Cable Clamp With Directing Means

Abstract

A cable clamp mounted to a printed-wiring circuit board has means for directing a cable in a chosen one of several directions. The outer face has a plurality of slots radiating from the position in which the cable is clamped, and the cable may be bent into a slot and held by a constraining device in a direction according to which slot is chosen to contain the cable.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to clamps for retaining flexible electrical cables, and particularly to devices for directing cables connected to printed-wiring circuit boards that are mounted close together in printed-circuit card files or enclosures.

In large systems, a circuit-card file has shelves or levels of circuit cards, and the circuit cards within each level are placed close together. Cables are connected either directly to printed-circuit-card receptacles at the back of the file or are connected permanently to small printed-circuit cards that complete connections between the cable and the receptacles. If careful routing is not employed, the many cables that electrically interconnect groups of circuits mounted in the card file become randomly placed and besides making the equipment ugly, they are difficult to install and to maintain. An orderly arrangement for directing the cables and means for clamping them to the printed-circuit cards facilitate handling the cables without damaging the electrical connections between the cards and the cables.

One type of cable clamp that is attached to the printed-circuit cards bends the cable to form a right angle. The bend normally changes the direction of the cable from horizontal on the circuit card to a downward direction just beyond the back of the card.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The cable clamp of this invention provides a simple, inexpensive, convenient means for clamping a cable at the edge of a card or to a panel and having it directed in any chosen one of several directions from the edge of the card. In a preferred embodiment, the outer face of the clamp is square, and each side of the square face is slotted. A cable that is routed from its connections on a card, is passed through the clamp and extended straight outwardly from the card, or as it passes through the clamp it is bent at a right angle and placed in a slot in any side of its outer face. To retain the cable in a chosen slot and thereby to maintain a certain bend, a cover, that is easily slid into position, is positioned over the directing face of the clamp.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is an oblique view of the cable clamp with directing means of this invention and a fragmentary view of a printed-circuit card to which the clamp is connected;

FIG. 2 is a view of the inside surface of a one-half portion of the clamp;

FIG. 3 is an oblique view of the clamp with its cover as it is used to direct a cable to the left;

FIG. 4 is an oblique view of the clamp and its cover as it is used to direct a cable downwardly;

FIG. 5 is an oblique view of another embodiment of a one-half portion of the clamp of FIG. 1 modified for cables of various sizes; and

FIG. 6 is another embodiment of a cable clamp suitable for quick panel mounting.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In FIG. 1, a cable clamp assembly 11 comprises two identical portions 12 mounted to the edge of printed-wiring card 13. Details of each one-half portion 12 is shown in FIG. 2. Two of the portions are placed together to form a clamp, the clamp being rectangular in cross section and having a central wiring channel formed by mating the slots 14 of the two halves. A transverse boss 15 in each slot 14 clamps a cable securely in a conventional manner. Part of the side of the portion opposite the central slot 14 has been extended somewhat to provide a retaining ledge 16 to be positioned against the edge of the printed-circuit card to which the assembled clamp is to be mounted. A directing portion 18 extends beyond the printed-circuit card. The portion 18 has a substantially square cross section, and its outer or directing face has a slot 19 in the center of each of its sides, each of the slots being a suitable dimension for receiving a cable that is clamped between the central slots 14. A groove 17 traverses the outer surfaces on a straight line positioned slightly inward from the slots 19, and when the two halves are assembled, the groove in continuous about the assembled cable clamp 11.

With reference to FIG. 1, the clamp is readily assembled from the portions 12. One of the portions 12 has a side placed against the printed-circuit card 13 with its ledge 16 placed against the edge of the card. A wiring cable 20 is placed in the slot 14 of the portion 12. Another portion 12 is assembled with its slot 14 about the cable 12, and both portions are mounted to the panel 13 and brought together to clamp the cable 20 by screw fasteners 21.

The wiring cable 20 can either be directed straight outwardly in the direction of the axis of the channel provided by the central slots 14, or according to more common practice be bent at a right angle just beyond the point where the cable is clamped. If the cable is bent, it is pressed into any desired one of the four peripheral slots 19. Preferably the portions 12 of the clamp 11 are molded from plastic insulating materials, and the surfaces joining the central slots 14 and the peripheral slots 19 are gradually curved to facilitate changing the direction of the cable to form a right angle.

A cover 22 is mounted on the assembled cable clamp 11 to retain the cable 20 in the selected peripheral slot 19. A retaining side 23 is held in place against the directing face of the assembled clamp 11 by a pair of tongues 24 that slide in the groove 17 on the periphery of the clamp. The retaining side 23 has perpendicular sides 25 extending from two of its opposite edges, and each of the sides 25 has an edge opposite the retaining side 23, turned inwardly to form a tongue 24. With reference to FIG. 3, the cable 20 is shown directed horizontally to the left, and the retaining cover 22 has been mounted on the assembled clamp 11 by positioning its tongues 24 in the groove 11 and sliding the cover from right to left. Likewise the cover 22 according to FIG. 4 where the cable 20 is shown bent downward in a vertical position, is mounted by sliding it downwardly.

The boss 15 of FIG. 2 can be replaced by a selected one of different contoured pins 26 and 27 of FIG. 5 to accommodate cables of different diameters. Each one-half portion 28 according to FIG. 5 is similar to the portion 12 that is shown in FIG. 2 except that the molded boss is omitted and two identical, aligned holes are provided from opposite sides of the one-half portion 28 to its central slot 29, and a pin 26 placed in the holes subtends a small arc of the inside surface of the slot 29. When pins are not inserted, the clamp can be used on a cable that has a normal outer diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the central channel formed by the central slots 29. For a cable somewhat smaller in diameter, a pin 27 that has its diameter decreased along its central portion can be used in place of a boss for clamping, and when the pin 26 has a constant diameter along its length, a cable of minimum diameter is accommodated by a certain size clamp in which the holes for the clamping pins are spaced a fixed distance apart.

The modification shown in FIG. 6 is suitable for mounting in a hole in the edge of a panel or in a chassis. Two one-half portions 30 are assembled together about a cable to form a clamp with a cylindrical outer surface. The end portion 31 to be mounted toward the wiring of a panel is reduced in diameter and has an outer circumferential lip. The clamp is molded from an insulating material with resiliency to permit the portion 31 to be snapped into position in a mounting hole like a grommet is commonly mounted. The other end has a plurality of peripheral slots 32 radiating from a central channel that corresponds to that provided by central slots 29 of FIG. 5.

Cables of various sizes can be clamped through use of different contoured pins 34. The holes 33 for receiving the pins 34 are placed so that the inserted pins will provide various clamping distances between them in a central channel according to the surface contour of the pins as described above with reference to pins 27.

The cable can extend straight outward from the clamp, or it can be bent at and placed in peripheral slot 32 as described above. The lid 36 for retaining the cable in a bent position has a lip that is snapped into a groove 35, the groove being on a circumference of the clamp near its outer end.

Claims

I claim:

1. A cable clamp including directing means comprising a pair of mating portions, each of said portions having a central slot, means to mount said portions together on a wiring panel such that said slots are complementary to encircle a cable of said wiring panel and to clamp it between said slots, said assembled clamp having a directing face transverse the direction the cable passes through said central slots, said directing face having a plurality of peripheral slots radiating from said mated pair of central slots, each of said peripheral slots being a suitable size for receiving the cable clamped by said central slots, any chosen one of said peripheral slots being used to retain the cable that extends through said mated central slots in a bent position over said directing face to direct said cable in the direction that said desired one of said peripheral slots radiates from said mated central slots, and means for retaining a cable in the bent position over said directing face.

2. A cable clamp according to claim 1, wherein said directing face thereof is rectangular and said means for retaining a cable in the bent position is a cover, different ones of the sides of said rectangular face having at least one of said peripheral slots, and means for retaining said cover over said directing face.

3. A cable clamp according to claim 1, wherein said directing face thereof is substantially square and said means for retaining a cable in the bent position is a cover to fit over the directing face, each of said sides of said directing face having at least one of said peripheral slots, each of said mating portions having a groove located slightly inward from the bottom of said peripheral slot, each of said grooves traversing an outer side of said assembled cable clamp, the distance between grooves of opposite sides being equal, said cover having a retaining side to be positioned over said directing face and a pair of tongues comprising parallel mounting edges offset from respective opposite edges of its retaining side and turned inwardly, and said tongues of said cover being spaced apart to facilitate mounting said cover from that side opposite the one of said slots that contain a cable by inserting the tongues into said grooves in the two sides adjacent to the side containing said one slot of said clamp and sliding said cover over the directing face of said clamp.

4. A cable clamp according to claim 1 in which a clamping pin subtends the bottom of the central slot of each of said mating portions, the pins of an assembled pair of said mating portions transversing the cable on opposite sides thereof to clamp it, each of said pins being slidable within mounting holes through the respective one of said mating portions to facilitate inserting pins of different diameters into said mounting holes for clamping cables of different diameters.

5. A cable clamp as described in claim 1 wherein the outer surface thereof is substantially cylindrical, one end thereof comprising said slotted directing face, said means to mount said portions together on a wiring panel including the other end of the cylindrical clamp, said other end being smaller in diameter and having an outer circumferential lip, said smaller end being adaptable to be mounted in a mounting hole in the manner that a flexible grommet is mounted, said slotted end having an external circumferential groove, and said means for retaining cable in the bent position being a round cover adaptable to snap-on said slotted end and be retained by said circumferential grove.