The present description relates generally to junction or distribution boxes, such as for example, electrical junction boxes, and more particularly to a junction or distribution box with integrated conduit supports. The subject boxes also form part of a larger integrated building system that is the subject of a separate, related application identified herein.
Junction boxes, such as, for example, electrical junction boxes are commonly installed above suspended or grid ceilings, or are exposed in order to provide secure enclosures for wiring and/or other connections so as to supply the various wiring needs including, for instance, electrical devices, network devices, lights, fans, outlets, etc.
One of the most commonly used electrical junction box is the classic 4×4 box, which is well known in the art. These common boxes typically have limitations in terms of the number of individual conduits that can enter and leave the box, limiting, for instance, their capacity and their arrangement based upon knockout orientation. Larger boxes with additional knockout arrangements are used especially in commercial construction where electrical and/or other wiring requirements, e.g., main power, back-up power, telecom/communications/networking, etc., of typical floors and rooms are upwards of twice that of other non-commercial establishments.
The installation of wiring, such as electrical wiring, in construction is typically subject to various building codes, such as the National Electrical Code (NEC) in order to assure safe, trouble free operation. For instance, in one NEC requirement, wiring must be run in protective conduit with all of the connections made within junction boxes that provide both protection and access. In these examples, both the conduit and the boxes must be securely mounted to structural supports and supported in accordance with the National Electrical Code. The junction boxes and conduit are placed at an elevation which allows room for ceiling segments to be lifted up and removed from their hanging framework to provide access for future maintenance. The electrical installation is supported in much the same manner as the suspended ceiling, by hangers anchored to the steel or concrete of the floor above.
The amount of time and materials required to install conduit in compliance with national and local building codes can be substantial. For example, national building codes tend to insist that conduit emerging from a box have some form of support within three feet of the box; such codes also require that a strap or other support be present along every ten feet of the entire conduit length. In complex installations, such as hospital rooms, there are often requirements for several different types of conduit systems. For example, normal power may be supplied by one set of conduit(s) and junction boxes, while emergency “back-up” power may be delivered via an independent, separate set of conduit. Further, telecommunications might have its own conduit system, all of these leading around the ceiling and/or walls of a single room.
Traditionally, support straps required by code take an experienced installer upwards of about twenty minutes to measure, cut, drill, assemble, and attach to an acceptable concrete or other attachment point. A common, complex commercial development with approximately fourteen to sixteen hanging conduit supports to deck (for boxes/conduits) can, therefore, take an electrician a substantial amount of time to mount appropriately. Still further, the material of the straps/hanging method/anchors and tools to complete attachment points also involve additional cost.
One example junction box, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,332, provides for conduit support only for those conduits extending from the side walls of the junction box. As described, a flat plate is provided to which an electrical junction box is centrally mounted with the plate extending circumferentially beyond the sides of the junction box. Conduits entering the junction box are supported by conduit clamps attached to the extended portions of the plate by clamping proximate the periphery thereof so as to permit alignment of the conduit clamps with the entering conduit. The junction box, however, fails to provide an integrated conduit support for conduit emerging from the upper wall of the junction box, and furthermore fails to provide any structural support for mounting the junction to a ceiling or the like. Yet further, the described junction box requires additional hardware for installation and assembly of the separate parts.
As such, there is a demonstrable need for a junction box having an integrated conduit support system for supporting conduit emerging from both the side wall and the upper wall of the junction box as well as providing an improved support attachment for mounting the junction box to a proper support surface. Still further, there is a demonstrable need for a junction box that is part of an overall integrated software system that allows for multiple designs and configurations of conduit systems to provide ease of installation, add support means, and optimize routing.
The following description of example methods and apparatus is not intended to limit the scope of the description to the precise form or forms detailed herein. Instead the following description is intended to be illustrative so that others may follow its teachings.
Referring generally to
The example junction box 12 includes a top wall 24, four side walls 22, and a bottom wall 20 that is typically at least partially removable from the junction box 12 to provide access into the box for wiring, maintenance, etc. (see
To mount the bottom wall 20, in this example, the junction box 12 includes four corners 32 and bent-over flanges 34 including a plurality of threaded apertures to retain a suitable fastener such as a threaded fastener 28. Additionally, a plurality of apertures and/or knockouts 30 are located in the top wall 24 and/or the side walls 22. As shown in
The example assembly 10 also comprises the support plate 14, which in this example is mounted to the upper wall 24 of the junction box 12 via welding. As previously noted, the support plate 14 may be adhered to, integrally formed with, and/or otherwise mounted to the junction box 12. In this example, the support plate 14 is generally square in shape to correspond to the general shape of the junction box 12, although any other suitable shape, such as polygonal, circular, etc. may be suitably utilized. The example support plate 14 extends beyond the outer perimeter of the junction box 12, such that the support plate 14 generally forms a flange 14a extending outward from the side walls 22 of the junction box 12.
In this example, the formed flange 14a includes a plurality of apertures 40, such as threaded apertures and/or other suitable fastening mechanism to support a conduit 42 extending from the side walls 22. For instance, as best illustrated in
It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that while a single conduit 42 is illustrated as extending from the junction box 12, additional conduit may extend from any or all of the knockouts 30 as desired. Additionally, while in the present example the apertures 40 are illustrated as discreetly formed holes, it will be appreciated that the apertures 40 may be formed as channels, slots, and/or any other suitable opening as desired to allow for multiple configurations of conduit and conduit clamps as desired. For instance, a generally elongated slot may be utilized to allow for adjacent conduits to be adjusted and/or bent so as obviating interference with each other in adjacent clamps 48. Still further, as described in conjunction with
Referring again to
As further illustrated in
As noted, atop the downward-facing channel 70 are two mirror image horizontally facing channels 72. Each of the channels 72 extends generally parallel to the location of the knockouts 30 in the upper wall 24 of the junction box 12, which, in this instance, is generally linear. In addition, each of the example channels 72 includes an upper and lower lip and/or flange 74, 76 adapted to matingly support a conduit clamp 90, which similarly is a commercially available hardware item which may be clamped to the conduit 66 and mounted to the flanges 74, 76 defined in the channels 72 by channels 92 defined in the clamp 90. The conduit clamp 90 is then clamped to the conduit 66 distal from the upper wall 24 by any suitable fastener 94, including, for instance, a machine screw and nut. In this manner, any conduit extending from the upper side of the junction box 12 can be fully supported within the proper distance (e.g., within one to two inches from the junction box) as may be required by code. In addition, it will be understood that the ease in which the conduit clamp 90 may be installed within the channels 72 consequently allows the installer to forego any additional straps or investment of additional labor affixing such straps if the run of conduit emerging after the junction box 12 for at least ten feet so as to not exceed code standards (e.g., 10 feet).
While the support structure 16 is disclosed as a single down-facing channel 72 with a pair of outwardly facing channels 72, it will be understood that various other support structures may be utilized. For example, any of the channels 70, 72 may be formed as box tubes, cylinders, etc, with corresponding apertures for mounting the junction box and for supporting the conduit emerging from the upper wall of the junction box as described herein. Still further, the channels 70, 72 may be I shaped, J, shaped, etc. and/or the entire structure 16 may be a monolithic structure, (e.g., a single integrated structure).
As is best illustrated in
Still further, it will be understood that various methods of attaching the junction box assembly 10 to a support structure may be utilized. For example, the assembly could be supported by attaching a cable to the loop 96, by running a cable through the apertures 86, could be supported through a threaded rod and bolt through the pre-manufactured apertures 86, or any suitable combination of mounting processes. The flexibility provide by multiple attachment points allows for the single assembly 10 to be used in virtually all location regardless of varying attachment requirements.
While the above referenced assembly 10 is fully described and illustrated, it will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that various alternative shapes, sizes, and arrangements may be utilized without departing from the teachings of the present disclosure. For example, the size and/or shape of the junction box 12 and the arrangements of the knockouts 30 may be varied as desired. Similarly, the junction box 12 may be prefabricated for generic needs, or may be custom designed as desired. Likewise, the size and shape of the support plate 14 and/or the support bracket 16 may vary such that other shapes, sizes, and configuration of parts may suffice.
For instance, referring now to
Due to the support arrangements of the presently described example multi-conduit box assemblies, the boxes may advantageously be affixed essentially near the center of a room. For example, allowing lengths of conduit having pre-determined bends but being precisely calculated to enter a particular knockout port in the conduit box and to terminate at a particular attachment point down along a wall can be done in a way that no second additional straps are required because the box is placed to ensure that none (or a minimum amount) of the conduit exceeds the required code limitation, for having to add a strap anchored to the ceiling (e.g., ten feet).
By modeling the entirety of the conduit system, and using software such as that described in related co-pending U.S. Ser. No. 61/723,143, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, to calculate without human error all the various attachment and configuration points with this well thought out configuration, one can end up with pre-cut, pre-bent, pre-packaged pieces which can be shipped to the site and quickly assembled by the electricians at a much greater labor savings than is currently available. Moreover, because of the central location of the box/support within the center or above the center of the room ceiling, the runs of conduit at precise locations less than code limitations can thus eliminate the labor and additional straps and cut down on the type and quantity of tools required on-site.
An additional point to make is that the elated computer design system permits only prescribed elevations for the various types of electrical conduit systems that must be run. For example, general electrical power supply may be at a particular elevation, while emergency power is at a height sufficiently below that elevation so that conduit running from the two systems does not interfere with each other. Further below that might be the telecommunications and/or internet connectivity conduits. By setting and restricting the elevation ranges into tiers for the various runs of conduit, the computer eliminates what could be substantial deviations due to human judgment. The electrician does not face the case of trying to work around conduit that interferes with what he is working on. Instead, the tiers accommodate each pre-fabricated installation spec, and the box location in the central portion of the room further multiplies the efficiencies by having pre-fabricated, pre-determined distances for wall installations requiring a minimum of strapping.
This particular configuration of junction boxes and supports, having pre-determined tiered elevations and multiple but exact points of entry for conduit, work in concert with the related application describing a computerized system of calculating pre-fabricated runs of conduit and having machinery pre-bend and pre-package them for mass customization and delivery to large building sites.
It is, therefore, a distinct advantage of the present disclosure that the pre-determined, pre-fabricated junction box described herein that has punched holes in a specific configuration that can benefit anyone, the pre-drilled plate for straps, and having the cut away multi-attachment point channel system that adds to the overall system for improving and streamlining construction as part of a system.
Although certain example methods and apparatus have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.
This application is related to U.S. Patent Application No. 61/723,143 entitled “System and Method to Streamline Building Constructions,” filed Nov. 6, 2012, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61723143 | Nov 2012 | US |