Patent ID: 7677372

Claim:
In a trailing line system in which a plurality of moving carriers, carrying at least one electrical trailing line, are guided in series on a fixed carrier rail and wherein the moving carriers guide said at least one electrical trailing line to a moving work device, and wherein an end clamp device holds the at least one electrical trailing line in a fixed position on the carrier rail relative to the moving carriers, the improvement wherein the end clamp device comprises a housing fixed to the carrier rail, said housing having a bottom wall fixed to the carrier rail, a front wall and a rear wall fixed to the bottom wall, an elongated member slidably mounted in the front wall of the housing with a first portion projecting out of the housing in the direction of moving carrier movement and a second portion located inside the housing, a first shock absorber mounted on the projecting first portion of said elongated member facing in the direction of the moving carriers for initially absorbing an impact of the first moving carrier, a second shock absorber mounted in the housing between the rear wall and the second portion of the said elongated member inside said housing for absorbing any impact passed on by said first absorber, said first and second shock absorbers having different characteristics and being arranged in series one behind the other in the anticipated direction of action of the first shock absorber, the overall characteristics of the shock absorbers being non-linear and having an initial region with a small increase in spring force via a first amount of deflection and a following region with greater increase in spring force via an amount of deflection greater than the first amount of deflection.