GB924471A - - Google Patents

Abstract

924,471. Endless conveyers. WESTERN ELECTRIC CO. Inc. June 17, 1959 [June 18, 1958 (2)], No. 20739/59. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XXXII] In a device for paying out submarine cable 2 provided at intervals with apparatus housings 3 such as repeaters, the cable is gripped between endless tracks 4, 5 which are urged together by loading units 17, 19 incorporating air springs 28 provided with pivoted roller-carrying members 39 and deformable in a direction substantially normal to the tracks by an amount sufficient to allow the passage of a housing between the tracks, the number of loading units being such that the cable is gripped between the tracks during the passage of a housing. The tracks 4, 5 comprise pivotally connected plates having moulded rubber gripper blocks 20, 21 formed with grooves for receiving the cable and having studs 25 for engagement with the driving sprockets which are driven by an hydraulic system driven by electric motors and functioning as a drive motor for recovering the cable and as a brake during laying of the cable. The upper track 5 is supported in a housing 7 which is pivoted along one side to a housing 6 supporting the track 4 and which is raised and lowered by jacks. The loading force applied to the cable by the air springs 28 can be varied by changing the pressure of the air supplied through upper and lower manifold systems controlled from a console. The loading units 17, 19 and the members 39 are provided with lugs 30, 36 which move vertically in guides 27 on the housings 6, 7. In a second embodiment, Fig. 7, a pair of cams 100, connected to driven endless chains 110 and provided with rollers 143 running on rails 144 on either side of the tracks 4, 5 are pulled through the device alongside the housings 3 to relieve the pressure of the tracks on the housings. A control system is described for the drive of the chains 110 whereby the cams 100 are accelerated from their waiting position shown as the housing 3 approaches and then move alongside the housing between the tracks, after which they are returned to their waiting position.