AU2004203261B2

AU2004203261B2 - A process of remaking wire connections

Info

Publication number: AU2004203261B2
Application number: AU2004203261A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Kevin Dutton; Michael Litovkin; Barry James Muir
Original assignee: MUIR BARRY
Current assignee: MUIR BARRY
Priority date: 2003-02-25
Filing date: 2004-02-25
Publication date: 2005-05-26
Anticipated expiration: 2024-02-25
Also published as: AU2004203261A1

Description

A PROCESS OF REMAKING WIRE CONNECTIONS TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION THIS INVENTION relates to a process of remaking wire connections for positioning in a closure assembly, and in particular but not limited thereto, the wire connections are for telecommunication wire ends of wires in main lines and in user lines.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Telecommunications, cable television and electricity power providers have main lines extending from their distribution centres, such as telephone exchanges for telecommunications and sub-stations for power, along routes from which user lines can be connected for providing services for use at user premises. Distribution points are positioned along the routes for making such connections. The distribution points are usually accommodated in underground pits, manholes and/or above ground pillars at kerb sides of roads. The pits and the pillars provide ready access to the wires of the main lines and the user lines for making new connections, alterations, and for testing, maintaining and repairing purposes.

As the pits and the pillars are outdoor, enclosures are used to protect the connections from the environment. The enclosures known to the applicant have a dome shaped cover with a base arranged to close off the interior of the cover. The base has ports for receiving ends of certain wires of the main lines and the user lines that are to be connected together, usually by spliced connectors. The ports are then sealed following connection of the wire ends. When the cover is secured to the base, the connected wire ends are in the interior of the cover and therefore protected from the environment.

From time to time, cables containing some of the wires need to be replaced.

Increased demand may require installation of new lines, and the cables entering the base the base of an enclosure and the base itself, being faulty or damaged or otherwise not useable may need to be replaced. The option of disconnection of the connected wires is not appropriate as it would result in interruptions of services to the users connected to these lines. Another option is to remove the relevant connected wire ends in the existing enclosure or splice wires where sufficient spare cables are available, and forcibly push them through the port(s) in the base of a new enclosure. Pushing the wires through the port(s) would damage some of the connections and thereby resulting in interruptions of services to certain users. Installation of new lines may also require removal of some wires from the base of the enclosure. In replacing a base, all wires in PCT/AU2004/000237 Received 7 June 2004 2 the enclosure must be removed from the base. Accordingly, users experience frequent interruptions to their services.

The prior art processes of installing new lines, repairing existing lines and replacing existing closures are also time consuming, resulting in high costs for such processes.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a process of remaking wire connections for positioning in a closure assembly and that process alleviates or reduces to some degrees one or more of the prior art disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one aspect therefore the present invention resides in a process of remaking connections of ends of insulated wires for positioning in a closure assembly, the assembly having a base member formed with at least two separable cooperating sections, each said sections configured with one or more recesses that are arranged so that when assembled facing recesses forming a port or ports for receiving the wires, and a cover member with an interior chamber for positioning on the base member. The process comprises the steps of: removing cable insulation materials of the insulated wires with connected wire ends at a position upstream of a fault in the wire connections to expose portions of the wires for remaking connections; applying connectors to the exposed portions of the wires for reconnecting the wires while the ends thereof remaining connected; cutting the wires at a position downstream from the connectors to form new connected wire ends; positioning the reconnected wires in a recess or recesses of one or more of the sections of the base member that are in separation from remaining section(s); assembling the remaining section(s) onto said one or more sections to form said base member with the facing recess(es) forming the port or ports through which the connected wires extend; and positioning the cover member on the base member so that the new connected wire ends are within the cavity of the cover member.

The base member when formed may have a lower body part and an upper body part, the upper body part having an annular element extending from one surface of a flange element and the lower body part having said one or more ports extending axially therethrough for said connected wires to pass and the new connected wire ends to be AMENDED 8HM

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PCT/AU2004/000237 Received 7 June 2004 3 in the cavity when the cover member is positioned over the annular element.

Accordingly, the wires in the or at least one of the port(s) need not be subject to the disconnection process before removal. This represent considerable savings in time and therefore costs.

In preference, the separable sections are each formed with a side face having said one or more recesses. The recesses of adjacent sections are arranged to form said port(s) when the respective side faces meet.

Releaseable sections securing means may be arranged for securing the sections. Typically, the base member has apertures arranged in the side face of one of the separable sections, and the sections securing means has threaded studs extending from the side face of one of the adjacent sections, and the studs are configured for passing through the apertures in the side face of the other of the adjacent sections for securing the sections by threaded nuts. The secured sections can be separated following unscrewing of the threaded nuts. Alternatively, the apertures may be threaded so that the threaded studs can secure the sections by engaging the threaded apertures.

The securing means may also include latch or clip type securing arrangement.

It is preferred that the base member has a sealing arrangement for sealing the port(s) formed when the side faces of the adjacent sections are brought together. In one form, the sealing arrangement may have a compressible sealing strip or strips arranged between the meeting side faces. In another form, the sealing arrangement may have grooves formed in one side face and compatible tongues formed in the other side face of the meeting sections.

The base member may have one or more access holes through which a sealing material can be introduced into the grooves through the port(s). The sealing material is preferably a silicon based material.

A releaseable cover securing means may be provided for releaseably securing the cover member to the base member. Advantageously, the cover securing means is in the form of a damp arranged for clamping said cover member to the annular element of the base member A sealing ring may be arranged around the annular element so that it can seal the gap between the cover member and the annular element when the cover securing arrangement is applied to secure the cover member to the annular element.

The cover member may have a closed end with a handle arranged thereat. The handle facilitates a more convenient manner of moving the assembly in and out of the pillar or the pit.

AMENDED SHS-

IPEA/AU

It is further preferred that make before break type connectors are used for connecting the wires for connection.

The process may include the further steps of: securing the sections with the section.securing means; and securing the cover member to the base member with the cover securing means.

The wires may include main lines and user lines of a communications network.

The assembly and the process of the present invention thus arrow replacement of any existing enclosure without service interruptions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the present invention can be readily understood and put into practical effect the description will hereinafter refer to the accompanying drawings which illustrate non limiting embodiments of the present invention and wherein: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a prior art closure assembly; Figure 2 shows the assembly shown in Figure 1 with the cover member removed; Figure 3 shows the step of an embodiment of the process in according to the present invention in applying make before break connectors to wires at the exposed portions of the cables containing the wires enclosed in the assembly shown in Figure 1; Figure 4 shows the step of positioning the connected wires into a recess of a section of an example of the split base member, and the step of securing the two sections to form a port with the wires therein; Figure 5 is a plan view of the base member with the wires removed for clarity; Figure 6 is side view of the base member shown in Figure 6; Figure 7 is a partial perspective view of a section of the base member; Figure 8 shows the step of securing the cover member to the base member shown in Figures 5 and 6; Figure 9 shows the step of positioning the connected wires into a recess of a section of another example of the split base member, and the step of securing the two sections to form a port with the wires therein; Figures 10 and 11 show in detail the sections securing arrangement and the sealing arrangement for the base member shown in Figure 9; Figure 12 is a plan view of the base member shown in Figure 9 with the wires removed for clarity; Figure 13 is side view of the base member shown in Figure 12; and Figure 14 shows the step of securing the cover member to the base member shown in Figure 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Referring to the drawings and initially to Figure 1, there is shown a prior art closure assembly 10 being removed from a pit (not shown) in the direction as shown by the arrow. The assembly 10 has a cover member 12 with a handle 14. A releaseable cover securing means in the form of a clamp 16 is applied over the cover member 12 for securing it to a base member 18 (see Figure The cover member 12 encloses within its cavity connectors 24 which connect wires 22 of cables When the clamp 16 is released the cover member 12 can be removed to reveal the ends of the wires 22 and the connectors 24 connecting the wire ends. As can be seen, each connector 24 joins two wires 22 from different cables 20. For telecommunications services, the wires 22 are for connecting user lines to main lines so that services such as telephone and cable television from service providers are made available to the users.

The connectors 24 of the prior art assembly 10 are cap shaped. The ends of the wires 22 to be joined are inserted into the connectors 24 and thereafter the connectors 24 are subject to a crimping action for fixing the wire ends therein. Thus the connectors 24 connect the wires 22 at their bare ends.

Heat shrinkable insulation sleeves 26 and 28 are provide at ports 30 to prevent water and dirt from entering the cavity through the ports The base member 18 is prone to damage due to cracks formed over time or water entry or defective sealing materials. To replace the base member 18 of the prior art assembly 10 the connectors 24 must be discarded so that the wires 22 can be inserted through the ports 30. Accordingly, the services provided to the users must be interrupted until all wires 22 are reconnected. Thus, the process of replacing the closure assembly 10 of the prior art is not only costly through extensive time required to disconnect and then connect the wires by the connection method mentioned above, but also causes lengthy inconvenience to users through service interruptions.

Figure 3shows an initial step of the process of the present invention in replacing the prior art closure assembly 10 the base member 18 of which is faulty, with an embodiment of the closure assembly 50 (see Figure 8) for the process. In this initial step the cables 20 are stripped off their insulation materials 32 along portions thereof upstream of the faulty base member 18 Then the wires 22 to be connected together are connected by make before break type connectors 52. These connectors 52 connect the wires 22 before applying a cutting action to cut off the wires. Accordingly, there is no service interruption to any of the users. The base member 18 together with the cut wires 22 can be discarded when all the wires 22 are connected by the connectors 52.

Referring to Figure 4, the embodiment of the assembly 50 for the process according to the present invention has a split base member 54 with a first base section 56 and a second base section 58 that are separable. When secured together with section securing means 76 and 78, the assembly 50 has a lower part 60 and an upper part 62 as shown more clearly in Figures 5 and 6. The lower body part 60 has ports 64 and 66 divided by partition walls 68 at their inner ends. A peripheral flange 70 is arranged between the lower body part 60 and the upper body part 62. The upper body part 62 has an annular element 63 around the ports 64 and 66. A groove 72 is provided in the annular element 72 for locating a sealing ring 74 (see Figure 8) therein.

The section 56 has threaded studs 76 extending from a side face 80. The other section 58 also has a mating side face 82 with apertures 84 for receiving the studs 76 when positioned for the faces 80 and 82 of the respective sections 56 and 58 to mate.

Before positioning the faces 80 and 82 to mate, all thewires 22 as shown in Figure 4 can be placed in a curved recess 64A of the section 56. When the other section 58 is placed on the section 56, a curved recess 64B in the face 82 cooperates with the recess 64A to form the port 64. As such, the wires 22 with the connectors 52 can be positioned in the port 64 in a single action. Nuts 78 are then applied to the studs 76 to secured the two sections 56 and 58 together. A sealing arrangement is used to seal the port 64. The sealing arrangement may be heat shrinkable sleeves such as those similar to 26, 28 and 30 shown in Figure 2, or injection of a silicon based material in the port 64. Note that the ports 66 that are not used can be protected with a breakable membrane (not shown) which can be removed when any of the ports 66 is to be used.

In the example shown in Figure 7, the sealing arrangement has a groove 86 with a tapered cross section in the face 80 and a similarly shaped projection 88 extending from the face 82. The projection 88 has a slightly wider angle so that it and the groove 86 will be in an interference fit state when the sections 56 and 58 are secured together, thereby sealing the port 64.

Turning to Figure 8, the cover member 12 can be positioned over the annular element of the upper part 62 before securing the cover member 12 to the base member 54 with the clamp 16.

It is understood that the assembly 50 may have its base member 54 configured with a further separable section split along a line extending through the ports 66 so that other wires of cables 20 can be received in the ports 66 as aforementioned.

Referring now to Figures 9 to 14 which illustrate another example of the base member 54 of the enclosure assembly 50 for the process of the present invention. In these Figures, same numeral references as those applied in Figures 1 to 8 have been retained for the same or similar integers. For brevity, description of the integers mentioned earlier is not repeated.

As can be seen in Figure 9, this example of the base member 54 has a relatively larger and more oval shaped port 64 (see Figure 12) to be formed when mating side faces 80 of respective base sections 56 and 58 are in mating contact. The port 64 is sized to receive six cables 20 therein. The wall of the half oval recess 64A has two support posts 90 and 92 extending axially outwardly in opposite directions. The posts and 92 serve to support the wires 22 to minimise bending when the wires 22 are positioned in the recess 64A.

The partition walls 68 in this example extend substantially to the top edge of.the section 56 so that each ofthe ports 66 can be individually sealed with a sealing material such asan epoxy resin. The side faces 80 of the base sections 56 and 58 have grooves 86 on either sides of the recesses 64A and 64B. Access holes 87 are provided so that fluid sealing material such as epoxy resin can flow from the port 64 and through the access holes 87 into the grooves 86. Accordingly, the port 64 and the mating faces between the sections 56 and 58 are sealed against water entry.

Before the port 64 is sealed, the sections 56 and 58 are positioned together in the direction as shown by the arrow in Figure 9 following positioning of the reconnected wires 22 in the recess 64A. Screws 78 are then received in washers 79 before being inserted into the apertures 84 for threadably engaging threaded ferrules 76 for securing the sections 56 and 58 together. The sections 56 and 58 also have cooperating lugs 94 and clips 96 to clamp the wires 22 in the port 64.The lugs 94 and the clips 96 are provided on opposite sides of the port 64 with the arrangement on one side as shown in Figures 10 and 11. The base member 54 for clarity the wires 22 are not shown) as secured are shown in Figures 12 and 13.

S Figure 14 shows the step of positioning a sealing ring 74 onto the groove 72 before placing the cover 12 over the upper part 62 for clamping by the clam 16. A heat shrinkable sleeve 28 can also be applied to seal the lower edge of the base member 54.

8 Whilst the above has been given by way of illustrative example of the present invention many variations and modifications thereto will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the broad ambit and scope of the invention as herein set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A process of remaking connections of ends of insulated wires for positioning in a closure assembly having a base member formed with at least two separable cooperating sections, each said sections configured with one or more recesses that are arranged so that when assembled facing recesses forming a port or ports for receiving the wires, and a cover member with an interior chamber for positioning on the base member, the process comprises the steps of: removing cable insulation materials of the insulated wires with connected wire ends at a position upstream of a fault in the wire connections to expose portions of the wires for remaking connections; applying connectors to the exposed portions of the wires for reconnecting the wires while the ends thereof remaining connected; cutting the wires at a position downstream from the connectors to form new connected wire ends; positioning the reconnected wires in a recess or recesses of one or more of the sections of the base member that are in separation from remaining section(s); assembling the remaining section(s) onto said one or more sections to form said base member with the facing recess(es) forming the port or ports through which the connected wires extend; and positioning the cover member on the base member so that the new connected wire ends are within the chamber of the cover member.

2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the base member when formed having a lower body part and an upper body part, the upper body part having an annular element extending from one surface of a flange element and the lower body part having said one or more ports extending axially therethrough for said connected wires to pass and the new connected wire ends to be in the chamber when the cover member is positioned over the annular element.

3. The process according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the separable sections are each formed with a side face having said one or more recesses, and the recesses of adjacent sections are arranged to form said port(s) when the respective side faces meet.

4. The process according to claim 3 wherein the base member further including releaseable sections securing means arranged for securing the assembled sections. The process according to claim 4 wherein the base member having apertures arranged in the side face of one of the separable sections, and the sections securing means having threaded studs extending from the side face of one of the adjacent AMENDED SHEET IPEAAU PCT/AU2004/000237 Received 7 June 2004 sections, and the studs are configured for passing through the apertures in the side face of the other of the adjacent sections for securing the sections by threaded nuts, whereby the secured sections can be separated following unscrewing of the threaded nuts.

6. The process according to claim 4 wherein the base member having threaded apertures arranged in the side face of one of the separable sections, and the sections securing means having compatible threaded studs extending from the side face of one of the adjacent sections, and the studs are configured for threadably engaging the apertures in the side face of the other of the adjacent sections for securing the sections, whereby the secured sections can be separated following unscrewing of the threaded nuts.

7. The process according to claim 4 wherein the securing means including latch or clip type securing arrangement.

8. The process according to claim 5 or 6 wherein the securing means further including latch or clip type securing arrangement.

9. The process according to any one of claims 3 to 8 wherein the base member having a sealing arrangement for sealing the port(s) formed when the side faces of the adjacent sections are brought together to meet. The process according to claim 9 wherein the sealing arrangement being a compressible sealing strip or strips arranged between the meeting side faces.

11. The process according to claim 9 wherein the sealing arrangement being grooves formed in one side face arranged to receive compatible tongues formed in the other side face of the meeting sections.

12. The process according to claim 9 wherein the sealing arrangement being grooves formed in one side face and one or more access holes communicating between respective grooves and the port(s), whereby through said access holes a sealing material can be introduced into the grooves through the port(s).

13. The process according to any one of claims 2 to 12 further including the step of: securing the cover member to the base member with releaseable cover securing means.

14. The process according to claim 13 wherein the cover securing means is in the form of a clamp arranged for clamping said cover member to the annular element of the base member The process according to claim 13 wherein a sealing ring being arranged around the annular element so that it can seal a gap between the cover member and the AMENDED SHEET IPEA/AU PCT/AU2004/000237 Received 7 June 2004 11 annular element when the cover securing arrangement is applied to secure the cover member to the annular element.

16. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 15 wherein the cover member having a closed end with a handle arranged thereat.

17. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 16 wherein the connectors are of a make before break type whereby the steps and are performed in a single action.

18. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 16 wherein the wires including main lines and user lines of a communications network.

19. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 12 further the step of: sealing the port(s) with a sealing material. The process according to claim 19 wherein the sealing material for step is a settable sealing compound applied to the port(s) in a flowable state and then allowed to set in the port(s), and/or a heat shrinkable sleeve applied around each of the port(s) receiving the wires.

21. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 20 including the further steps of: securing the sections with section securing means; and securing the cover member to the base member with cover securing means. AMENDED SHEET IPEANAU