Patent Application
20140215830
1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to the art of cable processing tools. More particular, the disclosure relates to a safe cutting tool for producing slits in medium and large-diameter cable in a safe and efficient manner.
2. Prior Art Discussion
The manufacturing process of electrical cable is completed when the integrity, i.e., continuity of a cable is verified. Typically, medium-to-large diameter cables are spooled on rigs. To conduct the test, a free end of the cable is stripped.
Typical cutting tools used for stripping of the cable's jacket include exacto or utility knives configured with an unprotected blade. Recent safety regulations have been enacted to dissuade the use of these tools to reduce knife-related injuries.
The safety issue was addressed by by a blade assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,479 commonly owned with the present application and fully incorporated herein by reference. The disclosed blade assembly is configured to prevent contact between the operator and blade. However, as practice shows, while the blade assembly certainly meets safety requirements, the cuts produced by this assembly may be somewhat improved for the following reasons.
The majority of electrical cables are fabricated by extruding a jacket over the conductor's core. During this process the core and jacket are bonded to one another. Before cables are connected, the jacket, which is made from thick and tough plastics or rubberized resin, should be removed. However, this task, as one of ordinary skill in the art knows, is time and effort consuming.
As a thin sharp blade cuts an elongated slit through the jacket along the cable's longitudinal axis or produces a circular cut, the material tends to close up behind the blade. To find the slit after cutting is very difficult. When detected, the jacket is difficult to peel off by commonly used pliers.
Therefore, another need exists for a new cutting tool facilitating the removal of a jacket off the cable.
The tool designers often try to configure tools capable of performing either multiple tasks or the same task for differently dimensioned objects. Typically, any manufacturing industry deals with a great variety of differently dimensioned cables. However, the adjustment of the same cutting tool for performing the same cutting operation for variously dimensioned cables is either impossible, necessitating the use of multiple tools, or complicated.
A further need therefore exists for a cutting tool provided with a guide mechanism which is configured to adjust the tool quickly and to operate in an efficient manner with variously dimensioned cables.
The above-discussed needs are satisfied by the present disclosure. The disclosed tool for slitting the cable's jacket is configured with an elongated supporting component which is structured to support a cable that may have various diameters. A further component of the tool is configured to bear a blade assembly and pivotally mounted on the cable supporting component to swing between a rest position and a cutting position in which the cable and blade supporting components extend in parallel planes. The tool is further structured with a guide mechanism coupled to the cable and blade supporting components, respectively, and operable to provide displacement between these components to accommodate cables of different outer diameters.
In accordance with one aspect of the disclosure, the blade assembly is mounted to the blade supporting component and includes multiple uniformly configured blades. The blades are spaced apart and straddle the longitudinal axis of the cable supporting component. As the blades simultaneously cut the jacket, two slits define a strip in the jacket which is easily detected and removed.
In accordance with a further aspect, the guide mechanism is configured with two spaced parallel arms displaceably fixed to the blade supporting component. One of the plates is configured to provide an incremental enlargement of the opening between the blade- and cable-supporting components which corresponds to the desired cable diameter. The other plate is slotted to guide the cable- and blade supporting components relative to one another along the desired linear path while the adjustment of the opening between these parts continues.
The above and other features and advantages of the disclosed structure will become more readily apparent from the following specific description accompanied by the drawings, in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the disclosure. Wherever possible, same or similar reference numerals are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts or steps. The drawings are in very simplified form and are not to precise scale.
Referring to
In operation, cable 22/24 is placed on cable support 12 whose position relative to blade supporting component 14 is adjusted by manipulating guide mechanism 14. The blade supporting component 14, which is swung outwards in the starting position, pivots back to its working position, in which cable and blade supporting components are substantially parallel to one another as better shown in
Referring to
The cable supporting component 12 is further configured with a flange 40 extending from one of webs 32 of bed 28 towards the bed's bottom in a plane generally perpendicular to axis A-A. The flange 40 may be a one-piece structure or, as shown in
The guide mechanism 16 includes a Z-shaped body having preferably, but not necessarily, a unitary structure configured with three plate-like elements 46, 48 and 50, respectively. Two plates 46 and 50, respectively, extend in substantially parallel planes, while element 48 bridges the former two plates. The upper plate-like element or shoulder 50 may have a variety of cross-sections and, as shown, is configured with a generally triangular cross-sectional shape. Provided with two opening 52, element 50 is detachably fastened to blade supporting component 14 by a shoulder rivet pivot 54 traversing shell 70. The relative position between blade supporting component 14 and guide mechanism 16 can be controlled by their relative displacement which leads to changing the position of rivet 55 along respective elongated slots 56 made in blade supporting component 14.
The plate component 46 of guide mechanism 16 is recessed to have two arms 58 and 60, respectively. The leg 58 is slotted to have a plurality of holes 62, whereas leg 60 includes a single elongated slot 64. The holes 62 are arranged to incrementally adjust a position of components 12 and 14, respectively, to accept cables of different diameters. As a thumb screw 66 traverses the desired hole 62, it is received in a press fit threaded bushing 68 formed in one of legs 42 of flange 40 of V-shaped support 26. The other thumb screw 66 is slidably guided along slot 64 and, as the desired position is set, it is fixed in another threaded bushing 68 provided in second leg 42.
Referring to
Turning to
Having described some of the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments and parameters. The configuration of the entire system is not limited to that shown and discussed above. Thus various changes, modifications, and adaptations may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention as disclosed above and claimed below.
