Patent Application
20140223696
This invention relates generally to apparatus for securely maintaining plural elongated members in a tight bundle, and is particularly directed to a cable tie arrangement which is easily attached to, and provides high strength restriction/confinement of, the cables.
Bundle fasteners are used to engage and prevent relative movement between plural elongated members. One type of bundle fastener is a cable tie commonly used to maintain elongated members such as insulated conductors, or cables, in a tight bundle. This type of cable tie is in the form of an elongated, flexible strap typically comprised of a synthetic plastic material having on a first end thereof a housing with a slot therein which is adapted to receive a second, opposed end of the strap. Disposed along one surface of the strap is a linear array of first spaced teeth, while disposed within and defining a portion of the slot of the housing is an inner array of second spaced teeth. When the strap is looped back upon itself and its second end is inserted into the slot in the housing on the strap's first end, the first and second sets of teeth are drawn into, and maintained in, tight fitting engagement.
These types of cable ties are increasingly used for engaging and restraining larger numbers of cables having a corresponding greater weight requiring a greater restraining force. As the strength requirements of these types of tying arrangements have increased, the likelihood of damaging or deforming the mutually engaging sets of teeth has also increased resulting in increased failure rates. The strength and rigidity of the individual teeth is limited in currently available bundle tie arrangements by the requirement to slide one set of teeth over the other set during positioning of the tie arrangement about and in contact with the members to be restrained. Many current approaches include a positioning member movable between a lowered use position to engage the strap teeth and a raised position to release the pivoting member, or pawl, from between the strap teeth in releasing the tie. The pivoting pawl is the weakest part of this type of cable tie arrangement and the most likely to fail during use. In addition, space restrictions limit the size of the individual teeth and the coupling strength of current arrangements.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned problems and limitations of the prior art by providing a cable tie arrangement with increased coupling strength between the mutually engaging sets of teeth, as well as flexibility in the cable tie receptacle housing to facilitate secure engagement of multiple sets of teeth without deforming or breaking individual teeth.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved cable tie which provides increased restraining force on the elongated members maintained by the tie in a bundle, facilitates insertion of the cable tie's free end into its retaining housing, reduces the risk of unintended release of the cable tie, and does not employ any moving parts in the engagement between the cable tie's free end and its retaining housing.
It is another object of the present invention to facilitate, as well as increase the extent of, engagement between abutting teeth in a cable tie and to correspondingly increase the force required to break open the tie and release the restrained cables.
A further object of the present invention is to provide for the mutual engagement of multiple sets of teeth in a strap-type securing device such as, for example, a cable tie without the use of any pivoting component thus eliminating this common source of cable tie failure to provide increased restraining strength, reliability and longevity.
The present invention is directed to apparatus for engaging and fixedly positioning plural elongated members in lengthwise alignment, the apparatus comprising: a flexible elongated band having first and second opposed ends and first and second opposed outer surfaces and adapted for positioning about and engaging the plural aligned elongated members; first plural teeth disposed in a spaced manner along the first surface of said band; a housing formed integrally with, and disposed on the second end of, the band, said housing having plural inner surfaces defining an elongated slot in the housing and adapted to receive the first end of the band in sliding engagement when the band is looped back upon itself; and second plural teeth disposed on an inner surface of the housing and forming a portion of the slot in said housing, wherein respective pairs of the first and second plural teeth are adapted for mutual engagement in abutting contact for maintaining the plural elongated members in fixed position and lengthwise alignment relative to one another; wherein each of the adjacent first and second teeth arranged in abutting contact includes a respective tapered edge portion, and wherein adjacent tapered edge portions of abutting first and second teeth extend in opposing directions and are arranged in an overlapping manner with one another along the length of the band to provide increased coupling strength engagement between adjacent abutting teeth.
The appended claims set forth those novel features which characterize the invention. However, the invention itself, as well as further objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where like reference characters identify like elements throughout the various figures, in which:
Referring to
Referring to the perspective and partially cutaway perspective views of
The cable tie arrangement's receptacle housing 18 and its band portion 16 are preferably in the form of a unitary structure comprised of a plastic material, such as polypropylene. Receptacle housing 18 is generally rectangular in shape and includes an inner elongated slot 54 extending the length of the housing and generally rectangular in cross-section. Receptacle housing 18 includes first and second lateral walls 20, 22, a top panel 38, and a floor panel 40, all of which are generally planar. Band portion 16 is highly resilient and flexible, while housing 18 is more rigid because of its rectangular shape, but also possesses resilience in its lateral walls 20, 22 and top and floor panels 38, 40. This resilience allows the top and floor panels 38, 40 to flex slightly as the edges of first teeth 30 and the edges of second teeth 62 in the form of first, second and third teeth arrays 52a, 52b and 52c pass over one other in the cable tie during closure of the cable tie. This flexibility in the cable tie's receptacle housing is, however, limited to ensure the application of full force engagement between the interlocking teeth upon the application of a force on the cable tie arrangement 10. Disposed within the top panel 38 and arranged in a spaced array are first, second and third upper apertures 42, 44 and 46. Similarly, disposed along the length of the housing's floor panel 40 are first, second, third and fourth lower apertures 43, 45, 47 and 49. Disposed between adjacent upper apertures are first-fourth top panel cross members 48a-48d, while disposed in a spaced manner and forming the floor panel 40 are first-fourth floor panel cross members 50a-50d. Disposed on the respective upper surfaces of the second through fourth floor panel cross members 50b, 50c and 50d are respective second teeth 62 in the form of first, second and third teeth arrays 52a, 52b and 52c.
When the first tapered end portion 12 of the band portion 16 is inserted into the elongated slot 54 extending the length of the receptacle housing 18 as shown in the cross-sectional view of
As shown in greater detail in the lower enlarged portion of
Another advantage of the present invention is in the use of plural spaced floor panel cross members 50a-50d, where the upper, inner portions of three of these cross members are provided with first, second and third tooth arrays 52a, 52b and 52c. By segmenting the floor panel 40 of the receptable housing 18, the individual floor panel cross members have some flexibility and are able to undergo limited downward displacement as viewed in
Referring to
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the relevant arts that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects. For example, while the present invention has been described primarily in terms of a cable tie arrangement, it could be as equally as well for tying together in a secure manner plural elongated members having virtually any cross sectional shape and virtually any composition. Therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications that fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation. The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.
