Conduit Guide Grid and Spacers for Organized Underground Bundling
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Solution Overview
Problem
The installation of underground conduits for fiber optic cables often results in entanglement and disarray, making it difficult to identify and access individual conduits for assignment, splicing, or repair, and increasing the risk of cable damage due to extraneous bends and undulations.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a guide device with an outer frame and intersecting walls forming a grid, through which conduit sections are fed to be positioned in parallel and bundled together using a spacer device, ensuring each conduit occupies a known position within the bundle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If very long lengths of conduit are transported in reels and unreeled for installation, then installation speed is improved, but the conduit becomes entangled and disordered making identification and access difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The conduit is pre-configured into organized bundles with spacers installed at regular intervals before installation. This preliminary organization maintains the bundled configuration during the unreealing and installation process, allowing fast installation while preventing entanglement and maintaining clear identification of individual conduit positions throughout the run.
2Productivity
If multiple sections of conduit are laid in a single trench over long distances, then installation efficiency is improved, but extraneous bends and undulations increase making cable installation more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Conduit sections are pre-assembled into bundled configurations with spacers that maintain proper spacing and alignment before being laid in the trench. This preliminary bundling ensures that when multiple conduit sections are installed together, they maintain a organized parallel arrangement that minimizes extraneous bends and undulations, protecting the cable from damage during subsequent installation.
3Ease of operation
If conduit sections are laid individually to minimize entanglement, then conduit organization is improved, but installation time increases substantially
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple conduit sections are merged into a single bundled unit with spacers installed at regular intervals. This combining approach allows all conduit sections to be installed together as one organized unit, maintaining clear identification and organization of individual conduits within the bundle while achieving fast installation through the simultaneous placement of multiple sections.
4Ease of manufacture
If duct banks are constructed in multiple straight sections and pieced together, then handling and transportation is simplified, but the length is limited by transportation constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The conduit system is segmented into modular sections that can be manufactured and transported separately, then connected using couplers to form continuous long-distance runs. This segmentation allows each section to be handled and transported easily while the ability to connect sections extends the overall conduit length beyond transportation limitations.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and devices are disclosed herein for feeding sections of conduit through a guide device which positions the conduit sections for bundling and then bundling the sections of conduit with a spacer device comprising a pair of brackets which encircle the conduit bundle and are banded together. In one implementation of the technology, a device for guiding conduit sections comprises an outer frame which encloses walls which intersect to form a grid. The grid comprises multiple channels through which multiple sections of conduit pass in parallel. In another aspect of the technology, a system of feeding and organizing multiple sections of conduit from conduit reels to a conduit guide and spacer system is provided.