential or loss of performance on twisted pair cables or increased crosstalk.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of pulling cables which either reduces or eliminates the need for wrapping of a tape around the cable(s) thereby providing faster set-up and dismantlement of cable pulling assemblies.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method which of pulling cables which removes the scrapping of a section of cable due to the cost or time in removing of a tape and/or residue on the cable arising from the from the use of the tape to bind the cable as part of a pulling assembly.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method which eliminates the requirement for coiling back cables resulting from the unspooling from cable storage, e.g. cable boxes or cable drums, of longer sections than required where the correct length is unspooled by implementing a distributed staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device which minimizes the number of stocks keeping units (SKU's) required and associated spares whereby the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention supports pulling operations of bundles of cables containing more than one cable by daisy-chaining multiple instances of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention within a single daisy chain or multiple daisy chains in parallel to one another.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of reducing an overall length of a daisy chain of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention by employing multiple daisy chains in parallel.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention with a helical groove of a shape which is designed according to different cable geometries like round, square, rectangle, peanut shape flat drop, figure-eight Siamese cables, hybrid cables, duplex cables, cable arrays, etc.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention which can pull different cable geometries at the same time with multiple grooves or grooves of multiple configurations in the depth or lateral axis
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention which can secure the cable geometry in one groove and its aramid strength member, or rope, in another groove of the same apparatus, where the grooves are helically formed in the apparatus.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention wherein helically formed grooves in the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention intersect with other grooves thereby allowing aramid strength members of the cables or an aramid rope of a cable to transition from a cable groove to a rope groove or vice-versa.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising one or more cable groove(s) and no rope grooves wherein an attachment of one or more aramid strength members is made by knotting the aramid strength members around the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention using one or more knots such as anti-slip knots whereby the aramid strength members upon pulling the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention do not crush the cable which is secured inside a groove of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising one or more rope grooves where aramid rope or aramid strength members of the cable are locally attached or passed through to form a common rope across a daisy chain of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising two or more cable grooves formed helically around an outer surface of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising two or more cable grooves formed helically around an outer surface of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention wherein the pulling device supports multiple cable geometries.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention with cable grooves which intersect one another within the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention allowing a cable groove to accept a cable stripped to one or more aramid strength members wherein the aramid strength members transition into a rope groove at an interim location along the length of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention between the ends of the cable pulling device such that the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprises at least a profiled end for reducing likelihood of the pulling device catching and/or allow for reduced gap between two cable grooves formed upon the pulling device to accommodate a pull rope between the two cable grooves.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of daisy chaining a series of pulling devices according to embodiments of the invention in order to provide an M×N staggered configuration where a first pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention with M grooves serves to pull cables attached to the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention each with N cable grooves, thus allowing pulling of M×(N−1) cables in a single pulling operation.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method for adding common rope through a daisy-chain of pulling devices according to embodiments of the invention without need for providing one or more anti-slip-knots on each pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention whereby a common pull rope is being unspooled from the opposite direction as the cables are being unspooled as the daisy chain gets assembled and where the common rope is wound forward, then backward, then forward again across first, second and then first rope grooves thus avoiding the requirement to dismantle or break the common pull rope to create the one or more anti-slip-knots onto pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided an apparatus which enables the pulling operation to be implemented entirely dielectrically without any metal part, allowing pulling to be done inside epoxy covered conduits without scratching them or in explosive environments.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention which can be manufactured at a deployment location using one or more additive manufacturing processes (commonly referred to as being printed).
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for attachment to a pre-terminated cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of forming an attachment to a pre-terminated cable comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of forming an attachment to a pre-terminated cable comprising:
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:
The present invention is direct to pre-terminated cable pulling and more particularly to devices and methods for compact demountable attachments to pre-terminated cables to enable pulling.
The ensuing description provides representative embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an embodiment or embodiments of the invention. It being understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims. Accordingly, an embodiment is an example or implementation of the inventions and not the sole implementation. Various appearances of “one embodiment,” “an embodiment” or “some embodiments” do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiments. Although various features of the invention may be described in the context of a single embodiment, the features may also be provided separately or in any suitable combination. Conversely, although the invention may be described herein in the context of separate embodiments for clarity, the invention can also be implemented in a single embodiment or any combination of embodiments.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “some embodiments” or “other embodiments” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least one embodiment, but not necessarily all embodiments, of the inventions. The phraseology and terminology employed herein is not to be construed as limiting but is for descriptive purpose only. It is to be understood that where the claims or specification refer to “a” or “an” element, such reference is not to be construed as there being only one of that element. It is to be understood that where the specification states that a component feature, structure, or characteristic “may,” “might,” “can” or “could” be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included.
Reference to terms such as “left,” “right,” “top,” “bottom,” “front” and “back” are intended for use in respect to the orientation of the particular feature, structure, or element within the figures depicting embodiments of the invention. It would be evident that such directional terminology with respect to the actual use of a device has no specific meaning as the device can be employed in a multiplicity of orientations by the user or users.
Reference to terms “including,” “comprising,” “consisting,” and grammatical variants thereof do not preclude the addition of one or more components, features, steps, integers, or groups thereof and that the terms are not to be construed as specifying components, features, steps, or integers. Likewise, the phrase “consisting essentially of,” and grammatical variants thereof, when used herein is not to be construed as excluding additional components, steps, features integers or groups thereof but rather that the additional features, integers, steps, components, or groups thereof do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed composition, device, or method. If the specification or claims refer to “an additional” element, that does not preclude there being more than one of the additional element.
A “pre-terminated cable,” also known as a pre-terminated cord, a patch cable, or a pre-terminated lead, as used herein refers to, but is not limited to, an electrical cable or optical cable used to connect cables with connectors between patch panel positions or end-devices like optical transceivers or RJ-45 ports on switches and network interface cards for signal routing.
“Fishing line” as used herein refers to, but is not limited to, a cord resembling a long, thin string, formed from a material such as nylon or a braided polymer for example. The attributes of a fishing line can include length, material, weight, and thickness in order to provide performance characteristics such as breaking strength, knot strength, stretch, abrasion resistance, and visibility. Commonly, in the art of cable pulling, flat pulling line (a polypropylene rope that is flat) and a flat mule tape are also employed and accordingly it is evident that derivatives of the invention allowing for attachment of something else than a fishing line would be evident to one skilled in the art.
Referring to
The boot of the connector such as SC/APC of the FOC, not depicted for clarity, is retained within the Body 120 of the FOC-PA and the connector portion of the FOC is retained in a portion of the Front 130 of the FOC-PA. The Opening 150 in the Body 120 being dimensioned in dependence upon one of the boot and of optical connector on the end of the FOC. As evident from
The FOC-PA may within embodiments of the invention be specific to a discrete connector type for a single optical connection, e.g., Ferrule Connector (FC), ST Connector (ST), Lucent Connector (LC), Standard Connector (SC), MU Connector, SMA Connector, E2000 Connector, or an SC connector sub-assembly with connector housing removed, etc.
The removal of the SC connector outer body housing makes it possible for the FOC-PA to achieve a smaller outside diameter than if needing to encapsulate the entire SC connector including the outer body housing inside the FOC-PA. This then makes it possible for the FOC-PA to be pulled into a smaller diameter hole or conduit than that would be possible for an FOC-PA encapsulating the entire SC connector including its outer body enclosure.
The FOC-PA may within embodiments of the invention be specific to several discrete connector types for single optical connections, e.g., SC/LC/MU or FC/SMA/ST etc.
The FOC-PA may within embodiments of the invention be specific to one or more optical connector types supporting multiple optical connections, e.g., MT. MXC or Multi-fiber Push On (MPO) connectors for ribbon cable.
The FOC-PA may within embodiments of the invention be designed to accommodate duplex optical connectors such as SC Duplex or LC Duplex for example with or without a housing element joining the pair of optical connectors together.
Whilst, within the following description and
Now referring to
Referring to
Whilst threaded designs for the Rigging 410 and mating element of the Puller are described and depicted it would be evident to one of skill in the art that other detachable mating mechanisms may be employed to attach the FOC-PA to the Puller. In other embodiments of the invention the FOC-PA may be part of the Puller.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Noting that for sake of enabling the FOC-PA to be manufactured using injection molding with a single sliding core pull, the FOC-PA may be designed with a cylindrical shape and terminated with a cap in the form of a second part, affixed by glue, by snap fit features, or other means, onto Front 130, wherein the vertical walls matching the width and height of the SC connector body tip, may be features within that additional cap rather than be formed within the FOC-PA Front 130, when such FOC-PA is made with 3D printing out of a single monocoque.
Now referring to
Referring to
Now referring to
The Rotary Joint 1000 may connect to the Puller 900 via a male threaded fitting which interfaces with a female threaded fitting on the Puller 900 or vice-versa. Other demountable interfaces between the Rotary Joint 1000 and the Puller 900 may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention.
The Rotary Joint 900 allows for relative rotation of the FOC-PA 100 with respect to the Puller 900. This allows for rotation of the FOC-PA relative to the puller as the optical cable to which the FOC-PA is attached is pulled through, such as when the optical cable is being spooled from a drum.
Now referring to
The Ball Joint 1100 may connect to the Puller 900 via a male threaded fitting which interfaces with a female threaded fitting on the Puller 900 or vice-versa. Other demountable interfaces between the Ball Joint 1100 and the Puller 900 may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention.
The Ball Joint 1100 allows for relative angular movement and/or rotation of the FOC-PA 100 with respect to the Puller 1100. This allows for angular movement and/or rotation of the FOC-PA relative to the puller as the optical cable to which the FOC-PA is attached is pulled through, such as when the optical cable is being spooled from a drum or for misalignments between the direction of the Puller 1100 relative to FOC-PA 100 as it is being pulled through. Ball Joint 1100 being one form of a universal joint.
Now referring to
Referring to
Now referring to
As depicted in
Disposed at one end of the FOC-PA is a Threaded Portion 1430, representing an example of the Fitting 410 depicted in second Image 400B in
Within other embodiments of the invention the FOC-PA 100 is designed for 2 mm cable, i.e., the Boot 130 portion has an inner diameter specified by the 2 mm cable rather than a larger inner diameter for use upon 4.8 mm cable, wherein a HELIX 1400 may allow a FOC-PA 100 to be used with 900 μm and 2 mm fiber optical cables.
Within other embodiments of the invention the FOC-PA 100 is designed for 4.8 mm cable, i.e., the Boot 130 portion has an inner diameter specified by the 4.8 mm cable, wherein a HELIX 1400 may allow a FOC-PA 100 to be used with 900 μm and 4.8 mm fiber optical cables. Accordingly, two different HELIX 1400 designs, one designed for 900 μm fiber optical cables and another for 2 mm fiber optical cables, may allow a single FOC-PA 100 design to manage 900 μm, 2 mm, and 4.8 mm fiber optical cables.
Whilst the embodiments of the invention are described with respect to exemplary cable geometries, e.g., 900 μm, 2 mm, and 4.8 mm, it would be evident that other embodiments of the invention may be designed to support other cable geometries.
The HELIX 1400 allows for FOC-PAs according to embodiments of the invention to pull fiber optic pre-terminated cables which have a soft sheath and which therefore cannot be crimped into the U-clamp portion, i.e., Body 130 of FOC-PA 100, of the FOC-PA. Within embodiments of the invention the HELIX 1400 provides friction against the fiber optic cable wherein the HELIX 1400 retains the fiber optic cable within the FOC-PA. Embodiments of the invention provide a gripping force in excess of 25 pounds.
Referring to
Within embodiments of the invention the HELIX 1400 has an inner diameter defined by the outer diameter of the cable to which it is intended to mount and an outer diameter defined by the inner diameter of the FOC-PA. For example, the inner diameter may be 2 mm and the outer diameter 4.8 mm or that of the inner diameter of the Boot 130 of the FOC-PA 100. Within another example the inner diameter may be 900 μm and the outer diameter 4.8 mm or that of the inner diameter of the Boot 130 of the FOC-PA 100. Accordingly, with these embodiments of the HELIX the same FOC-PA can support 900 μm, 2 mm and 4.8 mm cables. It would be evident that other designs of the HELIX and/or FOC-PA designs would allow other cables to be accommodated within one or more FOC-PA designs.
Within embodiments of the invention the HELIX may “expand” upon assembly to the cable, which is accomplished by rotation of the HELIX relative to the cable. According to the characteristics of the material(s) selected for the HELIX this “expansion” in the inner diameter may be accompanied by a reduction in length of the HELIX and/or a reduction in thickness of the HELIX.
Within embodiments of the invention the material(s) of the HELIX may be deformable such that the HELIX when assembled onto a cable is compressed upon insertion into the FOC-PA to provide increased surface contact between the FOC-PA and cable via the HELIX for friction based retention with absorption of compression forces external to the FOC/PCA and/or compliance of the HELIX to variances in the cable and/or FOC-PA.
Within embodiments of the invention a HELIX may be assembled onto a cable when the cable is to be pulled and removed subsequently. Within other embodiments of the invention the HELIX may be disposed of post-use being intended for one-time use. Within other embodiments of the invention the HELIX once assembled on the cable the HELIX may be left in place. Within other embodiments of the invention a HELIX may be pre-assembled onto a cable when connectorized such that field installation of the HELIX is not required.
Whilst within
Now referring to
The electrical connector may also be an entire transceiver body within other embodiments of the invention, such as those conformant to the Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP) specifications of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) for example, such as found on direct-attached cables and active optical cables. The SFP transceiver head of the active optical cable which would be encapsulated within the cavity 150 of the FOC-PA 100 or the cavity 1950 of the EC-PA 1900.
HDMI active optical cables are variants of active optical cables incorporating an optical transceiver inside the pre-terminated cable head with its HDMI connector, which would be encapsulated within the cavity 150 of the FOC-PA 100 or the cavity 1950 of the EC-PA 1900.
The connector is inserted into an Opening 1950 in Body 1920, allowing the connector to partially or fully enter a cavity in the Front 1930 of the EC-PA, and then subsequently allow for the cable portion of the EC to be crimped into a Slot 1940 in the Boot 1910 section of the EC-PA. The boot of the connector such as an SMA connector, not depicted for clarity, is retained within the Body 1920 of the EC-PA and the connector portion of the FOC is retained in a portion of the Front 1930 of the EC-PA. The Opening 1950 in the Body 1920 being dimensioned in dependence upon one of the boot and of electrical connector on the end of the EC. The Slot 1940 being dimensioned to a predetermined EC diameter. It would evident that within embodiments of the invention the EC-PA may be employed with a HELIX to allow the EC-PA to support multiple EC diameters.
As evident from
Referring to
Within the variant of the EC-PA depicted in
Referring to
Within the preceding embodiments of the invention the retention of the cable assembly within the FOC-PA or EC-PA was via friction or physical retention of the cable within the boot portion of the FOC-PA or EC-PA cither directly or via an intermediate HELIX such that the force from the pulling attachment onto the pre-terminated cable (PC) is directed to the cable and not the head of the connector. However, the inventors have also established variants of a Pulling Attachment (PA) where the connector is retained by a combination of the front portion, e.g., Front 1930 of EC-PA 1900 or Front 130 of FOC-PA 100. It is worth noting at this point that the differentiation between FOC-PA and EC-PA is simply from a description of embodiments of the invention point of view as an EC-PA with appropriate dimensions may work with a FOC and a FOC-PA with appropriate dimensions may work with an EC.
Within these embodiments of the invention the force from the pulling attachment onto the PC is directed to the connector boot and not directly onto the head of the connector. When the connector boot of the PC is bonded to the outer PC sheath, applying forward pulling force onto the FOC-PA or EC-PA effectively transfers the force to the PC sheath without needing for the FOC-PA or EC-PA to make use of the friction in the re-entrant U cavity (e.g. Slot 140 in FOC-PA 100 or Slot 1940 in EC-PA 1940) of the FOC-PA or EC-PA. In this new embodiment, the force is transferred to the PC sheath through the connector boot which is bonded onto the sheath. The re-entrant U cavity of the FOC-PA or EC-PA then becomes a simple cable guide for convenience and within embodiments of the invention has no effect in transferring the pulling force onto the PC unlike the embodiments of the invention described with respect to FOC-PA 100 and EC-PA 1900 for example. However, within other embodiments of the invention the re-entrant U cavity of the FOC-PA or EC-PA may also provide part of the overall transfer of the pulling force to the sheath of the PC such as with FOC-PA 100 and EC-PA 1900 for example. Such embodiments may support use with PCs with multiple designs where in some designs the connectors have bonded connector boots and in other designs they do not.
The inventors have demonstrated that this new embodiment may allow pulling forces in excess of 75 pounds (approximately 34 kilograms) to be transferred by the FOC-PA or EC-PA onto the PC sheath through the PC connector boot. Such pulling forces are in excess of three times that specified for a UTP cable by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) ANSI/TIA-568 (T-568) standard. Accordingly, it would be evident that mechanisms to engineer deliberate “failure” (pulling force limiting) mechanisms within an FOC-PA or EC-PA may be appropriate to avoid pulling forces in excess of one or more standards being applied to the PCs.
For example, such a pulling force limiting mechanisms (e.g., to prevent a pulling force exceeding 25 pounds being applied to a UTP cable per the T-568 standard) added to a PA according to embodiments of the invention may be through engineering a an external threaded Fitting 410 (see second Image 400B in
Within other embodiments of the invention other a pulling force limiting mechanisms may be engineered allowing a portion of the FOC-PA of EC-PA, e.g. Front 130 of FOC-PA 100 or Front 1930 of EC-PA 1900 to detach from the remainder of the FOC-PA or EC-PC when a pulling force exceeds an engineered value, such as the 25 pounds limit for UTP cables in the T-568 standard. This may be implemented in different manners as would be apparent to one skilled in the art including, but not limiting to, thinning one or more features in the molding of the front and/or body portions of the FOC-PA or EC-PA to a define not only a defined pulling force limit but a defined detachment point.
Referring to
Now referring to
Within PA 2600 the Slot 2640 within the Boot 2610 is designed to be larger than the cable. However, within other embodiments of the invention the Slot 2640 may be designed to fit against the cable as discussed and depicted above with respect to FOC-PA 100.
In order to retain the boot of the connector and cable in position within the PA 2600 the inventors have established a Retaining U-Component (RUC) where
The RUC is an optional spacer which may be employed discretely or in multiples to ensure that the PC boot remains fully inserted into the FOC-PA or EC-PA and cannot slip backward as the pulling force is transferred onto the PC sheath. The RUC whilst not a required element does help with the conflicting design tradeoff for the FOC-PA or EC-PA between having a cavity which is large enough to ensure easy insertion of the PC connector into the FOC-PA or EC-PA, whilst securing the PC into the FOC-PA or EC-PA in its maximally forward position without there being any significant gap at the back of the PC boot portion which would allow for the PC to slip back under forward motion. The RUC negates this slipping back as within embodiments of the invention where there is no frictional retention of the PC into the FOC-PA or EC-PA via the re-entrant U-clamp, which is acting simply as a cable guide, which prevents the PC from slipping back under forward pulling force.
Accordingly, the user inserts the connector into the PA and then pushes the RUC over. This assembly being depicted in
Within
Accordingly, referring to
Referring to
Now referring to
A UTP Cable 3750, for example, is wound in the Helical Groove 3760 in Body 3720 of the HELI-PA 3700. The UTP Cable 3750 is then “clamped” into the Boot 3730 of the HELI-PA 3700 in a re-entrant U-groove. The depth of the Helical Groove 3760 may be configured to be deeper than the center of the HELI-PA 3700 at a depth set to provide a relaxation of the grip force to a predetermined threshold value, for example 25 pounds (11.3 kg). This predetermined threshold value being the maximum force permitted in the ANSI T-568 standard for pulling on Ethernet UTP cables. Accordingly, pulling harder than 25 pounds (11.3 kg) will cause the cable to slip out of the HELI-PA 3700 such that the maximum pulling force is not exceeded. Other threshold values may be set by other standards etc. The outer diameter of the HELI-PA 3700 can thus be reduced relative to other embodiments of the invention.
In the embodiment of the invention depicted in
Alternatively, within other embodiments of the invention the limiting depth of the Helical Groove 3760 to the diameter of the Cable 3750 in a HELI-PA 3700 which would have an outer diameter twice that of the cable has been proven to provide a grip of more than 25 pounds (11.3 kg), which is excessive for pulling on UTP cables and exceeds the ANSI T-568 standard.
The configuration depicted in
Now referring to
Within other embodiments of the invention both ends of the HELI-PA may be configured with Holes 3340 discretely or in combination with Inner and/or Outer Grooves. The Holes 3340 and the Grooves 3820 and 3830 may be rectangular to accommodate a mule tape for instance. Within other embodiments of the invention an end or ends of the HELI-PA may incorporate a tab with a hole for the attachment of the pulling mechanism rather than it being within a portion of the HELI-PA engaging against the cable. Such a tab may, for example, resemble a ring terminal as known in the art.
Referring to
Within another embodiment of the invention the Helical Portion 4020 may include a hole, such as Hole 3340 within
Now referring to
Within the preceding description with respect to embodiments of the invention the various pulling attachments (PAs) have been described and depicted with respect to pulling a single cable with a single connector, although the connector and cable may have support multiple elements, e.g. an optical fiber ribbon connector with optical ribbon fiber (such as 4, 8 or 12 fiber ribbons) or a CAT Ethernet connector/RJ45 connectors with up to 8 connections. However, within many installation scenarios there is a requirement to pull multiple cables through a common hole and/or tube.
Accordingly, the inventors have established designs for PAs that support pulling multiple cables concurrently. An example of such as multi-cable pulling attachment (MC-PA) is depicted in
Now referring to
Whilst, as evident from
Now referring to
It would be evident that the grooves within the MC-PA in
It would be evident that the grooves within the MC-PA in
Referring to
The extension of the grooves of Body 5020 into Tip 5010 may be done such as that Tip 5010 may include a cavity preventing the cable ends from falling out of the grooves 5070. Alternatively Tip 5010 may include multiple cavities large enough to accommodate connectors, thus for instance allowing to pull a fan-out cable with say 12 LC ends from the fan-out end rather than the MTP connector end, while securing each of the 12 LC ends, say 4 per groove into 3 grooves with 3 cavities large enough to accommodate 3 LC connectors.
Now referring to
greater grip force Tip 5010 may extend the helical grooves of Body 5020 in a counter direction to provide additional grip force or to allow a starting position for winding cables in each groove of body 5020 which does not slip out
As depicted in
The diameter of the of the first MC-PA according to an embodiment of the invention as depicted in
Within another embodiment of the invention if the Tip 5010 is replaced with a second End, like End 5050 in
Referring to
Referring to
In
Now referring to
The geometry of the groove in
Referring to
Within other embodiments of the invention an MC-OE may be non-planar with a cross-section geometry such as that defined by a triangular pyramid, a square, a rectangle, a parallelogram, a regular or irregular N-sided polygon where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 5, etc. where grooves are formed within one or more surfaces of the non-planar MC-OE.
Whilst within
Now referring to
Within other embodiments of the invention the MC-OE 5800 may have a different geometry such a portion of a cone, e.g. a truncated cone, a full cone, a hyperboloid, or a sphere for example. Within other embodiments of the invention the outer geometry of the MC-OE 5800 may be a hexagonal prism, octagonal prism, cube, etc. provided that the geometry of the groove(s) formed within the other surface has an inner geometry that is circular, elliptical or another smoothly varying geometry that avoids sharp transitions in the cable, particularly for optical cables.
Referring to
Within
Within other embodiments of the invention the MC-OE 6000 may have a different geometry such a portion of a cone, e.g. a truncated cone or a full conc. Within other embodiments of the invention the outer geometry of the MC-OE 6000 may be a hexagonal prism, octagonal prism, cube, sphere, etc. provided that the geometry of the groove(s) formed within the other surface has an inner geometry that is circular, elliptical or another smoothly varying geometry that avoids sharp transitions in the cable, particularly for optical cables.
Within the descriptions above in respect of
Referring to
Second Image 6200B depicts the NC-PA according to the embodiment of the invention wherein the NC-PA 6250 has a series of grooves of varying dimensions (and potentially geometry) formed within the outer surface. These grooves comprising first Groove 6260 which is dimensioned to accept the Outer Jacket (OJ) 6210, second Groove 6270 which is dimensioned to accept the CSM 6220, and third Groove 6280 dimensioned to accept the AY 6230. Third Image 6200C depicts the OJ 6210, CM 6220 and AY 6230 as wound onto the NC-PA 6250 but without the NC-PA 6250 being depicted for clarity. Accordingly, it is evident in third Image 6200C that the AY 6230 loops back in Region 6235 and winds back along the NC-PA 6250 in the reverse direction for part of the length of NC-PA 6250. In this manner the NC-PA 6250 primarily pulls upon the AY 6230 of the cable.
The NC-PA 6250 may include a fitting such as described above for the attachment of a pulling rod, pull rope etc. However, it may also support a demountable Pulling Rod (PullRod) such as described below in respect of
Now referring to
Accordingly, the OJ, such as OJ 610 in
In
In third and fourth Images 6400C and 6400D the MNC-PA 6400 and PullRod 6470 are depicted assembled together from two different perspectives. As evident the PullRod 6470 goes through the Bore 6430 of the MNC-PA 6400 where the End 6440 of the PullRod 6470 engages against the end of the MNC-PA 6400 when the PullRod 6470 is pulled from the distal end of the MNC-PA 6400. The PullRod 6470 may be attached to a pulling rope which is attached through the Lateral Bore 6460 of the PullRod 6470.
Within other embodiments of the invention the Lateral Bore 6470 may be provided discretely or in combination with a threaded fitting or the Lateral Bore 6470 may be omitted and that end of the PullRod 6470 may have a threaded fitting only. The AY of cables assembled onto the MNC-PA 6400 are wound into the Spiral Groove 6420 discretely or they may be wound into the Spiral Groove 6420 and tied around the portion of the PullRod 6470 projecting through the MNC-PA 6400, such as depicted in
Referring to
Whilst the MNC-PAs depicted in
Whilst the MNC-PAs depicted in
Referring to
Now referring to
Now referring to
In
Referring to
The first HEL-NC-PA 6700 is deployed a first distance from the end of the fourth Cable 6960D and connects the third Cable 6960C to the fourth Cable 6960D. The second HEL-NC-PA 6700 is deployed a second distance from the end of the fourth Cable 6960D and connects the third Cable 6960C to the second Cable 6960B. The third HEL-NC-PA 6700 is deployed a third distance from the end of the fourth Cable 6960D and connects the second Cable 6960B to the first Cable 6960A. Accordingly, pulling the end of the fourth Cable 6960D to which a pulling assembly according to an embodiment of the invention may be attached results in not only the fourth Cable 6960D being pulled but also the first to third Cables 6960A to 6960C respectively. Accordingly, once the pulling operation is completed or steps in the pulling operation are completed each of the three HEL-NC-PAs 6700 can be removed and the first to fourth Cables 6960A to 6960D connectorised and/or otherwise connected to equipment within each of the first to fourth Rooms 6920 to 6950 respectively.
In contrast, in
Now referring to
It would be evident that different length pulling rods, e.g. PullRod 7120, could support 1, 2, 3 or more NC-PAs within embodiments of the invention. Within other embodiments of the invention an NC-PA 6660 may have threaded fittings at either end, e.g. male at one end and female at the other end, such that the NC-PAs 6600 may be assembled together and attached to a pulling stick, for example, without the requirement for a PullRod, such as PullRod 7120 or PullRod 6470 in
Referring to
Now referring to
Now referring to
Now referring to
Accordingly, the HEL-NC-PAs 7300, 7400A and 7400B allows for daisy chaining several HEL-NC-PAs 7300, 7400A and 7400B in a similar manner to that described with respect to
In this manner N cables, N≥2 and an integer, can be pulled with N−1 HEL-NC-PAS 7300, 7400A and 7400B within the overall constraints of the holes/conduit the cables are being pulled through and the geometries of the cables themselves where the overall maximum diameter of the pulled bundle is approximately equal that of hexagonal close packing N+2 cables together. For example, with 12 cables of 4.8 mm (0.19″) diameter, which minimally pack to a diameter of 16.6 mm (approximately 0.65″), but with HEL-NC-PAs according to an embodiment of the invention the cables pack to a diameter of 14 cables, i.e. 18.0 mm (approximately 0.71″), adding only approximately 1.4 mm (approximately 0.055″) to the overall bundle such that the 12 cables of 4.8 mm diameter can be pulled through a 25 mm (approximately 1″) diameter hole.
Now referring to
As evident from Schematic 7500 the AYs 7530(2) to 7530(4) of each of the second to fourth Cables 7510(2) to 7520(4) are looped backwards and forwards within one of the two grooves for the AYs, e.g. one of third and fourth Grooves 7420A and 7420B respectively in HEL-NC-PA 7400 or one of the third Groove 6810 and fourth Groove 7310 in HEL-NC-PA 7300, of their respective HEL-NC-PA, i.e. HEL-NC-PAs 7520(2) to 7520(4). The AY 7530(1) of the first Cable 7510(1) is fed through the other groove of each of the HEL-NC-PAs, e.g. the other of third and fourth Grooves 7420A and 7420B respectively in HEL-NC-PA 7400 or the other of the third Groove 6810 and fourth Groove 7310 in HEL-NC-PA 7300. The end of AY 7530(1) is tied into a knot or knots with the AY 7530(5) of the fifth Cable 7510(5) such that the knot(s) can form a pulling means for the assembly directly or alternatively the ends of AY 7530(1) and AY 7530(5) may tie to a cable pulling means discretely.
Referring to
Referring to
The rooted staggered configuration is implemented with the following description using a common embodiment of the HEL-NC-PA, i.e. by using multiple instances of a single HEL-NC-PA piece part in a daisy chain. This provides the benefit of a single stock keeping unit (SKU) to order, to keep in stock and to provide spares. However, it would be evident that within other embodiments of the invention two or more different designs of the HEL-NC-PA may be employed.
The embodiments of the HEL-NC-PA 7400A and 7400B depicted in
In this example, with a 2nd HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain (from the tip), it is possible to pull on 3 cables. With 3 cables, on a lightweight pulling operation, it may not be necessary to pull with the insertion of the aramid inside the dedicated grooves for the ropes. In fact, the dedicated grooves for the ropes may be entirely omitted and it would still be possible to knot the aramid rope around the HEL-NC-PA. However, the hiding of the aramid ropes in the helical grooves provides 3 more benefits, a) additional grip force, and b) preventing the rope from interfering with the pulling operation and c) should tape be used around the device, easier removal of the tape which would not be glued up in the aramid rope.
It is beneficial that a single cable does not take the load of all other cables down the daisy chain. Accordingly, the simplistic configuration where the longest cable goes through all of the multiple HEL-NC-PA's in the daisy chain through one of the two cable grooves in each of the HEL-NC-PA, does provide a reasonable pulling force for all for the added cables on each of the HEL-NC-PA. However, this configuration has the longest cable take all of the load and subjects the cable to potential plastic deformation of its sheath and potential damage to the optical fiber(s) or electrical conductor(s) in the cable.
Within another embodiment of the invention would be possible to wind a separate common rope through each of the two rope grooves across all HEL-NC-PAs in the daisy chain, leaving the other rope groove for a local attachment. However, that discrete rope would have to be procured separately. It would also be possible to use the aramid yarn(s) of each added cable as a common rope and tie all the rope ends together between instances of the HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain However, this is a time consuming process.
To overcome these limitations, the inventors have established HEL-NC-PAs as an efficient way to achieve a rooted (centralized) staggered configuration where all of the HEL-NC-PA are back to back in a local daisy chain, and where instead of using a separate rope, it is the aramid of the longest drop which ties all of the HEL-NC-PAs into the daisy chain together such that the aramid yarns take the load of the pull and release the load from the cables. In a similar way, the devised configuration and installation procedure ensures that one HEL-NC-PA does not transfer the load applied to a given cable beyond no more than one (the next one) HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain. From thereon, a cable has only to support its own pulling, and since it will be pulled by the AYs attached to the subsequent HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain This configuration means that the load for any given cable is one HEL-NC-PA hop away from being transferred to the common rope linking all HEL-NC-PA together.
The grooves within pulling attachments which are formed helically may have a re-entrant profile, wherein the opening of the groove is less than 180 degrees, e.g. a groove has an opening of about 120-degrees at the top, or about 150-degrees at the top, for example, thus allowing the cable to be press-fit and snapped into the groove of the HEL-NC-PA, at one of the entrances, exit or along the path of the helical groove in the HEL-NC-PA.
The grooves formed helically serving to hold the aramid or rope can have a re-entrant shape with a narrower slit opening at the top (narrower than 180 degrees), thus allowing the rope to be press-fitted and fitted entirely within the groove, where the re-entrant portion of the groove is at one or more of an end of the pulling device, a distal end of the pulling device, or a predetermined portion of the path of the helical groove in the HEL-NC-PA.
The grooves can intersect one another within the HEL-NC-PA, allowing a cable groove where the cable is stripped to the aramid to have its aramid jump into a rope groove at an interim location than at the extremity of the HEL-NC-PA, thus allowing the HEL-NC-PA to have a profiled ends within each HEL-NC-PA without needing to have the diameter of the HEL-NC-PA make room for the pull rope transitioning from one cable groove to the other cable groove. The profiled ends (not illustrated but similar to
The inventors view this installation procedure as an invention which provides the benefits of scalability, expandability, casiness of use, reliability, and predictability in the outcome of pulling operations, which are essential attributes for anyone to be willing to make use of such a tool.
Within an embodiment of the invention the inventors also consider a commercialization process for pulling devices according to embodiments of the invention wherein a purchase of a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention provides a license to employ an installation process, such as that depicted by first and second Flows 7700A and 7700B in
The procedure described and depicted in first and second Flows 7700A and 7700B in
This configuration with two cable grooves per HEL-NC-PA, scales linearly minus 1, with the number of cables to pull, with N−1 HEL-NC-PAs employed for pulling on N cables. This is because the HEL-NC-PA has only 2 cable grooves of single depth. However, should the HEL-NC-PA have 2 cables of double depth, it would be possible to pull on twice as many cables potentially. Should the HEL-NC-PA have 3 cable grooves of triple depth, it would be possible to pull on 9 cables, per HEL-NC-PA, allowing fanning out to 9 other HEL-NC-PA, which if also having 3 cabling grooves of triple depth, could enable pulling on 8 cables at the 2nd stage, allowing for 63 cables to be pulled in only 2 stages. The staggered pulling configuration makes it possible to assemble a large pulling configuration with a copy of the same HEL-NC-PA in potentially few stages.
However, one of the principal goals in a pulling operation is to minimize the diameter of the overall bundle of cables. Necessarily, the HEL-NC-PA increases the overall diameter of the bundle of cables because the cables are inserted in a helical groove which means that a device with 2 cable grooves plus 2 rope grooves, occupies the cross-section area of between 4 and 6 cables. However, by daisy-chaining the same configuration of the HEL-NC-PA, the worst diameter of the bundle remains proportional to the number of cables. That is roughly proportional to the number of cables plus 4 to 6 more cables, at any point in the daisy chain. This makes it possible to pull a lot of cables in a small diameter conduit, which otherwise may not be possible to achieve with a single stage HEL-NC-PA with a large diameter. Furthermore, the length of the device can be minimized, which makes it possible to pull through 90-degree bends of a smaller radius which may not be possible to pull through with a longer device required to have more grooves for more cables. Truly, the staggered configuration must be studied and optimized in the case of pulls with many cables. However, for the bulk of pulls with few cables, the length of the staggered setup can remain manageable, for instance with an HEL-NC-PA measuring 14 cm, a pulling operation of 11 cables of 4.8 mm, with aramid attachment would require 11 unit daisy chain plus a gap of 2 cm between devices, so roughly 16 cm*11=176 cm. While this may be long, it is manageable and the overall bundle would be equal to at best 16.63 mm=SQRT (4*(12*(PI*4.8{circumflex over ( )} 2/4))/PI), which means that the overall bundle would increase by 4 to 6 more cables, so the overall bundle, at the worst location, would then become based on 6 more cables 20.36 mm=SQRT (4*((12+6)*(PI*4.8{circumflex over ( )} 2/4))/PI), which means that it would be possible to pull a bundle of 12 cables of 4.8 mm in a ¾ inch pipe.
One alternative to a staggered configuration that results in a long daisy-chain, is to divide it into parallel sections. For instance, with the same HEL-NC-PA with 2 cable grooves and 2 rope grooves, if one were to build two parallel trees of 6 cables to pull on 12 cables, then the daisy chain would only need to have 5 HEL-NC-PA each. The initial start diameter would be twice as large as before. With the same logic, pulling on 12 cables with 4 parallel trees would require 8 HEL-NC-PA of this configuration of 2 cable grooves, but the initial diameter would be 4 times larger.
Since the HEL-NC-PA can be manufactured with a material that is flexible and since the helical grip retains its grip force although bent, this makes it possible to pull through a 90 bend with a small bend radius.
The staggered configuration provides a naturally profiled tip, which means that when wanting to use one's hand to grab on the cable bundle as opposed to a pulling device attached to the pulling eye, the staggered configuration enables the overall bundle at the worst location to be further away and consequently, the smaller bundle diameter of the profiled tip, is able to fit in a user's hand. Accordingly, as user's hand sizes vary the staggered configuration allows users to size the bundle to their hand. The naturally pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention tip also favorizes steering the bundle tip during a pulling operation by placing the tip into tension with a pulling rope attached to the pulling eye formed at the tip of the bundle with the aramids inside the cables.
The embodiment of the pulling attachments, such as HEL-NC-PA presented here, and other embodiments of the invention are referred to as “HeliPullers” by the inventors.
A HEL-NC-PA according to an embodiment of the invention provides four grooves helically formed around a cylindrical shaped body. The grooves are made to be optionally re-entrant profile at the ends of the HEL-NC-PA and optionally re-entrant between these ends. The re-entrant angle may be set to allow the cable to be press snapped into the opening, e.g. a 120-degree or 150-degree opening for example, at the top of the re-entrant groove, preventing it from falling out of the groove and thus avoiding needing to secure the cable in the groove with tape such as electrical tape. The dimensions of the grooves are set to be 4.8 mm and 3 mm, which are the two most popular cable diameters for single fiber ruggedized bend insensitive and potentially self-bend limiting cables used for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) installations. The proposed embodiment is configured with 2 helical grooves of 3 mm diameter and 2 more helical grooves of 4.8 mm in diameter. The idea is that the same SKU of HeliPuller can be used with either 3 or 4.8 mm cables. In the case where 3 mm cable is to be pulled, the 4.8 mm grooves would serve to wind the aramid into. In the case 4.8 mm cables are used, the aramid would be wound in the 3 mm grooves.
The idea is to build the tree from the bottom by unspooling from the next box, a little bit longer than what has been unspooled from the last box of cable, to extend beyond the frontmost HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain. This way the tree is built by daisy chaining yet one more in front of another instance of the HEL-NC-PA, towards the tip of the daisy chain (i.e. towards the furthest distance from the root). Upon deciding to add another cable to the bundle of cables to pull, it shall be easy to just unspool, from box of the cable that is meant to be the longest drop, a little bit more length to cover the length of one more HEL-NC-PA at the front of the daisy chain, and which will become the first HEL-NC-PA in the chain. The cable meant to be the longest cable of the bundle, will then be stripped to the Aramid for a length corresponding to the length of the first HEL-NC-PA in the chain optionally multiple by two for double wounding around the HEL-NC-PA, plus the length of anti-slip knots and the excess aramid serving to form pulling eye at the front of the chain.
The method for adding cables the bundle involves adding HEL-NC-PA's in a daisy chain by letting a portion of a cable added to the bundle exceed the length of the HEL-NC-PA to which it is attached, by a little more than the length of the HEL-NC-PA for the sheath section and by up to triple the length of the HEL-NC-PA for the portion of the cable that will be stripped to the aramid.
The method ideally starts by attaching cables to the before last HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain and building the daisy chain upwards to the tip of the daisy chains. One cable locally attaches to the HEL-NC-PA and the other cable transits through the local HEL-NC-PA and is ultimately attached to the next HEL-NC-PA, both by inserting them in the cable groove of the next HEL-NC-PA as well as optionally attaching that same cable by their aramid by lopping them either backward, or backward and forward, in one or both cabling grooves. When the cables are loop backwards and forward, backward in the first cabling groove, and forward in the second cabling groove, it enhances the grip, where then a single knot will lock the cable in place. However, the knot must be made once the second cable is attached to the other cabling groove.
The last cable is also attached at the tail of the daisy chain, the one going in for the first drop (floor or the first room or access point in a hall), is stripped of its sheath and optical fiber, skinned to the rope, to provide the longest rope, attaching the last cable to the last HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain, but allowing that rope to also loop back across the last HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain (so total rope length=(N+1*(HEL-NC-PA+Gaps between+(Anti-slip Knots*2))) and then whirled into all of the other HEL-NC-PA in the chain to then become the main rope for the pull eye at the tip of the daisy chain. For greater grip, one or more anti-slip knot can be formed on each HEL-NC-PA at one of the beginning, middle or end of each HEL-NC-PA, optionally taking advantage of the helical cable groove otherwise used to locally attach a cable into an HEL-NC-PA.
So far, we have been describing a rooted staggered tree where minimal distance separates each HEL-NC-PA. However, it may be desirable to implement a distributed staggered tree, (where each HEL-NC-PA is attached at set offset from the first one, corresponding to the distance between two drops plus their drop tails (the height of a floor, or the distance between two rooms or access points in a hall, plus the tail for that drop). Given the distance separating the HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain, it may not be desirable to strip the last drop in the daisy chain from this much sheath to get to the aramid which would interconnect all to the HEL-NC-PA to one another in the daisy chain. Accordingly, it may be preferable to make use of a dedicated rope to interconnect all the HEL-NC-PA in the daisy chain. Doing this will work best by unspooling the rope from the opposition direction from which the cable locally attached to the HEL-NC-PA is unspooled from its box. This way, as more HEL-NC-PA are being added to the chain, more rope is unspooled from its box. It will be necessary to undo all of these rope attachments and to re-do them later if wanting to make use of anti-slip knots, so for this, a forward, backward and re-forward winding across each HEL-NC-PA, as they get added to the chain, will provide sufficient grip such that anti-slip knots will not be required for the common rope. This is one of the reasons where the rope grooves in the HEL-NC-PA need to be potentially bigger than the diameter of the cable itself, due to the multiple back and forth across the rope grooves. This is another reason where the flat ends of the HEL-NC-PA serve as a good anchor for the aramid or rope to go around and may be preferable than intersections between cabling grooves and rope grooves accompanied by pointy tips on the HEL-NC-PA, as they would accommodate a common pull rope of a distributed staggered configuration.
According to embodiments of the invention a HEL-PA provides a longitudinal grip in the form of a groove for a cable. Referring to
Alternatively, the soft sheath of the cable will also perform the same task of being contracted as the cable is pushed into the U-groove grip and expand back within the U-groove grip when materials of lower elasticity (higher Young's modulus). If the U-groove did not expand and/or the cable sheath not compress then it would be very difficult to push a cable into the U-groove of a HEL-PA. The inventors refer to this 120° reentrant groove design as “PULR-Grip” and it is employed with a range of HEL-PAs according to embodiments of the invention for gripping cables where the HEL-PA then provides for attachment to pulling or pushing sticks, rope eyes, rotating heads, etc. A PULR-Grip can also be formed at the beginning or end, or both ends of a normal “HelicalGrip” (a HelicalGrip being the name given by the inventors to a helical groove within a HEL-PA without a re-entrant U-groove profile), thus preventing the cable from falling out of the HelicalGrip by keeping it under slight retentive pressure and/or friction within the HelicalGrip. Each groove within a HEL-PA according to an embodiment of the invention may have one or more portions comprising PULR-Grips and one or more portions comprising HelicalGrips.
The inventors has established that the PULR-Grip can be injection molded without the need for a core pin during molding. This is achieved via the re-entrant mold profile mimicking a 240° coverage of the cable circumference held on a 120° wide base. The mold can be formed through AM or non-AM processes and has been shown by the inventors to be easily 3D printed as opposed to machined. The resulting PULR-Grip dues to its elasticity can be ejected from the mold in a similar manner to that if it was being unsnapped from a cable, allowing for high-throughput injection molding.
Now referring to
The PULR-Grip (the longitudinal 120° opening pinched U-groove) and HelicalGrip (helically wound U-groove, pinched or not) allow for single handed use and operation by a single installing operative of a HEL-PA with respect to a cable in contrast to prior art approaches of using electrical tape to attach a cable to a pulling stick which is generally a two handed operation, or even two person operation. Single hand operation to wind electrical tape around a cable to secure it to a pulling stick or to compress the metal mesh of a Vivien and Kellems Grip onto the soft cable sheath, is generally impossible and two handed operation is necessary. The invention as described herein is unique in their ability to enable an installation technician able to use only one hand to install the HEL-PA onto a cable, either through a disability of the installation technician or the installation technician currently using their other hand for another function such as holding a ladder, a joist, etc.
Accordingly, the inventors have established as depicted in
The inventors have extended the improvement to the HelicalGrip allowing for a re-entrant profile by employing the same 120° opening re-entrant profile of the PULR-Grip, but formed on the longitudinal helical path of HEL-PAs according to embodiments of the invention. This provides, not only the benefit of increased retention force longitudinally, but also prevents the cable from falling out of the groove without requiring for a PULR_Groove at an end of both ends. This improved HelicalGrip would be exceptionally hard to machine with a 4-axis CNC ball-nosed end-mill, due to the re-entrant profile of the HelicalGrip. However, the inventors have successfully and cost-effectively manufactured this improved HelicalGrip with a re-entrant profile, using a combination of parametric 3D design and additive manufacturing techniques. For example, the inventors manufacture routinely over 100 devices printed vertically, at the same time, on a 10-inch platter MSLA printer with UV-curable photo polymeric oligomer-based resin.
Referring to
An improvement for the HelicalGrip, referred to a “Re-entrant HelicalGrip” by the inventors, adds the same re-entrant pinched profile of the PULR-Grip, but at the top of the Helical U-groove, while at the same time having the axis of the Helical U-groove offset from the axis of the HEL-PA such that the Helical U-Groove is into the HEL-PA than when it is formed as the HelicalGrip. However, the axis of the HelicalGrip of a HEL-PA may also be offset in a similar manner without departing from the scope of the invention. This decentering provides for a relaxation of the HelicalGrip, which can be controlled geometrically by adjusting the depth of the HelicalGrip.
A nominally circular cable sitting in a deeper HelicalGrip is effectively i) much “looser” in the HelicalGrip and ii) placed in a manner that is less out of axis (i.e. straighter) and iii) makes contact with less of the HelicalGrip core surface. These are contributing factors to less retention between the HEL-PA and the cable using such as offset HelicalGrip. This reduction in retention be configurable through the geometrical design of the HelicalGrip rather than by material selection. This grip relaxation mechanism through the re-entrant pinched profile at the top of the U-groove prevents the cable from falling out, without need for a PULR groove at the beginning, or end or both ends to secure the cable in the HelicalGrip. Referring to
Whilst a PULR-Grip allows a cable of diameter approximating the diameter of the PULR-Grip to snap into the re-entrant groove of the PULR-Grip, a cable of much smaller diameter will not snap (as if inside a U-groove with a 180° opening). In order to secure a cable in such a U-groove, it was expected by the inventors that installers would add a short roll of tape (electrical or other) around the PULR-Grip section entering or exiting or both entering or exiting the HelicalGrip, to close the opening of the PULR Groove in order to prevent a smaller diameter cable from falling out. However, doing so, would increases the diameter of the overall diameter of the cable pulling assembly such that the tape would interfere with the pulling operation inside a hole or conduit very close to the diameter of the cable pulling adapter. The inventors have therefore as depicted in
This reduced diameter is designed to be a multiple of a thickness of a tape being applied around the HEL-PA to retain the cable. This Region 8610 may be, for example, on the sections of entering or exiting a HelicalGrip portion of a HEL-PA, such that a length of tape up to some maximum (as defined by the thickness of the tape) when wound around the Region 8610 it does not increase the overall diameter of the assembly beyond the that of the other sections of the HEL-PA. This would make it possible to avoid having the electrical tape being one or more points of enlargement preventing the HEL-PA fitting inside the intended hole or conduit or having the tape getting caught up on the walls of the hole or conduit.
Within the description above HEL-PAs according to embodiments of the invention for a pre-terminated patch cable take advantage of the molded boot as a “back hook” for pulling on the cable without applying pressure on the connectorized portion of the patch cable. The HEL-PA engaging on the rear portion of the molded boot providing this “back hook.” However, some pre-terminated fiber optical cables employ heat-shrink tubing or similar to make the transition between the front section, referred to as a flat drop section, and the rear, referred to as a round section, in a similar manner as heat-shrink tubing would protect cables at a furcation unit. The heat-shrink tubing having a diameter larger than the flat drop section thereby provides a similar back-stop as a boot, and being heat-shrunk (heat activated glued+shrinking) has similar properties to that of an over-molded boot (i.e. rigid) and can effectively serve as a back-stop onto which a HEL-PA can engage and providing greater pulling force than the grip force of the HEL-PA itself on the flat drop portion of the cable.
Referring to
Now referring to
Amongst the challenges in molding the groove within a HEL-PA or PULR is the creation of the cavity to transition from a section of a tubular section with a slit opening at the top to enter connector/cable into which transitions to a fully tubular section without a slit opening at the top and which is then capped at the end to form the head of the cable pulling adapter, which makes the transition to the point of attachment to the pulling means. This requires creating a complex mold with an actuated core which must be actuated on two axes, (e.g. pulled back then pulled up). In order to avoid having to perform such complicated and potentially low yield actuated core pulls inside multi-cavity molds, the inventors have created a simpler mold design where the bottom half section of the mold has a section for the cable pulling adapter body that extends above the parting line to form the “roof” of the cavity section protecting the connector, effectively creating a “hole” in the floor of the cable puling adapter in the tubular body, opposite it the “roof”, i.e. the “chicane”.
It would then be evident that one can create multiple transitions between holes at the bottom and roofs at the top, which is called a “multi-chicane”, but this creates multiple locations where “flashing” can occur and will wear the mold quickly where the top half and the bottom half of the molds meet up to create the “chicane”. The chicanes approach create holes in the roof or floor of the body section of the cable pulling adapter and this is not desirable as it creates failure points on the contiguous sides.
The inventors have encountered and address this manufacturing challenge by establishing a cost effective high-yield manufacturing alternative to the chicanes and multi-chicanes. In this alternative the HEL-PA is made as a two-part component, where the two parts would be joined together as a subsequent manufacturing step after injection molding, e.g. by ultrasonic welding for example. Such a two-part design also allows for the head to be manufactured separately from the rest of the cable pulling adapter, allowing a common body to be employed with different heads conforming to the desired method of attachment such that the appropriate parts ordered are manufactured by pulling inventory of the appropriate parts and joining or fabricating the piece parts and joining.
In generally, the inventors have to date made threaded ends with male threaded studs conforming to various well known pulling sticks employed in the market such as #8-32, M5×0.8 mm and ¼ UNC 20 TPI. However, in this manufacturing methodology each head may be a different SKU which are all joined to a common SKU for the common HEL-PA across all head variants. Alternatively, a large number of final products can be made from a number of head part SKUs and body portion SKUs.
As the body section of the cable pulling adapter being no longer capped would allow for a core pull to be employed to form the tubular section with normal tapering to facilitate an easy core pull. The head section would similarly be molded as uncapped on the section mating the tubular section of the body of the cable pulling adapter, thus also allowing the use of a core pull operation to manufacture this end.
Accordingly, whilst in this specification most HEL-PAs may be described as being manufactured as single piece part it would be evident that two or more piece parts may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention. For example referring to
It would also be evident that different adapters between a pulling means and the HEL-PA may be attached to the threaded end of the HEL-PA. Within other embodiments of the invention a HEL-PA with a male threaded end, for example, is fabricated and different heads are attached allowing for pull-eyes, female threaded couplings, different male threaded ends etc. In this manner a single SKU HEL-PA can be employed and adapted in the field to suit the particular pulling by a technician adding the appropriate adapter to the HEL-PA. Accordingly, the HEL-PA may be a single piece-part or multiple piece-parts and still remain within the scope of the invention.
Within embodiments of the invention the HEL-PA Head 8820 may encompass a first portion of a connector of a pre-terminated cable and the HEL-PA Body 8810 a second portion of a connector of the pre-terminated cable. For example, the body of an optical connector may be within the HEL-PA Body 8810 whilst a ferrule of the optical connector is within the HEL-PA Head 8820. Optionally, the first portion of the connector may be 0% or a non-zero percentage.
The inventors have also formed HEL-PAs according to embodiments of the invention as a number of discrete piece-parts which were molded individually and subsequently assembled using ultrasonic or laser welding, for example, to form the final HEL-PA. Referring to
The inventors have described within this specification cable pulling adapters for pulling on fiber optical cables containing both longitudinal PULR-Grips for the cable sheath and fiber optic core transitioning to a HelicalGrip for the cable stripped to its aramid where the aramid is wound in the HelicalGrip extending the PULR-Grip, for one or cables in the same apparatus. However, this can be extended by treating the metallic conductor(s) of an electrical cable in the same manner as aramid fiber(s) and having the electrical cable stripped to its metallic conductor(s) which are then wound in a HelicalGrip extending the PULR-Grip for both the cable sheath and metallic conductor. As many electrical pulling techniques require stripping electrical cables to the metallic conductor and performing an attachment on the metallic conductors this allows the cable to be stripped, pulled and then the connector added.
The inventors have described within this specification variants for cable pulling adapters formed with multiple longitudinal PULR-Grips or multiple HelicalGrip grooves, potentially with different geometries to accommodate the simultaneous pulling of cables with different geometries. The methods and devices can be extended to multi-domain installations, such as the pulling of one or more fiber-optic cables at the same time as one or more electrical cables, using the same cable pulling adapter (HEL-PA), in one go, or multiple adapters (HEL-PAs) daisy chained together by a common core such as a common pulling threaded rod. Further, the applicability of such multidomain pulling and multi-domain HEL-PAs would allow the fiber optical cable to be attached into a longitudinal groove extending into a helical groove for its aramid while the electrical cable would have its copper/metallic conductor wound in a helical groove in the same manner as the aramid of a fiber optical cable whilst having its sheath and copper conductor attached to the longitudinal groove.
The inventors have also established a manufacturing method for affixing a threaded rod (metal or nylon) to a threaded hole of a MLSA additively manufactured part by dipping the threaded rod in light curable resin before screwing it into the threaded hole of a AM manufactured HEL-PA part (formed itself from a light curable resin) and then using the appropriate optical illumination to “grow” more plastic in the gap of the threads, thus increasing the friction, but not creating a mechanical bond between the metal and the plastic.
The inventors have determined, through extensive experimentation, that the HelicalGrip (i.e. the helical portion of a HEL-PA) should extend for at least 720° (i.e. two full turns of the cable around the center line of the HEL-PA) to the required grip force. This is provided that the HelicalGrip helical pitch remains a low multiple of the cable diameter. If this multiple gets too large, the HelicalGrip will lose its grip strength. If on the other hand, the pitch of the helix is too low of a multiple of the cable diameter, the cable will have a small bend radius in the helix which risks damaging the cable. For certain cables, which are not very flexible, the pitch of the helix of the HelicalGrip needs to accommodate this lack of ability to flex the cable. The inventors expecting a mathematical model to be established that relates the helical length to at least a measure of cable flexibility (a cable Young's modulus equivalent).
As noted within this specification the inventors have fabricated HEL-PAs according to embodiments of the invention with injection molding in a single molding step through the means of sacrificial cores reproducing a cable in curled configuration suspended inside the mold, where the core is either a dissolvable core, crushable, peelable, or a combination thereof. The inventors have further fabricated HEL-PAs by injection molding by separating the injected molded HEL-PA part from a 3D metal printed core reproducing a cable in curled configuration suspended inside the mold. Use of various injection molding materials with various durometers have enabled to make parts that are functional can be separated from the metal mold insert in various automated manners.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of attaching a cable itself by the sheath in a helical grip device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there are provided devices and methods of pulling cables by employing an aramid rope or aramid strength member of one or all cables to the same cable pulling device with helical grip(s).
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device with two or more grooves formed helically, with a portion of the grooves serving to attach cables and another portion of the grooves serving to attach one of the aramid strength members of the locally attached cable or a common pull rope interconnecting all cable pulling devices within a daisy chain
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device with one or more grooves wherein the grooves are formed helically and have a re-entrant shape with an opening less than 180 degrees in order to allow press-fitting and snapping of the cable into the cable pulling device, at one of a beginning, end or intermediate point along the path of the helical groove in the cable pulling device.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device with one or more grooves wherein the grooves are formed helically and have a re-entrant shape with an opening less than 180 degrees in order to allow press-fitting and snapping of a pulling rope into the cable pulling device, at one of a beginning, end or intermediate point along the path of the helical groove in the cable pulling device.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of using the aramid strength member of the shortest cable in a bundle of cables as the pulling rope for a daisy chain of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention whereby the aramid strength member of the shortest cable is employed to form a pulling eye allowing the transfer of pulling force from device to device within the daisy chain
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of implementing a staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention which minimizes the overall diameter of the bundle of cables towards the tip of the bundle thereby providing greater maneuverability through sharp or small radius conduit bends, discontinuities in conduit bore diameter and easier handling for smaller hands.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of implementing a rooted staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention where all cables are pulled from one end with the pulling force being applied sequentially through the staggered configuration of pulling devices from that end to the other end.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of implementing a distributed staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention where cables are incrementally dropped through the staggered configuration.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling method which avoids stretching cables, by making it possible to pull not only on the cable, but principally on the aramid strength members inside the cables, thus avoiding plastic deformation of the cable sheath and excessive strain on one of the optical fiber or copper conductors inside the cable, thus avoiding either potential breakage of the optical fiber or loss of optical performance on fiber optic cable or disrupting the twisting configuration of twisted pair cabling and potential or loss of performance on twisted pair cables or increased crosstalk.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of pulling cables which either reduces or eliminates the need for wrapping of a tape around the cable(s) thereby providing faster set-up and dismantlement of cable pulling assemblies.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method which of pulling cables which removes the scrapping of a section of cable due to the cost or time in removing of a tape and/or residue on the cable arising from the from the use of the tape to bind the cable as part of a pulling assembly.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method which eliminates the requirement for coiling back cables resulting from the unspooling from cable storage, e.g. cable boxes or cable drums, of longer sections than required where the correct length is unspooled by implementing a distributed staggered configuration of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a cable pulling device which minimizes the number of stocks keeping units (SKU's) required and associated spares whereby the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention supports pulling operations of bundles of cables containing more than one cable by daisy-chaining multiple instances of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention within a single daisy chain or multiple daisy chains in parallel to one another.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of reducing an overall length of a daisy chain of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention by employing multiple daisy chains in parallel.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention with a helical groove of a shape which is designed according to different cable geometries like round, square, rectangle, peanut shape flat drop, figure-eight Siamese cables, hybrid cables, duplex cables, cable arrays, etc.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention which can pull different cable geometries at the same time with multiple grooves or grooves of multiple configurations in the depth or lateral axis
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention which can secure the cable geometry in one groove and its aramid strength member, or rope, in another groove of the same apparatus, where the grooves are helically formed in the apparatus.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention wherein helically formed grooves in the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention intersect with other grooves thereby allowing aramid strength members of the cables or an aramid rope of a cable to transition from a cable groove to a rope groove or vice-versa.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising one or more cable groove(s) and no rope grooves wherein an attachment of one or more aramid strength members is made by knotting the aramid strength members around the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention using one or more knots such as anti-slip knots whereby the aramid strength members upon pulling the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention do not crush the cable which is secured inside a groove of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising one or more rope grooves where aramid rope or aramid strength members of the cable are locally attached or passed through to form a common rope across a daisy chain of pulling devices according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising two or more cable grooves formed helically around an outer surface of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprising two or more cable grooves formed helically around an outer surface of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention wherein the pulling device supports multiple cable geometries.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention with cable grooves which intersect one another within the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention allowing a cable groove to accept a cable stripped to one or more aramid strength members wherein the aramid strength members transition into a rope groove at an interim location along the length of the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention between the ends of the cable pulling device such that the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention comprises at least a profiled end for reducing likelihood of the pulling device catching and/or allow for reduced gap between two cable grooves formed upon the pulling device to accommodate a pull rope between the two cable grooves.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of daisy chaining a series of pulling devices according to embodiments of the invention in order to provide an M×N staggered configuration where a first pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention with M grooves serves to pull cables attached to the pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention each with N cable grooves, thus allowing pulling of M×(N−1) cables in a single pulling operation.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method for adding common rope through a daisy-chain of pulling devices according to embodiments of the invention without need for providing one or more anti-slip-knots on each pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention whereby a common pull rope is being unspooled from the opposite direction as the cables are being unspooled as the daisy chain gets assembled and where the common rope is wound forward, then backward, then forward again across first, second and then first rope grooves thus avoiding the requirement to dismantle or break the common pull rope to create the one or more anti-slip-knots onto pulling device according to an embodiment of the invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided an apparatus which enables the pulling operation to be implemented entirely dielectrically without any metal part, allowing pulling to be done inside epoxy covered conduits without scratching them or in explosive environments.
Beneficially the embodiments of the invention reduce the prior art approaches of cutting cables, bundling them together with tape and then applying a prior art tool such as a Kellem grip for example. Such prior art approaches being time consuming and wasteful of cable.
Within the preceding description with respect to embodiments of the invention reference has been made to aramid (aromatic polyamide) yarns (AYs) forming part of cables to provide strength members. Common aramid yarns are known by brand names including Kevlar™, Nomex™, and Twaron™. However, it would be evident that the embodiments of the invention may support other cables using other strength members including, but not limited to, metallic fibers, ceramic fibers, carbon fibers, phenolic resin fibers, glass fibers, and other polymer fibers.
Within the preceding description with respect to embodiments of the invention reference has been made to a groove or grooves within an outer surface of embodiments of the invention. These have been depicted as having cross-sectional geometries that are circular. However, it would be evident that within other embodiments of the invention the cross-sectional geometry may be square, rectangular, polygonal, regular, irregular etc. provided that it enables the insertion and/or retention of a cable, strength member(s), pulling rope etc. to the groove. Such grooves may also be referred to as slots, recesses etc. without departing from the scope of the invention.
Within the embodiments of the invention described above in respect of helical grooves within an MC-PA the high gripping force of the Pas, referred to hereinafter as a helical cable pulling attachment, are a reduced case of a cable being pulled out of a conduit with multiple bends in series with the specificity of an abnormally high fill factor approaching 100% (i.e. cable outer diameter is equal to the conduit inner diameter). A better analogy is that of attempting to pull a conduit away from the cable by attaching one end of the cable and pulling on the conduit. By winding the cable into the helical groove, it is as if the not pulled into the conduit, but pressed into the conduit from a slot at the top. The friction forces due to the multiple bends prevent the conduit from sliding away from the cable. Now, given that the conduit is helical (a helical groove), the bend radius per unit length of the cable is increased. The opening in the slot of the U-shaped entry in the groove represents a reduction of the “pipe area.” From a materials perspective, the cable typically has a PCV sheath which if mated to a “slicker” plastic in the forming the helical groove in the cable pulling attachment, would also naturally affect the effective coefficient of friction.
Whereas a single cable contacts the bottom of the-U shaped groove or the cable below another cable in the case of a groove with multiple cables stacked onto one another this affects the coefficient of friction which becomes a function of the cable contacting the walls of the U-shaped groove and surfaces of the cables above and below
Whereas a cable or multiple cables in a stack contact the walls of a re-entrant U-shaped groove, this results in a decrease of the frictional forces (when compared to a round conduit enclosing the cable) due to the “conduit” having less of a “slot” at the top and bottom of the top and the middle cable or cables in a stack (e.g., the 2nd of 3, the 2nd & 3rd of 4, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of 5 cables, etc.).
Within embodiments of the invention the pitch of the helical groove within each advancement of the rotational angle of the helix may be continuous or it may vary.
The number of revolutions per unit of distance of the helical groove (also referred to as a “helix”) also impacts both the effective grip force of the helical cable pulling attachment as well as the imprint on the cable after being removed from the helical groove of the helical cable pulling attachment. A complete 360 degrees revolution in the helix which would occur across too great of a distance would reduce drastically the conversion of linear forces into compressive/friction forces rendering the grip force of the helical cable pulling attachment ineffective. Accordingly, the inventors have determined that for a 4.8 mm cable, the 4.8 mm wide helical groove in the cable pulling attachment should complete 720 degrees of revolution in about 8 centimeters in a diameter of 9 millimeters, providing a good balance between a) the compactness of the helical cable pulling attachment, b) its gripping force, and c) the imprint left onto the cable when removing it from the helical cable pulling attachment.
The helix can have a variable pitch within the limitations that too small of a pitch will leave an imprint or damage the cable beyond its minimum bend radius, and too large of a pitch will nullify the gripping force of the helical cable pulling attachment.
The compactness of the helical cable pulling attachment allows it to go across a conduit with a sharp bend radius.
The helix can be advantageously configured to case in and case out such as to transition a groove such that it begins or ends co-linear to the pulling axis at either distal end of the helical cable pulling attachment to then make its way within the limits of the minimum bend radius of the cable into a helix with a diameter which also respects the minimum bend radius of the cable inserted into the helical groove.
The helix can be right-handed or left-handed, without impact on the performance of the helical cable pulling attachment.
It may be possible for the helical groove of a re-entrant U-groove shape to be flattened onto a surface, for example, an S shape with large or small bend radius (too small a bend radius will create a cable pinch point which may damage it irreversibly) and rely strictly on the friction within the U-groove to provide the pull grip rather than the constriction force stemming from the linear pull force being converted to a compression force within the helical groove or grooves. Then the flattened surface may become the surface of an N-degree polygonal body (one S per side on 6 sides, 2 S per side on a triangle, etc.)
It may be possible for the re-entrant U shaped groove to be nearly closed at the top such as that when pressing the cable in the groove, the cable will disappear into the groove
It may be possible to employ grooves of different width, such as to enable pulling different cable types at the same time within the same MC-PA.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment may have groove paths that change into a counter-rotating helix thus breaking the slip out motion or providing a start point that avoids the cable from slipping as it is placed into a groove. Such a reversal of helix rotation being depicted in
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment may have a cone shaped end in the same way one skilled in the art of cable pulling would stagger multiple cables pulled with a rope such as to create a coned nose geometry facilitating the pulling and avoiding the head from catching on obstacles.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment may have a first portion of the groove in the axis of the cable state from portion of the groove with a roof over it, thus preventing the cables from ejecting outside of the groove.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment will usually one or more helical groove path(s) which is (are) cased in or cased out or both to a longitudinal path that is in the same axis as the pull, thus avoiding a pinching point by a sharp bend from the axis of the helix path to a longitudinal path in the axis of the pull.
It may be possible to revolve the helical groove about the center of the cable pulling attachment without the groove going deeper than the center, thus ensuring that there is no open central channel, thereby not reducing the pulling force.
It may be possible to relax the grip force of the cable pulling attachment by diminishing the amplitude where the U shape groove or re-entrant U shape groove is deeper than the center point of the Cable Pulling Attachment, which results in a reduction of the amplitude of the helical path and thus decreases the pulling grip accordingly.
Whereas one of the channels is about the same diameter as the cable and revolves around the helical path forming a linear hollow path through the helix, this allows pulling the cable following that channel first and making it then possible to pull all other cables, like a castle of cards falling. In a Groove of 3 cables, pulling the middle cable, which if following the center of the Helix, achieves this.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment groove design can be multiple times re-entrant with an opening of about 120-degrees, not only at the top, but at the transition from one cable to another cable stacked atop one another in the same groove, allowing each cable stacked to snap in place in each depth position of the same groove, noting that the groove may not need to be entirely vertical and be curved, allowing an optimal off-center path if required, and minimizing the overall diameter of the cable pulling attachment.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment groove design can accommodate a Siamese cable design which is a figure 8 style, such as a bigger coaxial bottom of the 8 and a smaller optical fiber top of the 8, which can fit upside down inside the groove, where the bottom of the groove would accommodate the optical fiber portion of the figure 8 cable and the top portion of the groove would accommodate the coaxial cable portion of the figure 8 cable.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment may allow grooves to intersect one another provided that the crossing is only employed once at a set cable depth in the groove.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment need not having a perfectly round shape on the exterior, for instance it may be octagonal, preventing the attachment from rolling on the table like a Pelican police flashlight. The outer shape could also be having the same kinds of bumps found on a golf club handle providing a more comfortable hand feel than a simple flat cylinder.
It may be possible for a Cable Pulling Attachment with N grooves of M cables to fit into another Cable Pulling Attachment of N groves of M cables, which would have a cavity for a first cable pulling attachment to fit inside. The first would be pulled by the 2nd. And so on . . . .
It would be possible for a first cable pulling attachment of N groove of M cables to fan-out the cable exit such as to accommodate the size of a daisy-chained additional pulling attachment to be pulled at the back of a first one like a train pulling multiple wagons.
It would be possible for the pulling rod attached to the last Cable Pulling Attachment to be traversing through all parent Cable Pulling Attachments, such as to allow that pulling on the last one pulls all parent ones at the same time, and so on. It would also be possible to add other interim pulling locations as well.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment may be manufactured with additive manufacturing with resin or filament printers, metal printing, or machined with its groove patterned with a 4-or-greater-axis CNC mill, with injection molding through advanced dissolvable cores or very economically with a plastic extruder with a rotating die synchronized with the extrusion speed.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment with one or many grooves, with or without a cavity for a connector, may be co-linear, permanently, or temporarily attached to a pulling or pushing stick.
A Helical Cable Pulling Attachment may employ a U shape groove or re-entrant U shape which fully subsumes the cable or cables in the groove when manufactured into a softer elastomer which will spring back and cover the U cavity entrance.
Embodiments of the invention support a method for inserting a cable into a groove of a helical cable pulling attachment by winding the cable around the helical cable pulling attachment, thus gradually inserting it into the groove minimizing the cable cross-section contacting the walls of the groove.
Embodiments of the invention support a method for inserting subsequent cables into the same groove of a helical cable pulling attachment by winding a subsequent atop another cable already present in the groove, thus gradually inserting a subsequent cable minimizing the cable cross-section contacting the walls of the groove.
Embodiments of the invention support a method removing a cable from a helical cable pulling attachment by unwinding it from a groove of the helical cable pulling attachment.
Embodiments of the invention support a method removing a cable from a helical cable pulling attachment removing the cable which is most colinear with the center of the helix first, thus creating an escape channel for all other cables subsequently by pulling the cables left and right of the cable closest to the center, drawing cables towards the center and allowing them to be easily removed.
Multiple cable pulling attachments with cavities for connectors may be combined and staggered linearly within a single body with a single pulling head, making it possible to pull multiple pre-terminated cables at the same time.
Whereas any of the methods described above may serve the purpose of cable storage or cable transportation device, where the cable or cables would be wound inside one or a plurality of helical grooves for storage or transportation rather than cable pulling, taking advantage of the many disclosures in the present application.
A cable wound in a helical groove of a length equal or greater than the cable itself, would never wind onto itself like on a cable drum, thus never risk entangling when unspooling the cable from the helical groove.
It may be possible to use the helical groove to build a pre-terminated cable storage device such as a USB to Lightning cable, where the groove terminates onto cavity matching the connector size.
In a cable storage device for wired headphones such as the famous Apple™ wired EarPods, which have a Y-junction linking the common sheath connecting into the phone and the two separate sheaths going into each car. For this device, the Y-junction could be middle of the Cable Storage Attachment which would employ one helical groove for storing the single sheath with the 3.5 mm or lightning connector at the end and 2 separate helical groove on the other side of the middle section storing the Y shape, for each sheath of each earbud.
The FOC-PA and EC-PA according to embodiments of the invention transfers the tension from its head, from the pulling stick or pulling cable etc., to its boot bonded onto the PC sheath and therefore to the cable sheath. Whilst at the present time over molding is common for electrical cables it has at the present times, not yet been proven convenient for fiber optic cables. Hence at this point in time fiber optic pre-terminated cable assemblies are typically manufactured within the connector boots bonded onto the pre-terminated cable sheath such as through injection molding mechanisms. However, such over molding of connector boots on fiber optical cables can be envisioned in the future. Accordingly, it would be possible for fiber optic pre-terminated cable assemblies to be manufactured for easier pulling through use of the described FOC-PA according to this new embodiment, which would allow for the pulling force applied to be transferred onto a fiber-optic PC sheath through a fiber-optic connector which has a connector boot over molded or otherwise bonded to the fiber-optic PC sheath with sufficient bonding strength.
Within the preceding description the FOC-PA and EC-PA has been described with respect to fiber optic cables and electrical uniaxial cables except for reference to Cat 8 cable. However, embodiments of the invention may be applied to electrical twisted pair pre-terminated cables such as Cat 6A, 7 as well as Cat 8, required for greater 10GBaseT distances, 25GBaseT and 40GBaseT, also have a rounder and harder sheaths, which makes it possible for an EC-PA to clamp on those cable sheaths. Embodiments of the invention may also be applied to twin-axial cables used in direct attach and break out cables for datacenter applications. Embodiments of the invention may also be employed with fiber optic cables with two or more optical fibers with a multi-fiber connector.
Within the preceding description the FOC-PA and EC-PA has been described with respect to fiber optic cables and electrical uniaxial cables which are terminated with a connector. However, it would be evident that alternate embodiments of the invention may support pulling of unterminated cables or that the pulling attachment may support housing multiple connectors.
Specific details are given in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.
Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
This patent application claims the benefit of priority as a 371 national phase entry application of PCT/CA2023/050095 filed Jan. 26, 2023; which itself claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application 63/408,254 filed Sep. 20, 2022; the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application 63/371,778 filed Aug. 18, 2022; the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application 63/366,978 filed Jun. 24, 2022; the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application 63/352,884 filed Jun. 16, 2022; and the benefit of priority from U. S. Provisional Application filed 63/267,169 filed Jan. 26, 2022.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2023/050095 | 1/26/2023 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63408254 | Sep 2022 | US | |
| 63371778 | Aug 2022 | US | |
| 63366978 | Jun 2022 | US | |
| 63352884 | Jun 2022 | US | |
| 63267169 | Jan 2022 | US |
