Retractable Cable Reel With Inner Drum for Torsion-Sensitive Cables
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cable reels create twists and turns in cables, leading to impractical deployment and retraction processes, especially when handling multiple transmission systems like fluids, solids, electric power, and high-speed data, and existing solutions like slip rings and rotary unions are limited by environmental durability, signal degradation, and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A cable reel design featuring an outer spool and coaxially disposed inner drum, with a flexible metal or polymer conduit binding multiple cable components, allowing for coiled deployment and retraction without excessive connectors, bends, or torsional burdens, using a clock spring for retraction and a fixed axial tube to manage tension.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional cable reels are used to deploy and retract cables, then cable storage and deployment is enabled, but twists and turns are created in the cable leading to impractical deployment processes and potential cable damage
Solution Approach 1:
The cable reel system is divided into two separate drums: an outer drum for cable storage and an inner drum for managing cable tension and preventing twists. This segmentation allows each drum to perform its specific function independently, eliminating the twisting problem while maintaining ease of deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The inner drum acts as an intermediary mechanism between the cable and the outer drum. It manages cable tension and prevents twists by providing a dedicated structure for cable guidance, thereby protecting cable integrity during deployment and retraction operations.
2Reliability
If slip rings are used to maintain constant connections on cable reels, then power and basic data transmission is enabled, but they are limited by wear, friction, electrical arcing, and signal degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical slip rings with a torsion-free cable management system using two drums. This eliminates mechanical contact, friction, and electrical arcing while maintaining connection stability. The system achieves reliable power and data transmission without the wear and signal degradation problems of slip rings.
3Speed
If fiber optic wave guides are used for data transmission, then high-speed data capability is enabled, but they are brittle and very sensitive to excessive bending and torsion
Solution Approach 1:
The inner drum serves as an intermediary structure that specifically protects fiber optic cables from bending and torsion. By providing a dedicated guidance mechanism, it maintains the structural integrity of brittle fiber optics while enabling high-speed data transmission through the cable reel system.
4Adaptability or versatility
If rotary unions are used to provide rotational capability, then fluid power transmission is enabled, but they cross over one another limiting use to a single tube
Solution Approach 1:
The cable reel system segments the cable management into two independent drums, allowing multiple tubes including fluid power lines to be deployed without crossover interference. Each drum handles specific cable types, enabling versatile fluid transmission capabilities while maintaining simpler structural complexity compared to rotary unions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables predictable and efficient deployment and retraction of mixed-use cables, including ethernet, power wires, and fluid tubes, without signal degradation or mechanical failure, suitable for complex environments and tools like robotic welding arms.
Implementation Method 1
using a clock spring for retraction
Data Source
AI summary
A cable reel is disclosed having an outer deployment spool for deployment and retractive coiling of cable based on rotation about a central axis. The cable reel also has an inner, coaxial drum in which stored cable assumes tighter loops and relaxed loops responsive to the deployment or coiling of the cable on the outer spool. The cable extends from the inner drum through an opening in an axial tube and out of the drum orthogonally. The cable is contiguous from the deployable end on the outer spool, through the inner drum coils and through the axial tube. The reel may have a resistive spring or other means of retraction. The disclosed cable is not subject to acute bends, turns or torsion upon its long axis through deployed and retracted phases.