The invention relates to a cable tie with hybrid fixed and hinged locking mechanisms to achieve a high loop tensile strength and low insertion force.
Cable ties are well-known for use in bundling objects such as cable bundles. Integral one-piece cable ties typically include a cable tie head with a strap insertion passageway that extends perpendicular to the strap. However, some cable tie heads have an in-line strap insertion passageway that is parallel to the strap. These in-line cable ties often have a lower head profile. Either type of one-piece cable tie typically includes either a fixed wedge locking mechanism that mates with teeth on a single side of the cable tie strap or a hinged flexible wedge locking mechanism that hingedly mates with teeth on a single side of the cable tie strap.
Fixed wedge designs can achieve high loop tensile strength compared to flexible hinge wedge designs, but at the expense of a high thread insertion force. Fixed wedge designs having a single set of teeth on one side typically have a small passline clearance through the cable tie head in order to ensure loop tensile strength by maintaining connection between the fixed wedge teeth and teeth on the strap. To work effectively, this typically involves an interference fit of the strap body and teeth with the internal passageway of the head. This results in a high insertion force problem. Because of this, many fixed wedge cable tie designs require use of a tool for cable tie installation.
Flexible hinge wedge designs can achieve a lower thread insertion force because the passline clearance can be effectively increased. The flexible hinged wedge pivots out of the way during strap insertion. However, upon an attempt to withdraw the strap, the teeth of the hinged locking wedge engage corresponding teeth in the strap and urge the hinged locking wedge mechanism downward into tighter engagement with the strap and a bottom wall of the cable tie head. Thus, upon attempted withdrawal, the effective passline clearance is reduced. However, because of the flexible hinge, this type of locking mechanism typically has lower loop tensile strength compared to a fixed locking wedge.
Currently, there are no in-line threading cable ties that achieve the required tensile strength in the electrical contractor market without an excessive thread force. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a cable tie having the strength of a fixed wedge part and the thread force of a moving wedge part.
An aspect of the invention is to provide an improved cable tie, preferably an in-line style cable tie, that can achieve a high loop tensile strength and a low thread insertion force. In particular, the invention can achieve up to about 60% higher loop tensile strength than a conventional hinged locking wedge cable tie while achieving up to about a 70-75% decrease in thread insertion force compared to a conventional fixed locking wedge cable tie.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a cable tie with hybrid locking mechanism includes a hinged locking wedge engaging a series of teeth on one side of the strap body and a fixed locking wedge engaging a series of teeth on an opposite side of the strap body.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a cable tie with hybrid locking mechanism provides fixed locking wedge teeth on a bottom side of the internal passageway of the locking head and hinged locking wedge teeth on a top side of the internal passageway of the internal passageway of the locking head.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a cable tie with hybrid locking mechanism provides the hinged locking wedge laterally offset from the fixed locking wedge in the direction of strap insertion.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a cable tie with hybrid locking mechanism has an increased head length to isolate tensioning and cutoff of the strap from the locking wedges. This results in a cable tie design that is more tolerant of abusive installation practices.
In accordance with additional aspects of the invention, the cable tie has substantial flexibility due to the strap teeth being provided on both sides of the cable tie body.
Various disclosed exemplary embodiments of a cable tie will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein:
As best illustrated in
Retention of strap 150 within the head is achieved by a hybrid locking device comprising a hinged locking wedge 120 provided on one of the top and bottom sides of the passageway and a fixed locking wedge 130 provided on an opposite side of the passageway. In a preferred illustrated embodiment, hinged locking wedge 120 is provided on the top side of passageway 114 and the fixed locking wedge 130 is located on the bottom side. This allows for a passageway that is closer to the bottom of cable tie head 110, because the fixed locking wedge 130 can be formed with a smaller thickness since it does not need clearance for pivotal hinged movement as does hinged locking wedge 120. This enables the portion of strap 150 exiting egress 116 of the head to lie substantially flat on top of the remainder of strap 150. However, the orientation of the locking wedges can be reversed.
As discussed above, there are problems with each of the typical flexible hinged locking wedge and fixed locking wedge designs. However, because cable tie head 110 provides a hybrid locking mechanism with both locking mechanism types, it achieves benefits from both locking wedge designs. These advantages will be described with reference to
Ingress opening 112 and egress opening 116 have a height H1 that provides an increased passline clearance relative to the thickness T1 of strap 150. That is. H1 is sufficiently larger than T1 to allow strap 150 to readily pass through passageway 114 with little or no interference. Moreover, because hinged locking wedge 120 is hinged for movement away from passageway 114 during insertion of tail 140 and strap 150 into the passageway, locking wedge 120 also does not create a large impediment to strap insertion. See, for example, movement of wedge 120 from the static position in
Upon suitable tightening of strap 150 about a bundle 50 as shown in
Once strap 150 has been tightened, a withdrawal force in direction W acts on the cable tie. This urges the hinged locking wedge 120 downward into tighter engagement with strap 150 as shown in
Although locking wedges 120, 130 should each include at least one tooth 122, 132, improved loop tensile strength can be achieved if multiple teeth 122, 132 are provided on each locking wedge since each tooth carries load. A preferred embodiment provides four teeth 122 on hinged locking wedge 120 and four teeth 132 on fixed locking wedge 130. This number has been found sufficient to provide strength comparable to currently available products. Additional teeth may attain higher tensile strength, but at diminishing return and at the expense of added material, cable tie head size, etc.
In a preferred embodiment, the hinged locking wedge 120 is located with its teeth 122 offset from teeth 132 of fixed locking wedge 130, most preferably completely non-overlapping. Preferably, the hinged locking wedge is located adjacent ingress 112. This has several advantages. First, this design requires less complicated tooling and molding procedures to mold the separate locking wedge components than when the components are directly opposed one another. This is particularly beneficial for high volume manufacturing. Additionally, this can assist in lowering thread insertion force as the forces from each locking wedge do not act on the same part of the elongated strap 150 at the same time and can allow some slight bending of the travel path.
An added benefit of the double-sided teeth 152, 154 on the elongated strap, besides increased loop tensile strength, is all increase in strap flexibility due to the teeth and associated reduced material and cross-sectional area.
It should be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other cable ties and applications. Also, various presently unseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein which may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
This application claims priority to Provisional Patent Application No. 60/771,711, filed Feb. 9, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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