Cable clamps

Abstract: A cable clamping device includes a female jaw (14) that includes a C-shaped yoke (36) with a socket (37) and a tail (38). A male jaw (12) includes a cylindrical head (16) positioned to rotate inside the socket (37) and a radially extending tail (22). The free ends (30, 44) of the two tails (22, 38) define a total of four opposed surfaces, and these four opposed surfaces are parallel to one another when the two tails (22, 38) are clamped together. The lower side of the female tail (38) defines a mounting plane (56), and the socket (37) of the female jaw (14) extends both above and below the mounting plane (56). In this way, headroom require­ ments for the cable clamping device are reduced, and shorter fasteners (52) can be used to secure the device in place.

Description: The present invention relates to an improved cable clamp, which can be used to terminate a cable, for example to a bus bar, of the form comprising a cable clamp comprising a male jaw having a tail and an integral part-cylindrical head, and a female jaw having a tail and an integral yoke which defines a part-cylindrical socket, the head of the male jaw being received in the socket to permit relative pivotal movement between the jaws, a cable receiving opening extending diametrically through the head and a cable receiving opening extending radially through the yoke, the said openings being aligned in an open pivotal position of the jaws to permit insertion of the cable therethrough and substantially misaligned in a closed pivotal position of the jaws to clamp the cable, the said tails being clamped together to hold the jaws in the closed position and the lower surface of the female jaw defining a planar mounting surface. The cable clamps of this form shown in Cornell U.S. Patents 4,357,068, 4,479,694 and 4,548,462 have been found to provide excellent operational characteristics. They can be easily installed without special tools; they provide high cable pull-out resistance and low electric resistance; and the inner part of the clamp can be assembled into the outer part of the clamp in two separate orientations, each adapted to terminate a particular diameter cable. However, the above-described cable clamps do exhibit certain disadvantages. In particular, when mounted to a mounting surface (such as a bus bar) they require an amount of headroom over the mounting surface which may be excessive for some applications. As electrical systems are made smaller, it becomes increasingly important to minimize the headroom required for cable clamps. Furthermore, because the free ends of the two parts of the clamping device have a substantial thickness, a relatively long fastener or stud is required to secure the cable clamp in place on the mounting surface. US-A-3879104 discloses a cable clamp comprising a male jaw having a tail and an integral part-cylindrical head, and a female jaw having a tail and an integral yoke which defines a part-cylindrical socket for receiving the head of the male jaw and permitting relative pivotal movement between the jaws. A cable receiving opening extends diametrically through the head of the male jaw and a further cable receiving opening extends radially through the yoke of the female jaw. The openings are aligned in an open pivotal position of the jaws to permit insertion of the cable therethrough and substantially misaligned in a closed pivotal position to clamp the cable. The tails are clamped together by a bolt to hold the jaws in the closed position with the lower surface of the male jaw defining a planar mounting surface for the clamp to a support. The upper surface of the male jaw and corresponding opposed surfaces of the female jaw are all parallel with the mounting surface. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved cable clamping device which reduces the amount of headroom required for the clamping device, which reduces the thickness of the free ends of the parts of the clamping device, and which therefore reduces the length of the fastener required to secure the clamping device in place. According to a first aspect of this invention, a cable clamp is characterized in that a portion of the said socket and of the head of the male jaw are set below the plane of the said mounting surface. Because the head receiving portion of the female clamping member extends in part below the mounting plane, the overall headroom required to mount the female clamping member (and therefore the cable clamp itself) is reduced. Preferably, the upper surface of the female jaw and the corresponding opposed surfaces of the male jaw are all parallel with the said mounting surface. This arrangement allows the thickness of the two tails to be reduced, and therefore the length of the fastening member to be minimized. A preferred form of cable in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the cable clamp; Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 2A is a sectional view taken along line 2A-2A of Fig. 2; Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3A is a sectional view taken along line 3A-3A of Fig. 3; Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the embodiment of Fig. 1 mounted in place to a bus bar, with the clamping device configured to clamp a relatively larger cable. Fig. 5 is a view corresponding to that of Fig. 4 with the clamping device configured to clamp a relatively smaller cable. Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a cable clamp 10 which constitutes a presently preferred embodiment of this invention. As shown in Fig. 1, the cable clamp 10 includes a male jaw or clamping member 12 and a female jaw or clamping member 14. The male jaw 12 is shown in greater detail in Figs. 3 and 3A, and it includes a cylindrical head 16 which defines a cylindrical surface 18 centered on a cylinder axis 20 (Fig. 1). A first tail 22 extends radially away from the head 16 and the male jaw 12 is symmetrical about a plane of symmetry 24 (Fig. 3) which contains the cylinder axis 20. The male jaw 12 includes a first cable receiving opening 26 that, as shown in Fig. 3, is oriented at a skew angle A with respect to the first tail 22 and the plane of symmetry 24. The cable receiving opening 26 is adapted to receive the terminal portion of a cable, and the opening 26 opens out at both sides of the first tail 22 at a window 28 which passes completely through the tail 22. The tail 22 defines a free end 30 and a pair of spaced, parallel, opposed first surfaces 32 adjacent the free end 30. Both of these first surfaces 32 are parallel to the plane of symmetry 24. A fastener receiving opening 34 extends completely through the first tail 22 and receives a mounting fastener as described below. Figs. 1, 2 and 2A provide a detailed illustration of the female jaw or clamping member 14, which includes a head receiving portion or yoke 36 which is generally C-shaped and defines a part-cylindrical socket 37 sized to receive the cylindrical head 16 for rotation about the cylinder axis 20. The yoke 36 is integrally connected with a second tail 38 that includes a projection 40 positioned to extend into the window 28 when the first and second tails 22, 38 are clamped together. A second cable receiving opening 42 extends through the yoke 36 and is positioned to align with the opening 26 when the jaws are in an open position, in which the first and second tails 22, 38 are separated from one another. The second tail 38 defines a free end 44 and two opposed parallel second surfaces 46 adjacent the free end 44. A fastener receiving opening 48 passes through the free end 44 of the second tail 38 and is aligned with the opening 34 when the first and second tails 22, 38 are clamped together. The lower one of the second surfaces 46 acts as a mounting surface and is configured to be positioned against a support element such as a bus bar 50, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The upper one of the second surfaces 46 is positioned to abut the lower surface 32 of the male jaw 12. Figs. 4 and 5 show the manner in which the cable clamp 10 can be secured to a support element such as a bus bar 50 by a fastener 52. The fastener 52 clamps the first and second tails 22, 38 together and secures the entire clamp 10 in position on the bus bar 50. In use, the fastener 52 is initially removed and the male jaw 12 is rotated to an open position (not shown) in which the first and second tails 22, 38 are spaced one from another. Then the terminal portion 54 of a cable is inserted through the cable receiving openings 26, 42 until it abuts against the extreme end of the window 28. Then the male jaw 12 is rotated toward the closed position shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and the fastener 52 is used to clamp the first and second tails 22, 38 together. This causes the projection 40 to enter the window 28 and the cable to be clamped at four clamping points as shown by the arrows in Fig. 4. As shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the jaws 12, 14 can be assembled in two different orientations to clamp cables of two different diameters. In Fig. 4 the male jaw 12 is in a first orientation in which the angle B separates the open and closed positions. In Fig. 5 the male jaw 12 has been rotated by 180° about an axis of symmetry that is contained in the plane of symmetry 24 and is perpendicular to the cylinder axis 20. Because of the skew angle A shown in Fig. 3, in this alternate position the angular separation between the open and closed positions of the male jaw 12 is B + 2A, and thus the cable clamp 12 when assembled as shown in Fig. 5 operates to clamp a smaller cable. In this regard, the cable clamp 10 functions in similar manner to the cable clamp described in detail in the above-identified Cornell patents. Several important features of the cable clamp 10 contribute to its particularly low over head requirements. In particular, the lower one of the second surfaces 46 defines a mounting plane 56 which is positioned on the bus bar 50 when the cable clamp 10 is mounted in place as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. However, in contrast with the prior art designs described above, the mounting plane 56 extends only over a portion of the lower side of the female jaw 14, and the yoke 36 of the female jaw 14 extends below the mounting plane 56. In Fig. 5 the reference symbol D1 designates a first distance equal to the distance the female jaw member 14 extends below the mounting plane 56. The reference symbol D2 designates a second distance equal to the distance by which the jaw 14 extends above the mounting plane 56. As shown in Fig. 5, in this embodiment D1 is approximately equal to two-fifths of D2. In general, D1 should be no greater than D2. In many applications, it is preferred that D1 be no greater than one-half of D2. Because a portion of the female jaw 14 extends below the mounting plane 56, the headroom requirement of the cable clamp 10 (D2) is substantially reduced as compared to prior art designs. In Fig. 5 the reference symbol T is used to designate the characteristic thickness of the bus bar 50. Preferably, D1 is no greater than T so that the cable clamp 10 does not extend below the bus bar 50. This insures that the cable clamp 10 will not interfere with any devices mounted below the bus bar 50. In Fig. 5 the combined thicknesses of the two tails 22, 38 is designated by the reference symbol D3. Preferably, D1 is no greater than D3. The foregoing detailed description illustrates a number of significant advantages of this preferred embodiment. It should be noted that the first surfaces 32 are parallel to one another and to the plane of symmetry 24, that the second surfaces 46 are parallel to one another, and that the first and second surfaces 32, 46 are parallel to one another when the tails 22, 38 are clamped together. This arrangement has been found to minimize the overall thickness D3 of the two tails 22, 38 when they are clamped together, while permitting the male jaw 12 to be used in the two different orientations shown in Figs. 4 and 5. This reduces the length of the fastener 52 as well as the mass of metal required to form the male and female clamping members 12, 14. Furthermore, because the female jaw 14 extends partly below the mounting plane 56 while remaining mostly above the mounting plane 56, the over head requirement for the cable clamp 10 is minimized, without creating obstructions beneath the bus bar 50. Simply by way of example, the jaws 12, 14 are preferably machined from extruded bar stock. The bar stock is preferably an aluminum alloy having an electrical conductivity of not less than 46% of the International Annealed Copper Standard and a tensile strength of approximately 300 MPa. Aluminum alloy 6082 T6 International Standard has been found suitable. The cable receiving openings should preferably be sized approximately 110% of the largest cable to be clamped, and external corners can be radiused if desired to reduce corona discharge. Of course, it should be understood that this invention is not limited to use in cable clamps of the types shown in the above-identified Cornell patents, and that it can be adapted to other types of cable clamping devices.

Claims: A cable clamp comprising a male jaw (12) having a tail (22) and an integral part-cylindrical head (16), and a female jaw (14) having a tail (38) and an integral yoke (36) which defines a part-cylindrical socket (37), the head (16) of the male jaw being received in the socket to permit relative pivotal movement between the jaws, a cable receiving opening (26) extending diametrically through the head and a cable receiving opening (42) extending radially through the yoke, the said openings being aligned in an open pivotal position of the jaws to permit insertion of the cable (54) therethrough and substantially misaligned in a closed pivotal position of the jaws to clamp the cable, the said tails (22, 38) being clamped together to hold the jaws in the closed position and the lower surface (46) of the female jaw defining a planar mounting surface (56), characterized in that a portion of the said socket (37) and of the head (16) of the male jaw are set below the plane of the said mounting surface (56). A cable clamp according to claim 1, characterized in that a major portion of the said socket (37) is set above the plane of the mounting surface (56). A cable clamp according to claim 2, characterized in that the socket does not extend below the mounting surface (56) by a distance greater than the combined thickness of the two tails (22, 38) in their closed position. A cable clamp according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the upper surface (46) of the tail of the female jaw opposite the mounting surface (56) is parallel thereto. A cable clamp according to any preceding claim characterized in that the tail (22) of the male jaw has opposed parallel surfaces (32) of which the lower surface abuts the upper surface (46) of the tail (38) of the female jaw in the closed position of the jaws. A cable clamp according to claim 5, characterized in that the male jaw is symmetrically shaped relative to a plane of symmetry (24) extending through the axis (20) of the part-cylindrical head (16) and parallel with the said opposed parallel surfaces (32). A cable clamp according to any preceding claim, characterized in that the bore (42) in the head extends into a window (28) formed through the tail of the male jaw and the female jaw includes a projection (40) which enters the said window to engage and grip the cable (54) in the closed position of the jaws.

Inventors: CORNELL PAUL ADRIAN, CORNELL, PAUL ADRIAN
Applicants: PAN ELECTRIC CORP, PAN ELECTRIC CORPORATION
Application year: 1990
Main classification: H01R4
IPC codes: F16L3, H05K7, H01R4, H01R9, H02G3