WO1995019652A1

WO1995019652A1 - A mounting base element for cables, hoses and the like

Info

Publication number: WO1995019652A1
Application number: PCT/DK1995/000027
Authority: WO
Inventors: Knud Gasbjerg
Original assignee: Knud Gasbjerg
Priority date: 1994-01-18
Filing date: 1995-01-18
Publication date: 1995-07-20
Also published as: AU1413995A

Abstract

At places with high hygienic requirements, it is advantageous to arrange bundles of cables and hoses in a freely accessible manner, such that they can readily be cleaned by flushing. It is known to use wide meshed mounting trays of e.g. stainless wire, but such trays are of limited usability. According to the invention, use is made of a corresponding structure, only made as a mainly closed tube, which is slit axially by through-breaks (6) in round-going mesh wires (4). The through-breaks are arranged in such a manner that the cables may be introduced by a kind of 'sewing', without any possibility on incidentally getting out of the tray tube, which is thus well suited for mounting in all directions.

Description

A mounting base element for cables, hoses and the like.

The present invention relates to a mounting base element for cables, hoses and similar conduits, in par¬ ticular on machines and installations in surroundings, in which there are high hygienic requirements, typically in the food industry. The requirements as to effective cleaning become increasingly strict, and even if high pressure flushing is used, places may occur in which it is difficult to remove dirt or micro organisms. By way of example, this will apply to many cables and hoses mounted at the outside of e.g. a machine cabinet, tight¬ ly against surfaces thereof, as this will incur chinks and inner corners which are almost impossible to clean by a daily cleaning or even by cleaning more times a day.

Of course, it could be suggested to mount the dis¬ cussed elements in closed cable trays or tubes, the outsides of which would then be easy to clean, but with such a use of real installation tubes the mounting of the conduits can be very difficult, not least in case of remounting after repairs, and with the use of lid cover¬ ed trays it is almost unavoidable that at places micro cultures will be established inside the trays.

It has already been proposed that instead it is recommendable to go the open way , viz. with the use of conduit trays made of stainless wire material with lar¬ ge, open meshes, whereby the conduits can be effectively flushed, and they can be introduced and taken out at desired locations. These trays, however, are not too practical, because in many installations there are not only horizontal, but also vertical mounting stretches, where the trays are not too suitable, at least not with¬ out separate fixation means for the conduits, whereby some of the problems that should be avoided will be re- created.

In connection with the invention it has been recog¬ nized that it is highly advantageous to make use of axially split mounting tubes made of an open meshed wire net material. The conduits, then, may still be let in and out wherever desired, and they will be easy to in¬ troduce and remove; moreover, they will be held in a bundle everywhere, also in vertical courses, and yet be fully accessible for high pressure flushing in a mecha¬ nically resistant manner.

The axial split may be relatively narrow, and it can be oriented in such a manner that no conduits will be liable to get out through the split. However, it is a special possibility according to the invention that the split may extend in a waved or zigzag-shaped manner, such that the conduits may be laid in or taken out only by a guided sewing, while they will be without any pos¬ sibility of unintended exit outwardly through the slit. With the use of an open wire mesh structure this will be easily accomplishable in that cross wires with an almost closed annular shape are secured to longitudinal carrier wires in such a manner that the open gaps in the wire rings are alternatingly slightly staggered in the trans¬ verse direction along the generator, where these gaps will be located, generally.

Thus, the subject of the invention will appear pri¬ marily as a split tube of an open meshed net material, preferably of stainless steel wire. However, such tube or tubes may naturally be associated with corresponding special tube elements such as bendings, T-pieces, reduc¬ tion tubes etc. , in principle made in a corresponding manner and with the use of suitably adapted joining means, such that it is possible to build up a complete mounting tube system on the relevant machines or instal¬ lations.

It goes without saying that care should be taken to construct the net tube in such a manner that the net structure itself will not exhibit wire joints, which are difficult to clean by flushing. It has been found, how¬ ever, that it is possible to join intercrossing metal wires by spot welding such that in the joining areas the surface transitions will be suitably smooth to be pro¬ nounced cleaning friendly.

In the following the invention is described in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a tube structure according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of modified embodiments of such pipes,

Fig. 3 is a corresponding plan view of different tube components,

Fig. 4 is a corresponding view of a T-tube,

Fig. 5 is an end view of a T joint,

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a modified struc¬ ture of the tube,

Fig. 7 is an end view of a tube having an interior clamping member,

Fig. 8 is a perspective view thereof, and

Figs. 9 and 10 are perspective views of further embodiments of the tube.

The net tube shown in Fig. 1 is made of four longi¬ tudinal wires 2 and a number of annular wires 4 which, however, are not entirely round-going, as they are shap¬ ed with open gaps 6 of a width endeavoured to correspond to the diameter of the thickest cable or hose to be mounted in the tube. As shown, these gaps 6, when seen in the axial direction, are alternatingly slightly stag¬ gered, such that a straightlined conduit inside the tube cannot readily get out of the tube through the axial split formed by the gaps 6, e.g. by the influence of a crosswise directed water jet from a high pressure clean¬ er. The conduits, whether being cables or hoses, will be easy to mount into the tube, as they should not be drawn through the tube, but be laid in radially by a sewing through the gaps 6, this only requiring that the conduit is sufficiently flexible to be laid in through the al¬ ternating gaps 6. The conduit should not be bent strict¬ ly correspondingly, but only be guided into a progres¬ sive introduction through the consecutive gaps 6, i.e. an outer part of the conduit should just be rocked from side to side during the mounting, hence the above refe¬ rence to sewing. Thus, the laid in conduit may have a fully straightlined shape, whereby it cannot freely leave the pipe through the slit formed by the mutually staggered gaps 6.

However, should it be directly desired to take out a conduit this will be easy to do by an advancing bend¬ ing out of the conduit, whereby the bent out portion should be rocked correspondingly from side to side for a progressive release through the gaps 6.

In Fig. 1 it is indicated that the net tube element 2,4 may be end connected with a corresponding element by means of bush members 8 for receiving freely projecting end portions of the longitudinal wires 2. It is also shown that such a bush may be connected with a project¬ ing portion 10 continuing in a threaded pin 12 to be screwn into a mounting hole in a support surface for carrying the joined tube structures.

In Fig. 2 it is shown to the left that the gaps 6 may be established between oppositely bent out end por¬ tions 14 of the ring wires 4 in such a manner that be¬ tween these portions there is formed a relatively broad slit, while between the same portions there may be a more or less pronounced overlapping in the peripheral direction. To the right it is shown that a similar effect is achieved in that the wire pieces 4 are arranged in a screw shaped manner with a desired axial distance between their ends. Also here, intermediate gaps 6 are formed without occurrence of any longitudinal split.

In Fig. 3 is shown a tube element 16 of the above described type (2,4), this element being joined with a reduction element 18 leading to a following element 20 of reduced diameter. By way of example, the latter ele¬ ment is shown as a tube bending, and it is also shown that if desired the mounting slit may extend along a screw line, such that the slit, by the use of a special transformation element, may be turned half or a quarter of a revolution. This may be of importance in connection with transitions between horizontal and vertical stretches of the tubes. For achieving the desired result it will be necessary that also the longitudinal wires 2 should extend in a screw shaped manner, such that they will nowhere cross the split.

Fig. 4 shows a T-element with the mounting splits arranged at one side. It may be actual to work with such T-elements, in which the slits are arranged otherwise.

The structures shown are well suited to be produced by spot welding of a wire material of stainless steel, and it should only be observed that the weldings should be made during expressed clamping together of the inter¬ crossing wires in order to avoid pocket formations that are difficult to clean.

In Fig. 5 it is shown that a T-branch may be estab¬ lished without the use of any particular T-element ac¬ cording e.g. to Fig 4, as it will be sufficient to let the end of a straight tube element 22 project into the side of a throughtube 24, with the use of coupling parts 26 between the ends of some or all of the wires 2 in the tube 22 and the nearest of these wires in the tube 24.

According to the invention it is a special possibi¬ lity that the free wire ends at the gap openings 6 may be connected with opposed, longitudinal wires 28 as shown in Fig. 6, i.e. with these wires located immedi- ately next to each other or directly abutting each other, possibly even with a certain pretensioning from the rings 4, these preferably consisting of stainless steel. Hereby it is made noticeably easier to lay in and in particular take out cables etc. , as the free ends of the cross wires 4 will not at all be noticed. The laying in and taking out of the conduits make take place by a progressive, even motion along the resiliently yielding wires 28. Preferably, in this instance, the rings 4 will extend along a screwline as in the right hand part of Fig. 2.

By the mounting of the cables it will be relatively easy to arrange them as shown in Fig. 7, i.e. in a single layer along the curved inner side of the net tube, preferably stabilized only by local insertion of resilient clamps 30, see also Fig. 8, e.g. made of plas¬ tics. Such a mounting in a layer should be seen on the background that it is then permissible to load the cables with a considerably higher effect than where the cables are mounted in bundles. As indicated in Fig. 7 it is even a possibility to lay up one or more additional layers inside the outer layer, with the clamps 30 used as distance pieces. Alternatively, the inner space may be used for receiving other than electrical cables, e.g. various hoses.

In Fig. 9 it is shown that the wire tubes may well have a polygonal cross section, whereby the cables/hoses may be laid in regular layers, optionally separated by means of distance pieces, inter alia for facilitating the flushing cleaning. This Figure may seem to show that the free wire ends are bent up- and downwardly, respec¬ tively; this could be a possibility, but a closer view will show that in fact they are bent away from each other laterally.

Fig. 10 illustrates that it is not necessary to use special connector bendings, as the net tube will be relatively easy to bend at desired places, after cutting of some of the longitudinal wires.

Claims

C L A I M S :

1. A mounting base element for supporting laid out cables, hoses and the like, made as an elongated, open meshed tray structure of wire material, characterized in that the tray structure is made as a substantially closed, but axially slotted mounting tube.

2. An element according to claim 1, in which the axial slot, constituted by open gaps in round-going wires, is arranged so as to extend zigzagwise.

3. An element according to claim 1, in which the free ends of round-going wires adjacent to the slot are mutually overlapping, meeting or almost meeting in the cross direction of the element, while in the longitudi¬ nal direction thereof they are noticeably mutually spaced.

4. An element according to claim 2 or 3, in which the round-going wires extend along a screwline.

5. An element according to claim 1 and comprising round-going wires, which are arranged with mutual spac¬ ing and extend in respective transverse planes, each having a gap representing the axial slot, next to which the opposed free wire ends of these wires are bent out to opposite sides of the respective transverse planes.

6. An element according to claim 1, in which the tray structure is made as a substantially fully closed tube, the axial slot being provided between two longitu¬ dinally extending wires operable to be forced resilient- ly away from each other.

7. An element according to claim 1, in which the axial slot extends along a screwline.