Cable Tray Splice Bar Locking for Fast Rigid Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cable tray systems face challenges in efficient assembly, storage, and handling due to separate storage of splice bars and tray sections, leading to increased assembly time, logistical difficulties, and potential detachments, especially when dealing with varying tray thicknesses.
Innovation Solution
A cable tray device with splice bars featuring an L-shaped configuration, including a base arm with latch fins and a side arm with an inclined edge and tongues, allowing for secure pre-positioning and locking within the tray sections during assembly and storage, maintaining a constant seat regardless of tray thickness, and providing elasticity for reduced assembly effort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If splice bars are permanently mounted on cable tray sections, then assembly time is reduced and management is simplified, but the overall length of the cable tray increases due to protruding splice bars
Solution Approach 1:
The splice bars are nested within the cable tray section during storage and transport, with their ends received by recesses in the tray section. This allows the splice bars to be pre-positioned and permanently associated with the tray sections without increasing the overall length, while still enabling quick assembly by simply extracting the pre-assembled units.
2Ease of manufacture
If splice bars are stored separately from tray sections, then storage organization is maintained, but assembly time increases and logistical management becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The splice bars are permanently mounted on the tray sections during manufacturing, merging two previously separate components into a single integrated unit. This eliminates the need for separate storage and handling of splice bars, reduces assembly time to merely extracting the pre-assembled units, and simplifies logistical management while maintaining traceability through identical references.
3Reliability
If splice bars protrude from cable tray ends, then permanent association is achieved, but handling becomes difficult due to non-standard lengths
Solution Approach 1:
The splice bars are received by recesses in the tray section ends, nesting them within the overall boundaries of the tray section. This maintains the permanent association through mechanical retention (protrusions fitting into recesses) while preventing the splice bars from increasing the overall length, thus preserving standard handling characteristics.
4Adaptability or versatility
If cable trays are made with varying thicknesses, then design flexibility is improved, but positioning splice bars becomes more difficult to maintain constant seat
Solution Approach 1:
The tray section incorporates specific structural features at localized positions (recesses in the ends and corresponding protrusions on splice bars) that ensure precise positioning regardless of the overall tray thickness. This local structural design maintains constant seat positioning for splice bars while allowing the rest of the tray to have design flexibility in thickness variations.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
Cable tray device having a first tray section (2) and two splice bars (4) for connecting the first tray section (2) to a second tray section (3); each tray section (2, 3) has a U-shaped profile with a substantially flat bottom (21, 31) delimited between two walls (22, 32); the splice bars (4) are arranged on the outside of the cable tray sections (2, 3); the walls (22, 32) of the tray sections (2, 3) are pierced by traversing and oblong holes (23); the bottom (21) comprises traversing and oblong holes (24); the walls (22) have a curved upper edge (25) which extends over the entire length of each wall opposite to the bottom (21); each splice bar (4) has an L-shaped configuration and comprises a base branch (41) and a side branch (42); the base branch (41) has strips (43); the base branch (41) has base hoops (44) provided with oblique latching fins (45); the lateral branch (42) has an inclined end (46) which terminates with an inclined edge (47) provided with a series of tongues (48), folded in the opposite direction to the inclined edge (47); the lateral branch (42) has a series of lateral hoops (49) designed to pass through the traversing and oblong holes (23) of the respective walls (22) of the tray sections (2, 3).