Reel for storing surplus cable

A reel for winding up and unwinding surplus cable, comprising a first housing part and a second housing part which are connected together as to be able to rotate with respect to one another about a common axis and together enclose a chamber for receiving the cable. The reel includes a central member present in the chamber with each housing part having a free rim which extends in a plane perpendicular to the axis, with the housing parts each comprising a slot which extends as far as the free rim. During the winding operation, a cable part which extends through the two slots into the chamber is pulled further into the chamber by rotating the housing parts with respect to one another and is thereby wound around the central member. The housing parts are connected to one another by means of a connection which is releasable via an operating member.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
BACKGROUNG OF THE INVENTION 
The invention relates to a reel for winding up and unwinding a free part of 
a wire. 
A reel of this kind is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,142. In this known 
reel, a housing enclosing a hollow chamber is provided with a disc which 
can rotate therein and has a slot for receiving and entraining a wire. On 
its periphery, the housing is provided with a slot through which a wire 
loop can be pushed, which wire loop should then be placed in the slot in 
the rotatable disc. By rotating the disc with respect to the housing, it 
being possible to operate the disc from outside for this purpose, the wire 
is thus pulled into the housing, in which it is wound up around a central 
member. 
A drawback here is that a reel of this kind comprises many complex 
components, is difficult to assemble and dismantle and is relatively 
expensive to produce. If a wound-up wire part, for example a thick, stiff 
computer lead, becomes stuck in a reel of this kind, such that the 
rotatable disc can no longer be rotated with respect to the housing, this 
wire part can only be released by dismantling the reel. In this case, this 
dismantling is extremely laborious and time-consuming. 
The object of the present invention is to provide a reel in which these 
drawbacks are eliminated. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention by means of a reel 
comprising a first housing part and a second housing part, which are 
connected so as to be able to rotate with respect to one another about a 
common axis and together enclose a chamber for receiving the wire, a 
central member being present in the chamber, each housing part having a 
free rim which extends in a plane perpendicular to the axis common, and 
each housing part comprising a slot which extends as far as the free rim. 
During the winding operation a wire part which extends through the two 
slots into the chamber is pulled further into the chamber by rotating the 
housing parts with respect to one another and wound around the central 
member. The housing parts are connected to one another by means of a 
connection which is releasable via an operating member. In this way, it is 
possible to release the housing parts from one another in a simple manner, 
as a result of which the already wound-up wire part can be slid off the 
central member. This is advantageous both in the case of the example 
mentioned of a wire part that became stucked and is also the quickest way 
of unwinding again a long portion of wound-up wire. The reel according to 
the invention no longer requires a separately rotatable disc which, 
moreover, has to be accommodated inside the housing and has to be operable 
from the outside. As a result, the reel according to the invention can be 
produced very simply and inexpensively. 
In particular, the first housing part is provided at the location of the 
axis with a socket including an inwardly projecting stop rim, and the 
second housing part is provided with one or more resilient lips with 
snap-in rims which engage behind the stop rim in the first housing part so 
as to form the connection between the housing parts, the operating member 
being an element which is displaceable in the socket of the first housing 
part and can interact with the resilient lips in order, if desired, to 
release the engagement of the said lips with the stop rim in the first 
housing part. This provides, therefore, a connection between the housing 
parts which can be released simply and rapidly, specifically by depressing 
the operating member, and also permits simple and rapid assembly of the 
reel. Advantageously, a reel of this kind comprises few components which 
can be produced from the same material, for example plastic. 
In addition, the invention relates to a method of packaging a reel of this 
kind, the first and second housing parts being clamped around an 
information card, the central member extending through a cutout made in 
the information card. The packaging in this case merely comprises an 
information card which is simple and inexpensive to produce. Due to the 
fact that the reel can be assembled rapidly and simply, the reel can 
likewise be clamped rapidly and simply around the information card, thus 
providing a very inexpensive and effective packaging, which is possible 
due to the special design of the reel according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The reel shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has a housing comprising a first housing 
part and a second housing part 1, 2 which can rotate with respect to one 
another about an axis 3. In this case, the housing may have any desired 
form, for example the form of a box or a sphere. The housing parts 1, 2 
each have a free rim 4 which projects in a plane perpendicular to the axis 
3. In addition, the housing parts 1, 2 are each provided in the center 
with a socket 6, 8, with an inwardly projecting stop rim 7, 9 in each 
socket 6, 8. The free rims 4 of the housing parts 1, 2 substantially 
adjoin one another and thus enclose a chamber with the two sockets 6, 8 in 
the center. A hollow cylinder 10 is arranged around the sockets 6, 8. In 
particular, this hollow cylinder 10 can rotate freely with respect to the 
housing parts 1, 2 and the sockets 6, 8 which are connected thereto. Each 
housing part 1, 2 is provided with a slot 5 which extends as far as the 
free rim 4. The connection between the housing parts 1, 2 is in this case 
formed by a connection element 20 accommodated in the socket 8. The 
connection element 20 is in this case of bush-like design and at its end 
comprises four resilient lips 21. These resilient lips 21 are formed in a 
simple manner by arranging slots in the all of the bush-shaped connection 
element 20, which slots extend in the longitudinal direction as far as the 
end. Instead of four, it is also possible to use any other number of 
desired lips. The resilient lips 21 have snap-in rims which engage behind 
the stop rim 7. Due to the fact that the connection element 20 moreover 
bears with a rim against the stop rim 9, a connection is thus formed 
between the housing parts 1, 2. Advantageously, this connection can be 
released in a simple manner via an operating member 25. In this case, the 
operating member 25 is formed by a cap-shaped element which is 
accommodated displaceably in the socket 6. The operating member 25 is 
provided with a recess with a bevelled edge. This bevelled edge can engage 
on the resilient lips 21, which are advantageously likewise provided with 
a bevel at the location of the snap-in rims. By pressing the operating 
member 25 in the direction of the connection element 20, the resilient 
lips 21 are pressed inwards in the radial direction due to an interaction 
between the sloping edges. In this way, the snap-in rims of the resilient 
lips 21 are disengaged from the stop rim 7. The housing parts 1, 2 can 
then be removed from one another. 
The operation of the reel will now be described briefly with reference to 
FIGS. 3 and 4. To start with, the housing parts 41, 42 should be rotated 
with respect to one another such that the slots 44, 45 are aligned with 
one another. Part of a wire which is to be wound up, for example a lead of 
a telephone, computer or lamp, can then be placed in the slots 44, 45. By 
then rotating the housing parts 41, 42 in opposite directions with respect 
to one another, as indicated by the arrows 46, the wire is wound up around 
a central member situated in the housing. The housing parts 41, 42 should 
be rotated with respect to one another just until the wire has been 
shortened to the desired length. The wire can be unwound again by rotating 
the housing parts 41, 42 in the opposite direction with respect to one 
another or by breaking the connection between the housing parts, as a 
result of which the housing parts 41, 42 can be removed from one another 
and the wound-up wire part can easily be slid off the central member. 
As can be seen in particular in FIG. 2, the slots 5 comprise a part which 
is at an angle of 90.degree. to the initial direction of the slots 5. As a 
result, the wire is held better in the separate slots 5 while winding up. 
Naturally, the slot may also have any other desired form. 
Advantageously, the central member in the reel shown in FIG. 1 is formed by 
the freely rotatable hollow cylinder 10. As a result, the entire reel can 
easily be slid over the wire after part of the wire has already been wound 
up. During the sliding, the hollow cylinder 10 will rotate with respect to 
the housing parts 1, 2, as a result of which a piece of wire is released 
on one side of the wound-up wire part, while an equally large piece of 
wire is wound up on the other end. Due to this possibility of sliding, it 
is no longer necessary to place the reel precisely at the center of the 
wire part which is to be wound up, and following the winding operation the 
reel can be visually concealed in a simple manner, for example by sliding 
it behind a cupboard. Moreover, the hollow cylinder 10 strengthens the 
connection of the housing parts 1, 2. The hollow cylinder 10 can also be 
omitted, in which case the wire is wound directly around the sockets 6, 8. 
It is also possible to make the sockets 6, 8 much smaller, as a result of 
which they no longer bear against one another in the center. In that case, 
however, it is essential that a cylindrical part be used which can be slid 
over the sockets. 
In another variant (not shown), the resilient lips form part of one of the 
sockets. As a result, in its simplest form the reel may comprise only 
three components, namely two housing parts and an operating member. 
However, the embodiment shown with the separate connection element 20 has 
the advantage that the housing parts 1, 2 can be identical to one another. 
This is particularly advantageous for manufacturing the separate 
components of the reel. Another possibility for an easily releasable 
connection between the housing parts may be formed by using a so-called 
bayonet closure (not shown). The bayonet closure may then, for example, be 
implemented between a connection element which is connected to the second 
housing part and the operating member which is connected to the first 
housing part, or between a connection element which is connected to the 
second housing part and the first housing part. In the case of this latter 
variant, the connection element should be able to rotate freely in the 
second housing part and thus also forms the operating member. 
An inwardly projecting snap-in rim 31 is arranged in the socket 6. As a 
result, the operating member 25 can no longer fall out of the housing part 
1. Due to the fact that the operating member 25 is accommodated 
countersunk in the socket 6, and part of the connection element 20 
projects outside the housing part 2, this projecting part of the 
connection element 20 can be accommodated in a clamping manner in the 
socket of a second reel of this design. To this end, in particular a 
snap-in rim 30 is arranged on the projecting part of the connection 
element 20, which rim comes to rest behind the snap-in rim 31 after 
coupling two reels. 
FIG. 5 shows an information card 50, in which a keyhole-shaped cutout 51 is 
situated. The cylindrical part 53 of the lock-shaped cutout 51 is intended 
to receive the central member of a reel 52 according to the invention, 
which is indicated only by dashed lines. As a result, it is possible to 
clamp the information card 50 between the first and second housing parts 
of the reel 52. The slot-shaped part 54 of the lock-shaped cutout 51 
extends in particular in the direction of an edge of the information card 
50 as far as beyond the free rim of the housing parts of the reel 52, 
which rim bears against both sides of the card. As a result, in order to 
remove the packaging 50 it is advantageously sufficient to break open the 
information card 50 along the line 55, after which the information card 50 
can be slid out between the two housing parts. 
A reel for winding up and unwinding the free part of a wire is thus 
provided which comprises very few components, which can be produced simply 
and inexpensively, is simple to operate and, moreover, can be packaged in 
a very advantageous manner.