U.S. patent application number 17/567317 was filed with the patent office on 2022-06-16 for sealing device for feeding through filaments.
This patent application is currently assigned to COMMSCOPE CONNECTIVITY BELGIUM BVBA. The applicant listed for this patent is COMMSCOPE CONNECTIVITY BELGIUM BVBA. Invention is credited to Bart Mattie Claessens.
Application Number | 20220190576 17/567317 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 1000006171811 |
Filed Date | 2022-06-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20220190576 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Claessens; Bart Mattie |
June 16, 2022 |
SEALING DEVICE FOR FEEDING THROUGH FILAMENTS
Abstract
Sealing device for feeding through at least one filament, the
sealing device comprising a housing, having a seal block
compartment bounded by a front wall, a back wall, and side walls.
The front wall and the back wall each include several
correspondingly aligned slots having an open end at an open top
face of the seal block compartment. The sealing device additionally
comprising a seal block arranged in the seal block compartment. The
seal block includes slits being open sided towards the open sided
top face of the seal block compartment, each slit being aligned
with the correspondingly aligned slots in the front and back walls,
so that one can feed through a filament by sliding an intermediate
part of the filament from the open end into the slit and the
corresponding slots of the front and back wall.
Inventors: |
Claessens; Bart Mattie;
(Hasselt, BE) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
COMMSCOPE CONNECTIVITY BELGIUM BVBA |
Kessel-Lo |
|
BE |
|
|
Assignee: |
COMMSCOPE CONNECTIVITY BELGIUM
BVBA
Kessel-Lo
BE
|
Family ID: |
1000006171811 |
Appl. No.: |
17/567317 |
Filed: |
January 3, 2022 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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16796233 |
Feb 20, 2020 |
11217979 |
|
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17567317 |
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16251718 |
Jan 18, 2019 |
10574047 |
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16796233 |
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14128205 |
Mar 5, 2014 |
10186853 |
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PCT/EP2012/061773 |
Jun 20, 2012 |
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16251718 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H02G 3/088 20130101;
H02B 1/28 20130101; H02B 1/305 20130101; H02G 3/22 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H02G 3/22 20060101
H02G003/22; H02B 1/30 20060101 H02B001/30; H02G 3/08 20060101
H02G003/08 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jun 20, 2011 |
EP |
11170622.2 |
Claims
1-20. (canceled)
21. A sealing device for feeding through at least one filament, the
sealing device comprising: a one-piece housing, the one-piece
housing including a seal block compartment, having an open top face
and being laterally bounded by a front wall and an opposing back
wall and by a first side face and an opposing second side face, the
front wall including a slot aligned with a corresponding slot on
the back wall, wherein the slot of the front face has a first width
and wherein the corresponding slot on the back wall has a second
width that is wider than the first width; and a one-piece seal
block within the seal block compartment, the seal block including a
filament-receiving slit being open-sided towards the open top face
of the seal block compartment, the filament-receiving slit being
defined by a pair of opposing surfaces and being in alignment with
the slot on the front face and the corresponding slot on the back
wall.
22. The sealing device of claim 21, wherein the one-piece housing
further includes a stabilizing fin that projects outwardly from the
back wall in an orientation that is aligned parallel to the slot of
the back wall.
23. The sealing device of claim 22, wherein the one-piece housing
further includes a nose projecting outward from the back wall in an
orientation that is perpendicular to the stabilizing fin that
projects outwardly from the back wall.
24. The sealing device of claim 21, wherein each of the front wall,
the back wall, first side and second side includes an alignment
groove.
25. The sealing device of claim 21, wherein the front face and the
back wall each includes at least two slots and wherein the at least
two slots in the front face and back wall are parallel.
26. The sealing device of claim 21, wherein the seal block
comprises a conformingly sealable material.
27. The sealing device of claim 21, wherein seal block is
compressed by the first side face and the opposing second side face
bounding the seal block compartment.
28. The sealing device of claim 26, wherein the seal block is
compressed only by the first side face and the opposing second side
face of the seal block compartment.
29. A system comprising: a box having an housing-receiving slot,
the housing-receiving slot being laterally bounded within the box
by a front wall and an opposing back wall and by a first side and
opposing second side; a one-piece housing within the
housing-receiving slot, the one-piece housing including a seal
block compartment, having an open top face and being laterally
bounded by a front wall and an opposing back wall and by a first
side face and an opposing second side face, the front face
including a slot aligned with a corresponding slot on the back wall
of the one-piece housing, wherein the corresponding slot on the
back wall has a second width that is wider than the first width;
and a one-piece seal block within the seal block compartment, the
seal block including a filament-receiving slit being open-sided
towards the open top face of the seal block compartment, the
filament-receiving slit being defined by a pair of opposing
surfaces and being aligned with the slot on the front face of the
one-piece housing and the corresponding slot on the back wall of
the one-piece housing.
30. The system of claim 29, wherein the box has a plurality of
housing-receiving slots.
31. The system of claim 29, wherein the one-piece housing further
includes a stabilizing fin that projects outwardly from the back
wall in an orientation that is aligned parallel to the slot of the
back wall.
32. The system of claim 31, wherein the one-piece housing further
includes a nose projecting outward from the back wall in an
orientation that is perpendicular to the stabilizing fin that
projects outwardly from the back wall.
33. The system of claim 32, wherein the nose is securable to the
box.
34. The system of claim 29, wherein each of the front wall, the
back wall, first side face and second side of the on-piece housing
includes at an alignment groove that interfaces with a
corresponding alignment bar in the box.
35. The system of claim 29, wherein the front face and the back
wall of the one-piece housing each includes at least two slots and
wherein the at least two slots in the front face and back wall or
the one-piece housing are parallel.
36. The system of claim 29, wherein the seal block comprises a
conformingly sealable material that is compressed by the first side
face and the opposing second side face bounding the seal block
compartment.
Description
[0001] This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 16/796,233, filed 20 Feb. 2020, which is a
Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/251,718, filed
18 Jan. 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,574,047, which is a Continuation
of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/128,205, filed 5 Mar. 2014,
now U.S. Pat. No. 10,186,853, which is a National Stage Application
of PCT/EP2012/061773, filed 20 Jun. 2012, which claims benefit of
Ser. No. 11/170,622.2, filed 20 Jun. 2011 in Europe and which
applications are incorporated herein by reference. To the extent
appropriate, a claim of priority is made to each of the above
disclosed applications.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The invention relates to an apparatus for feeding through at
least one filament.
[0003] For many applications it is necessary to feed filaments
through a wall of a box or a casing. The filaments may for example
be optical fibers or electric cables. The filaments may also be
referred to as pigtails. Filaments may comprise for example a
single optical fiber or multiple optical fibers.
[0004] EP 0 531 172 B1 describes a possible feed through. Similar
arrangements are also known for fixating filaments inside a casing.
Such an arrangement is described for example in the documents US
2008/0042536 A1.
[0005] DE 199 61 244 CI describes a housing that has an opening
provided in one wall element of the housing body for locating a
carrier receiving a number of cooperating cable guides, provided
with seatings between their longitudinal sides for reception of
sealing elements for the cables, which are fitted between
cooperating notches along the longitudinal sides of the adjacent
cable guides. The cable guides are stacked and fixed to each other.
Therefore it is difficult to add or remove cables after initial
assembly.
[0006] DE 27 20 936 describes a sealing arrangement that uses two
sealing strips, which are deformed in a plastic manner, when these
sealing strips close an opening and seal cables fed through that
opening in the wall.
[0007] The document EP 0 368 445 A2 describes a comb-like support
structure for optical cords having slots of uniform width having
resiliently-compressible walls which grip frictionally the cords.
Intermediate portions of the cords are simply pushed into
corresponding slots from one end.
SUMMARY
[0008] It is an object of the present invention to provide an
improved apparatus for feeding through at least one filament.
[0009] According to the invention, a sealing device for feeding
through at least one filament is provided, the sealing device
comprising
[0010] a one-piece housing, said housing comprises a seal block
compartment being laterally bounded, wherein the seal block
compartment comprises an open top face and at least four slots,
wherein each slot has an open end at the open top face of the
sealblock compartment, wherein each one of the slot corresponds to
another one of the slots, wherein slots corresponding to each other
are aligned and located on opposite sides of the bounded seal block
compartment and
[0011] a one-piece seal block being arranged in the seal block
compartment, wherein the seal block comprises slits being open
sided towards the open sided top face of the seal block
compartment, each slit being aligned with two slots corresponding
to each other, so that one can feed through a filament by sliding
an intermediate part of the filament from the open end into the
slit and the corresponding slots in the seal block compartment.
[0012] According to the invention one embodiment of a sealing
device for feeding through at least one filament is provided, the
sealing device comprising
[0013] a housing, said housing comprises a seal block compartment
being laterally bounded by a front wall and a back wall being
spaced apart and opposite to each other, and side walls being
spaced apart and opposite to each other, said side walls joining
the front wall and the back wall, wherein the seal block
compartment has an open top face, wherein the front wall and the
back wall each comprise several slots having an open end at the
open top face of the seal block compartment, wherein each of the
slots in the front wall corresponds to and is aligned with a slot
in the back wall, and
[0014] a seal block being arranged in the seal block compartment,
wherein the seal block comprises slits being open sided towards the
open sided top of the seal block compartment, each slit being
aligned with one slots in the front wall and one slot in the back
wall, these two slots are corresponding to each other, so that one
can feed through a filament by sliding it from the open end into
the slit and the corresponding slots of the front wall and back
wall.
[0015] The advantage of such sealing devices is its compactness. It
is easy to add further filament to the seal block by just pushing
an intermediate part of a filament into one of the slits of the
sealing block. Also removal of one filament, several filaments or
all filaments is possible by just pulling them out of their
respective slit of the seal block. In case of need even the seal
block which might be deteriorated due to aging can be replaced
easily. Also assembly of the sealing device is easy. One just has
to insert the seal block via the open top face of the sealing block
compartment. One only has to caution to insert the seal block with
its bottom part, not having any slits, facing in the direction of
the bottom of the sealing block compartment. I.e. the open end of
the slits has to face in the same direction as the open ends of the
slots in the front wall and the back wall of the seal block
compartment. An installer does not need any extra sealing material
for each filament to be fed through. The slits and slots are
designed to receive several filaments in a stacked fashion each.
The term filament is used here for any type of cable, especially
optical cables comprising one single fiber or multiple optical
fibers. A filament can also be a ribbon of optical fibers. The
filament can be a fiber without cover elements, as well as a fiber
with a cover element. A cover element can be a jacket or any other
supporting or protecting element like KEVLAR.RTM. fibers, a sleeve,
a tube or the like.
[0016] In a preferred embodiment the several slots in the front
wall and the back wall are aligned in parallel. This way many slots
can be fitted in the front and the back wall. Obviously the slits
in the sealing block are also oriented parallel to each other in an
embodiment with parallel slots.
[0017] Preferably the slots are oriented perpendicular to the top
face of the sealing block compartment. In one embodiment the slots
extend in the front wall and back wall from the open top in a
direction towards a bottom of the seal block compartment.
Preferably there will be an offset between the bottom end of the
slots and an inner bottom face of the seal block compartment.
[0018] The slots are preferably U-shaped. The width of different
slots in the front wall may be different. In this way filaments of
different diameter may be fed through different slots.
[0019] Further in some embodiments at least for one set of slot
corresponding to each other in the front wall and the back wall the
width of the slots differs. I.e. the width of the slot in the front
wall is smaller than the width of the slot in the back wall or the
other way around. Usually the width of the slot that is facing to
the outside of a box or casing the seal device is incorporated or
inserted in is chosen as small as possible to minimize exposure of
the seal block to environmental influences. Usually the front wall
is chosen to be the outside wall. The wall facing inside is
providing slots having a larger width. By this weight and material
needed to manufacture the sealing device and the seal block
compartment can be reduced.
[0020] In a preferred embodiment the sealing block is made of a
resilient-compressible material. It has to conform to small
filaments to achieve a good sealing performance. On the other hand
friction when acting on the filament during insertion into the slit
has to be limited especially when the filament is an optical fiber,
for example a pigtail. Otherwise the fiber might be damaged when an
intermediate section of the fiber is pushed into the slit of the
sealing block.
[0021] Very good sealing effects as well as acceptable friction
coefficients have been found for closed cell foams. Therefore in a
preferred embodiment the seal block is a foam block.
[0022] To ease insertion of the filaments into a slit the opposing
surfaces at slit are tapered at the open end of the slit, i.e. at
the top of the seal block.
[0023] To achieve the desired sealing the opposing surfaces of each
slit are in contact with each other to provide a sealing of the
corresponding slot against moisture, dust and other environmental
influences.
[0024] In a preferred embodiment the seal block provides a sealing
of IP54 or better having none, one, or more filaments inserted into
each one of said slits up to a predefined maximum number of
filaments per slit. The number of filaments per slit is limited due
to the fact that the sealing block material has to enclose a
filament to achieve sealing. Thus there should remain a certain
distance between adjacent filaments to be filled by the sealing
material of the seal block. Slits can easily accept 25 or more
filaments.
[0025] It is advantageous to manufacture the sealing device as a
separate component rather than as an integral part of a wall of a
box or casing, though which filaments are to be fed. In a preferred
embodiment the housing comprises grooves and/or bars oriented in
parallel to the slots to mate with bars or grooves, respectively,
provided adjacent to a clearing in a wall of a box or casing to
enable a slid-in connection of the sealing device into that
wall.
[0026] Also for integration purposes it is preferred that the front
wall of the sealing compartment is part of the front wall of the
housing of the sealing device.
[0027] To reduce weight and material the housing of the sealing
device is preferably at least partly hallow. The back wall is open
or missing in large areas. This enables easy production of the
sealing device using injection molding or injection compression
molding.
[0028] In some embodiments the seal block is chosen to have a width
perpendicular to the slit directions that is greater than the
distance between the side walls of the seal block compartment. By
inserting the seal block in to the seal block compartment it is
compressed in the direction perpendicular to the slit directions.
This ensures that the opposing surfaces of the slits are pressed
into contact.
[0029] Preferably the seal block fills the complete lateral cross
section of the seal block compartment in each plane perpendicular
to the front wall. Thus a front face of the seal block abuts the
inner surface of the seal block compartment, the back face of the
seal block abuts the inner surface of the back wall and the side
faces abut the inner surfaces of the side walls.
[0030] In one embodiment the hosing is provided with at least one
bore. The bore can be used together with a tap hole in the box or
casing to fix the sealing device in said box or casing after
insertion.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0031] The invention will now be explained in greater detail with
reference to the Figures in which
[0032] FIG. 1 shows a perspective front view of a sealing device
according to a first embodiment;
[0033] FIG. 2 shows a perspective rear view of the sealing device
according to the first embodiment;
[0034] FIG. 3 shows a top view of the sealing device according to
the first embodiment;
[0035] FIG. 4 shows a perspective front view of the sealing device
according to a first embodiment depicting the feed through of a
filament;
[0036] FIG. 5 shows a perspective explosion of the sealing device
according to the first embodiment; and
[0037] FIG. 6 shows a cut-out of a box a sealing device is inserted
in.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0038] FIG. 1 shows a perspective front view of a sealing device
100. The sealing device comprises a housing 200. The housing has a
front face 210, a rear face 220, side faces 230, 240, a top face
250, and a bottom face 260.
[0039] The housing 200 comprises a seal block compartment 300. The
seal block compartment is laterally bounded by a front wall 310,
which is spaced apart from a back wall 320. The back wall is
opposite of the front wall 310. In the preferred embodiment the
front wall is part of the front face 210 of the housing 200. The
seal block compartment 300 is laterally bounded further by side
walls 330 and 340. The side walls 330, 340 are opposite to each
other and spaced apart. The side walls 330 and 340 join the front
wall 310 and the back 320 wall at their respective edges. Seal
block compartment 300 is provided with a bottom wall (not shown).
The seal block is open at the top face 350.
[0040] The front wall 310 comprises two slots 370, 380. These are
oriented in parallel to each other. They both comprise a U-Shape
and have an open end 375, 385, respectively. The slots 370, 380
extend from the top of the seal block compartment 350 in a
direction towards its bottom. Usually there is an offset between
the inner surface of the bottom wall and the closed end 376, 386 of
the slots 370, 380. The slots widths 371, 381 of the slots 370, 380
are kept as small as possible but wide enough to feed through a
filament, which might be an optical fiber, such as a pig tail.
[0041] The back wall 320 comprises slots 470 and 480 corresponding
to the slots 370, 380 of the front wall, respectively. As can be
seen from the rear view shown on FIG. 2 the slots 470, 480 in the
back wall also comprise an open end 475, 485 and a closed end 476,
486. The open ends coincide with the open face 350 of the seal
block compartment 300.
[0042] The slots 470, 480 in the back wall 320 are aligned in
parallel to each other. Further there exists a one-to-one
correspondence between one of the slots 370, 380 in the front wall
and one of the slots 470, 480 in the back wall. In the embodiment
shown slot 370 in the front wall 310 corresponds to slot 470 in the
back wall and slot 380 corresponds with slot 480. Slots
corresponding to each other are aligned to each other. The widths
472, 482 of the slots 470, 480 are larger than the widths 371, 381
of the corresponding slots 370, 380 in the front wall.
[0043] The sections 315 of the front wall 310 and the section 325
of the back wall 320 are stabilized by fins 316 and 326,
respectively.
[0044] FIG. 2 shows that the housing is partly hallow from the back
face to reduce weight and the amount of material needed for
manufacturing it. A hallow design also eases the manufacturing
process. Strut members 225 needed for stability reasons are
provided between the sealing block compartment side walls 330, 340
and the side elements 231, 241 of the housing 200.
[0045] A seal block 500, which can be seen best in the explosion
view of FIG. 5 in positioned inside the sealing block compartment
300. The sealing block 500 has a front face 510, a rear face 520,
side faces 530, 540, a top face 550, and a bottom face 560. The
sealing block is inserted into the sealing block compartment 300
such that the bottom face 560 faces the bottom wall; the front face
faces the inner surface of the front wall 310 and so on.
[0046] The seal block 500 is made of a resilient-compressible
material. Preferably the seal block material is a closed cell foam.
For example foams made of Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Monomers (EPDM)
are suitable. For example foam of the company ERIKS nv, Alkmaar,
the Netherlands sold under the trade name 559 PI 80 can be used to
form a sealing block. The density is 180.+-.20 kg/m.sup.3. The cell
sizes of the closed cell vary preferably between 0,2 to 0,5 mm.
Other materials providing sealing as well as limited friction can
be used to create the seal block as well.
[0047] The sealing block 500 is a foam block having cut slits 570,
580. The slits 570, 580 extend along a slit direction 590 from the
top face 510 in the direction towards the bottom face 560. There
remains a bottom section 565 of the sealing block which is free of
the slits. The slits are oriented in parallel to each other. The
spacing 595 between the slits 570, 580 on the front face is
identical to the spacing 395 of the slots 370, 380 on in the front
wall 310 and the spacing 495 on the back wall 320 of the sealing
block compartment 300. The spacing of the slots is always the
spacing between the center lines 377, 387, 477 487.
[0048] When the sealing block 500 is inserted into the sealing
block compartment 300 the slits 570 and 580 are aligned with the
respective slot 370, 470 and 380, 480.
[0049] It is thus possible to insert filaments 600 into the sealing
device 100 by pushing the filament 600 into one of the slits 570,
580 from the open end towards the closed end 576 586. By this the
filament is also inserted into the corresponding slots 370, 470 or
380, 480. In FIG. 4 a filament 600 is inserted into the slit 570
and the corresponding slots 370, 470. Further filaments can be
stacked in the same slit for feed through purposes. The
intermediate part of the filament 600 fed through the sealing
device 100 is oriented perpendicular to the front wall 310.
[0050] The opposing surfaces of the slits 470, 480 are in contact
to achieve sealing. Sealing better than IP54 can be reached. To
ease the insertion of filaments the surfaces are slightly tapered
at the top face 550, as can be in FIGS. 1 to 5.
[0051] FIG. 3 shows the top view of the sealing device 100.
[0052] As can be inferred from FIGS. 2 and 3. a bottom section 265
of the housing 200 comprises a nose protruding perpendicular to the
rear wall of the seal block compartment 300. This nose 270
comprises a bore 275 this can be used to fix the sealing device 100
after it was positioned in a clearance 710 provided in a wall 740
of a box 700. Such a box is shown in FIG. 6. The box 700 is
provided with tab holes 730 for this purpose of fixing.
[0053] To ensure an easy and reliable positioning of the sealing
device in one of the clearances 710 the housing 200 provides a
number of grooves 280 extending from the top face 210 to the bottom
face 260. The box is provided with bars 720 for mating with the
grooves 280. Thus the sealing device can be inserted in a slide in
fashion and fixed thereafter. In FIG. 6 one sealing device of is
inserted into the wall 740 of the box 700.
[0054] The embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 comprises two slots and
correspondingly two slits. In other embodiments there can be more
slots and slits in a sealing device. One slit can occupy several
filaments. The maximum number depends on the slit length measured
along the slit direction.
PART LIST
[0055] 100 sealing device [0056] 200 housing [0057] 210 front
face/wall [0058] 220 rear face [0059] 225 strut members [0060] 230
side face [0061] 231 side element [0062] 240 side face [0063] 241
side element [0064] 250 top face [0065] 260 bottom face [0066] 265
bottom section [0067] 270 nose [0068] 275 bore [0069] 280 grooves
[0070] 300 seal block compartment [0071] 310 front wall [0072] 315
finger like section [0073] 316 fin [0074] 320 back wall [0075] 325
finger like section [0076] 326 fin [0077] 330 side wall [0078] 340
sidewall [0079] 350 top [0080] 370 slot [0081] 371 slot width
[0082] 375 open end [0083] 376 closed end [0084] 377 center line
[0085] 380 slot [0086] 381 slot width [0087] 385 open end [0088]
386 closed end [0089] 387 center line [0090] 390 slot direction
[0091] 395 spacing between slots [0092] 470 slot [0093] 471 slot
width [0094] 475 open end [0095] 476 closed end [0096] 477 center
line [0097] 480 slot [0098] 481 slot width [0099] 485 open end
[0100] 486 closed end [0101] 487 center line [0102] 495 spacing
between slots [0103] 500 sealing block [0104] 510 front face [0105]
520 rear face [0106] 530 side face [0107] 540 sideface [0108] 550
top face [0109] 560 bottom face [0110] 570 slit [0111] 575 open end
[0112] 576 closed end [0113] 580 slit [0114] 585 open end [0115]
586 closed end [0116] 590 slit direction [0117] 595 slit distance
[0118] 600 filament [0119] 700 (distribution) box [0120] 710
clearances [0121] 720 bars [0122] 730 tap hole [0123] 740 wall
* * * * *