JPH10233247A - Cable connection tool - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cable connection tool in which waterproof performance, load resistance, and chemical resistance are superior, mounting work to a cable connection portion is simple, and the mounting work in the field such as outdoor or the like can be conducted. SOLUTION: A transparent resin-made case consists of one pair of upper and lower members 2, 3 which are divided into two, upper and lower, at the divided position extraction openings 4, 5, 6 for cables C are provided, and also at least two through holes 21, 22 for resin injecting and for air escaping are formed in the top face of the upper case 2. Using the case 1, in a state where the connection portion J of the cables C is contained in the case 1, heat resistant thermosetting resin R is poured into the case 1 through the through hole 21 of the upper case 2, and by the curing of the resin R, the resin R and the case 1 are integrated mutually so as to protect the connection portion J of the cables C.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cable connector used for a connection portion for electrically connecting cables.
More specifically, the connection of underground cables, such as cables laid in humid places such as in tunnels or underground wiring trenches, or road heating cables used to prevent roads from freezing and snow melting The present invention relates to a cable connector suitable for protecting a cable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a cable is connected in a high-humidity place, in addition to insulating the connection portion, it is important to have a waterproof property for the connection portion. For cables that are buried directly in the ground without using conduit, such as road heating cables, in addition to insulation and waterproof protection, protection against external forces acting on the connection is also important. .

[0003] For example, since a cable for road heating is buried under a road, a connection portion of the cable (a connection portion with a power line or the like) is not only used to reduce the weight of a vehicle running on the road but also when constructing the road. Since a 20-ton class road roller is used, the structure must be able to withstand the weight.

[0004] A heat-shrinkable tube is conventionally used for a connection portion of a cable used in the above-mentioned applications.

[0005]

By the way, in the heat-shrinkable tube, one of the cables to be connected is passed through the tube before connecting the core of the cable, and after the connection of the core is completed, the heat-shrinkable tube is connected to the connecting portion. Since the heat-shrinkable tube is covered, and the tube is attached in such a state that heat is applied to the tube to bring the tube into close contact with the cable jacket, a large number of man-hours are required for the attachment work.

Another problem is that the finished state is affected by the environment of the place where the mounting work is performed. That is,
If the installation work is performed in a place where the wind hits the construction tube outdoors or the like, it becomes difficult to uniformly heat the entire tube, and poor adhesion of the tube, that is, poor waterproof occurs. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the mounting work indoors, and furthermore, since a heat source for heating the tube is required, a work in a factory equipped with a heating facility is essential.

[0007] Further, there is a problem that the finished state may vary due to individual differences in the manner of heating the tube, the heating time, and the like depending on the operator. For this reason, conventionally, in order to ensure higher reliability. After the heat-shrinkable tube is mounted, the tube is further covered with tape or the like to ensure waterproof protection, which is a factor that further increases the number of working steps.

[0008] Further, there is a case where it is necessary to connect the cable at the site where the cable is laid. In the case of the heat-shrinkable tube, as described above, the factory having the heat source equipment (indoor).
There is also a problem that it is not possible to cope with it because it is necessary to carry out construction.

[0009] As described above, the connector for the cable for road heating is laid under the road, so that it has a high load (heat of asphalt; about 180 degrees) during road construction in addition to the load-bearing performance. It is required to have excellent endurable performance.

In addition, maintenance of a road heating cable requires lane regulation and must be performed by removing asphalt pavement on a road surface, and cannot be easily performed. There is no risk of disconnection at the cable connection,
There is a need for a robust cable connector with high load-bearing performance.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and is excellent in waterproof performance, load-bearing performance, heat-resistant performance, and chemical resistance, and can be easily attached to a cable connection portion, and can be used outdoors. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cable connector that can be mounted on site such as the above.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a cable connector according to the present invention comprises a pair of upper and lower members 2, 3 which are divided into upper and lower parts as shown in FIGS. In the case made of a transparent resin, the outlets 4, 5, and 6 of the cable C for connection are processed at the division position L, and at least two of the resin injection and air release are formed on the upper surface of the upper case 2. Case 1 in which through holes 21 and 22 have been machined
And the heat-resistant thermosetting resin R filled in the case 1. The case 1 is divided and the connecting portion J of the cable C is arranged in the case 1. The heat-resistant thermosetting resin R is poured into the case 1 through the through hole 21 of the upper case 2, and the resin R is integrated with the case 1 by curing of the resin R to protect the connection portion J of the cable C. It is characterized by being constituted.

According to the cable connecting device of the present invention having the above structure, the thermosetting resin R is simply poured into the case 1 while the connecting portion J of the cable C is housed in the case 1.
The cable can be attached to the cable by a simple operation without using equipment such as a heat source or a special tool (tool) such as resin press-fitting. Moreover, since the case 1 is transparent, it is possible to visually check the state of filling of the case 1 with the resin R, for example, the presence or absence of voids or bubbles. As a result, construction errors such as poor waterproofing can be eliminated, so that stable and reliable waterproofing performance can always be obtained.

Further, since the resin R poured into the case 1 and the case 1 are integrated in a hardened state, the load resistance is lower than that of a conventionally used heat-shrinkable tube. Improve dramatically. Furthermore, since the heat-resistant resin R is filled in the case 1, for example, when buried under a road, even if heat is applied to the connecting tool when asphalt is applied, it can withstand the influence (heat cycle) due to the heat. it can.

Here, when the cable connecting device of the present invention is used for a connection portion of a cable buried under a road such as a cable for road heating or the like, as shown in FIGS. It is preferable to adopt a compact flat shape. If such a flat shape is adopted, the strength in the flat direction (lateral direction) is increased, and the load resistance of the entire connector is improved. In other words, it is possible to solve the problem described above, that is, the problem that the surface strength of the road itself is reduced when the shape and dimension (particularly, height) of the connector are large.

In the cable connector of the present invention,
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4, the cable outlet may be formed in a tapered shape in which the diameter decreases as going outward from the case. In this case, the tapered portion is appropriately cut. By making the direction perpendicular to the center of the taper, the inner diameter of the outlets 4, 5, 6 can be adjusted to the outer diameter of the cable or the like for connection.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a cable connector according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the case 1 of FIG. 3 cut along line AA.

The cable connector of this embodiment is used for branch connection between a power supply line E and a road heating cable C, and is made of a transparent resin (for example, nylon 6) case 1.
And the epoxy resin filled in this case 1 (black)
R.

The case 1 is composed of an upper case 2 and a lower case 3 as shown in FIGS. 2 to 6, and is formed as a whole in a flat shape (height of about 20 mm). In addition, three outlets 4, 5, and 6 for a power supply line E and a road heating cable C (see FIG. 1) are formed.

A through hole 21 for injecting resin and a through hole 22 for venting air are formed on the upper surface of the upper case 2. Each of the through holes 21 and 22 has a diameter of φ13.
bosses 21a and 22a having a height of 2 mm
Are integrally formed.

The bosses 21a, 21a are provided in the through holes 21 and 22, respectively.
The reason for providing 22a is that after the epoxy resin R is filled into the case 1, when the epoxy resin R is cured, shrinkage of the epoxy resin R causes sink marks in the through holes 21 and 22, and the strength of this portion is reduced. By providing such bosses 21a and 22a in order to avoid becoming smaller than other parts, the influence of sink marks can be avoided at these boss parts (see FIG. 1).

Further, in the case 1 having the above-described structure, the joining portion between the upper case 2 and the lower case 3 has an uneven fitting structure (not shown). Decomposition can be easily performed.

Further, the outlets 4, 5, and 6 of the power supply line E and the cable C are formed in a tapered shape. By appropriately cutting this tapered portion (in a direction orthogonal to the center of the taper), each outlet 4 is formed. , 5, and 6 can be adjusted to the outer diameter of the cable or the like for connection.

On the other hand, in the cable connector of this example,
The epoxy resin R to be filled in the case 1 is a two-liquid type and has a low viscosity. This is because the one-part type hardens in response to the moisture in the air and cannot be sufficiently poured into the corners of the case 1, and the high-viscosity type hardly flows into the case 1. In consideration of the deterioration of properties, as a resin meeting these conditions, for example, Scotch Cat No. 4 resin manufactured by Sumitomo 3M Limited can be mentioned.

Next, an example of a procedure for mounting the cable connector will be described. First, in a state where the upper case 2 and the lower case 3 are disassembled, a connecting portion J between the power supply line E and the load heating cable C is arranged at the center of the lower case 3, and the power supply line E and the two Pull out cable C from outlet 4,
The upper case 2 is covered while being pulled out to the outside through 5, 6. Thereafter, tapping is performed on the outlets 4, 5, and 6 with an EPT rubber tape T or the like (see FIG. 1) to cover a gap between the power supply line E / cable C and the outlets 4, 5, and 6.

Next, a funnel D is inserted into the through hole 21 for resin injection.
(See FIG. 2), and the case 1 is inserted through the funnel D.
The epoxy resin R is poured into the inside. At this time, since the case 1 is a transparent body, whether the filling state of the epoxy resin R is good or not,
For example, the presence or absence of voids and bubbles can be easily confirmed visually.

When the poured resin R spreads throughout the inside of the case 1 and the upper surface of the resin reaches the upper end position of the boss 22a of the air vent through hole 22, the filling of the epoxy resin R is stopped. The epoxy resin R is cured by being left for about 15 minutes (resin curing time), and the resin R and the case 1 are integrated by the curing. This completes the mounting operation.

As described above, the cable connecting device of the present invention can be easily installed without using equipment such as a heat source or a resin press-fitting gun. Even in some cases, this can be accommodated.

Further, since a special tool is not required for resin injection, it is only necessary to pour the resin into the case from the upper part of the case through the through-hole by natural fall, so that the resin injection work can be automated by a robot or the like. Will be possible.

Here, a load-bearing performance test was carried out on the cable connector mounted as described above, and the load-bearing value was 1860 kgf. On the other hand, when this cable connector is buried under the road, the load applied to the cable connector by the road roller is calculated by M per cm.
Assuming that AX is 100 Kg and the product length of the connection tool is 8 cm, the applied load is 800 Kgf.
It was confirmed that the cable connector according to the embodiment of the present invention had twice or more the performance.

When the waterproof performance was tested, the IP68
(Test method; protection structure according to IEC529) was confirmed to be obtained. FIG. 7 and FIG.
It is a figure showing other examples of composition of the case used for the cable connector of the present invention. This example differs from the structure shown in FIG. 3 in the structure of the cable outlet.

That is, in the example of FIG. 3, each of the outlets 5 and 6 of the load heating cable C has a shape opened about 15 degrees outward with respect to the center axis of the case 1. 7 and 8, the outlets 105 and 106 of the cable C are processed so as to be parallel to the center axis of the case 101, and the load heating cable C is moved in a direction parallel to the power line E. The difference is in the structure of drawing out.

In the above-described embodiment, an example of the cable connecting tool used for making the branch connection between the power supply line E and the load heating cable (two) C has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. Not limited, two cables one to one
The present invention is also applicable to a cable connecting device for connecting with a plurality of cables or for connecting a plurality of cables.

Further, in the above embodiment, two through holes (for resin injection and air vent) provided in the upper case are provided. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and three or more holes may be provided. Good.

Further, the present invention provides a waterproof performance such as a connection portion for a cable buried in a humid place such as a tunnel or a wiring groove in an underpass, in addition to a connection portion for an underground cable such as a cable for road heating. -Applicable to cable connection equipment in places where load resistance and heat resistance are required.

Here, the material of the case used for the cable connector of the present invention is, for example, polycarbonate, acrylic or AS (acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer), such as nylon, and is excellent in heat resistance and chemical resistance. It is not particularly limited as long as it is a transparent resin.

The resin used in the cable connector of the present invention is a resin having a low viscosity and heat resistance as described above. When the resin is filled in a case, the surrounding material (case; nylon 6, etc.) A resin other than epoxy resin may be used as long as it is a heat-resistant thermosetting resin that does not attack the cable connection portion; copper of the crimp terminal, etc.).

[0038]

As described above, according to the cable connector of the present invention, the heat-resistant thermosetting resin is simply poured into the case while the cable connection portion is housed in the case, so that the heat source and the like can be used. It can be attached to the cable connection by a simple operation without using special equipment (tool) such as equipment or resin press-fitting. Also, since there is no need for special equipment or the like regardless of the environment of the construction site, installation at the cable laying site is also possible.

Furthermore, since the case and the filling resin are integrated to protect the cable connection portion, the load-bearing performance is high and, for example, the load acting on the connection portion of the cable buried under the road can be sufficiently withstood. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of an embodiment of a cable connecting device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a structure of a case 1 used in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the structure of the case 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view showing the structure of the case 1;

FIG. 5 is a view taken in the direction of arrow X in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow Y in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing another example of the case used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow Z in FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case (transparent) 2 Upper case 21 Through-hole (for injecting resin) 22 Through-hole (for venting) 21a, 22a Boss 3 Lower case 4, 5, 6 Outlet L Division position R Epoxy resin (heat-resistant thermosetting resin) E Power line C Road heating cable J Connection

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cable connector used for a cable connecting portion, comprising a transparent resin case made of a pair of upper and lower members divided into upper and lower parts, wherein a cable outlet for connecting to the divided position is provided. It is made of a case in which at least two through holes for resin injection and air release are machined on the upper surface of the upper case, and a heat-resistant thermosetting resin filled in the case. The connection part of the cable is placed in the case, and the heat-resistant thermosetting resin is poured into the case through the through hole of the upper case in a state where the upper and lower sides of the case are aligned, and the resin and the case are cured by curing the resin. A cable connecting device, which is configured to protect the connecting portion of the cable by integrating them. 2. The cable connector according to claim 1, wherein the case is processed into a flat shape, and the cable connector is used for protecting a connection portion of an underground cable. 3. The cable connection device according to claim 1, wherein the cable outlet is formed into a tapered shape whose diameter decreases as it goes outward from the case. Utensils.