Abstract:
In cable tray, particularly cable tray with a central spine and laterally projecting arms, a bracket secured to the top and the bottom ends of the spine for holding a device in place through which cable runs. The bracket includes an inclined front face side that hooks to the top of the spine and a second horizontal side that attaches at the bottom of the spine and an opening through the inclined face of the bracket provides access to the device supported in the device.

Description:
[0001]    This application is based upon and claims benefit of United States Provisional Application No. 60/277,139, filed on Mar. 19, 2001, to which a claim of priority is hereby made. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The invention concerns a cable tray and is particularly useful with a specific embodiment a cable tray comprised of an elongate central spine with cable supporting arms radiating laterally from the spine. An example of such a cable tray is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,988, incorporated by reference for its relevant teachings. Such a tray does not have a separate device support bracket along its spine.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    The present invention has an objective to enable a support bracket to be installed on the spine of the cable tray. The bracket may be a support for a telecommunications data surface mount housing or for another housing of a device, which housing has cables communicating with it that are to be supported on the cable tray.  
           [0004]    In comparison with the conventional spine of a cable tray, the spine of this tray may be taller, e.g. up to four inches in height, to accommodate a standard telecommunications device. A shorter spine would not as well match the standard device units. Other types of devices may be attached to the spine as well.  
           [0005]    It previously might not have been possible to attach the devices directly to the cable tray. The present cable tray with a modified spine allows for a bracket to support a device to be attached at a selected location along the spine or several brackets to be attached at spaced intervals along the spine.  
           [0006]    These attached devices may be “hard wired”. The device is supported on the cable tray at a location as close as possible to where its use in required. For example, the cable tray with supported devices may be used to produce a plug in system for testing equipment in a laboratory. Current laboratory installations require equipment to be hard wired. With prior art systems, hard wiring may require a labor intensive effort to initially outfit the laboratory with device system. Outfitting a laboratory initially is made much easier.  
           [0007]    The bracket for supporting a device to the spine of the cable tray may have only two sides, including a bottom side that extends beneath the spine of the tray and that includes tangs that hold the bracket to the spine and an inclined side extends from the bottom side and that is attached or hooked to the top of the spine. The bracket may have the particular shape illustrated in the drawings here, with punched out and folded over engaging tangs or may be otherwise shaped to provide the attachment to the top and bottom of the spine.  
           [0008]    Other bracket arrangements and other shape brackets may be provided, to be consistent with the shape of the spine of the tray and with the size and shape of the device being mounted.  
           [0009]    The spine is shown as generally a U-shaped bent rail with a cross bar, giving the unit a generally A-shape. Other shape spines may be used, including a solid spine, an enclosed rectangle, etc. and the bracket would be suitably adapted to this.  
           [0010]    One spine may be used. Two parallel elongate spines may be used. Other arrangements of spines may be used.  
           [0011]    Cable wires exit the device supported on the bracket. The wires may be carried along the arms or rungs of the cable tray in the usual manner to where they are needed, e.g. for laboratory equipment, etc. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]    [0012]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a section of a cable tray showing a modified spine and bracket according to the invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 2 is a view at the end of a bracket showing a bracket and spine portion of the cable tray section in FIG. 1;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the section of cable tray in FIG. 2;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment; and  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 5 is an end view thereof. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0017]    A cable tray section with which the modified spine and bracket according to the invention are shown as illustrated in FIGS.  1 - 3 , as one embodiment.  
         [0018]    The cable tray itself may be of a type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,988, incorporated by reference. The cable tray comprises a central spine  12  illustrated here as comprised of a generally U-shaped or A-shaped part with opposite arms  14 ,  16 , a base  18  forming the base of the U and an optional rigidifying integrated cross-bar  22  between the arms  14 ,  16  giving an A-shape. For convenience of attachment of bracket  30  for an electrical device, the sides  14 ,  16  are straight upstanding and intersect the base  18  at sharp right angle corners,  24 ,  26 .  
         [0019]    Referring to FIG. 1, as is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,988, at spaced intervals along the tray segment  10 , there are elongate arms  28  which project from the opposite sides of the spine. Actually, the arms  28  may be formed of a single arm that passes through the spine  12 . The opposite outer ends of the arms  28  are bent upwardly at short arms  30 , whereby open and accessible cable tray is defined at arms  28  between spine wall  16  and upstanding arms  30  and also between spine wall  14  and the corresponding upstanding arms at the other end of the arms  28 . There is a uniform gap spacing between adjacent arms  28  which are close enough together to support cable along the length without excessive sag of the cable between the arms  28 .  
         [0020]    When it is desired to retain some electrical device  34  at the cable tray where it may be hard wired and securely held in place so that laboratory equipment might be plugged directly into the particular device  34 , the spine of the cable tray holds a bracket  40  which holds the device box or housing securely to the cable tray spine so that cables may be carried to the device box to hard wire it, and the device box can be positioned in the laboratory or at another location where it is needed, or at least where it is most easily accessible along the cable tray. The cable tray may extend along the length and/or the width of the room or laboratory.  
         [0021]    The illustrated bracket  40  has a relatively simple V-shape, including an extended bottom side  42  that defines the open space  44  into which the device  34  is disposed and that extends toward and beneath the underside  18  of the spine  12 . The end of the bottom leg  42  terminates in a engaging hook shape bend  44 , which hooks to the outside of the opposite wall  16  from the side at which the bracket  40  is positioned, and also includes a bent up tang  46  that resiliently presses against the proximal wall  14 , so that the bottom of the bracket  12  is held between the hook  44  and the tang  46  and is secured there.  
         [0022]    The bracket  40  further includes the inclined outer wall  48  which inclines from its bottom at a rounded junction  52  with the bottom wall  42  to the top edges  4  of the spine wall  14 . The bracket wall  48  has a top hook  56  which is bent over and hooks the top edge  54  of the spine securing the bracket  40  to the spine, both at the top and the bottom so that the bracket is anchored tightly. The bracket is shaped preferably cooperatively with the device  34  held within it so that the device is fixed.  
         [0023]    Further securement of the bracket to the spine is obtained by appropriate fasteners such as a bolt which passes through openings  62  in the tang  46  and through opening  64  in the bent down tab  66  punched out of the wall  48  and folded in against the spine wall  16 . For added securement of the bracket  40 , its lateral width is slightly less than the space between adjacent arms  28  of the cable tray so as to fit between those arms and be held there against movement.  
         [0024]    The surface of the arm  48  of the bracket has an opening  68  through it providing access to a connector  72 , e.g. a plug socket, which is at the outward face of the device  34 , for example. A pattern of openings in the bracket  48  corresponds to various connections to the devices  34  inside the bracket.  
         [0025]    Cable tray has as its purpose the support of cable which supplies various devices. Representative cable on the tray is shown at  78 . The device  34  in the bracket  40  is also hardwired and cable  82  from that device also rests on the arms  28 . Hence, the cable tray carries the cable directly to the hard-wired fixed position device  34 .  
         [0026]    A second embodiment of cable tray adopts the same construction and operational principles as the first embodiment, but has two spines  110 ,  140  rather than one. The arms  126  end in the upstanding arms  130  that define the tray between the bracket wall  116  and the upstanding arms  130 . There is a separate spine  110  and another spine  140  spaced apart across the bars  126 , so that cable can be carried both between the spines and the arms  130  at the ends and also along the part of the tray between the spines  110  and  140 . In other respects, the cable tray seen in FIGS. 4 and 5 corresponds to that in the first three Figures and further details as to the cable tray, the cables, the bracket  140  and the device held thereby and the cables transmitted thereby are not provided, since they can be understood from the first embodiment.  
         [0027]    Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.