Multi-Conduit Joiner Collar for Aligned Cable Reticulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing subterranean cable conduit systems face difficulties during upgrades and maintenance, particularly when new cables need to be run through crowded or twisted conduits, as existing methods struggle with successfully inserting and pulling cables through these complex configurations.
Innovation Solution
A multi-conduit system featuring a joiner section with a collar that widens to form an open mouth with lobes, allowing for non-rotational alignment and frictional engagement of conduits, reducing gaps and edges that can hinder cable reticulation, and providing airtight connections for pneumatic fiber blowing, while optimizing cross-section and structural resilience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a resiliently flexible snake is run through the conduit to pull new cables, then cable installation is attempted, but successfully running the snake through crowded or twisted conduits is especially difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the conduit into multiple separate conduits within a single housing, allowing each conduit to be independently managed. This segmentation prevents cable twisting and crowding issues that occur in single-conduit systems, making snake insertion and cable pulling significantly easier and more reliable.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple individual conduits are nested within a single outer conduit housing. This nested structure allows each inner conduit to maintain its own cable path independently, preventing the twisting and crowding problems that plague single-conduit systems while maintaining a compact overall structure.
2Ease of operation
If multiple conduits are integrated in a single housing, then cable management is improved, but the complexity of the conduit structure increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple separate conduits are merged into a single integrated housing structure. This combining approach provides organized cable management with each conduit serving a specific function while the unified housing simplifies installation and maintenance compared to managing multiple separate conduit systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-conduit housing serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structured cable management, prevents cable twisting, allows independent access to each conduit, and maintains a compact installation footprint. This multi-functionality justifies the increased structural complexity by delivering multiple operational benefits.
3Area of stationary object
If conduits are tightly packed to optimize space, then space utilization is improved, but gaps and edges are created that can hinder cable reticulation
Solution Approach 1:
The collar structure provides localized quality improvement at the conduit junction area. By creating a collar with lobes that extend into each conduit, the design locally modifies the junction region to eliminate harmful gaps and edges, while maintaining tight packing of the overall conduit structure for optimal space utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The collar structure acts as a flexible sealing element that adapts to the conduit arrangement. The lobes of the collar can deform to conform to the conduit surfaces, creating smooth transitions that eliminate gaps and edges without requiring rigid, space-consuming structural elements.
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
The system simplifies cable reticulation by ensuring correct alignment without interior edges or gaps, reduces installation complexity, and enhances structural resilience, making it easier to integrate into existing systems with cost advantages and improved cable path configurations.
Implementation Method 1
the lobes of the collar non-rotatably engage the like conduits to correctly align each conduit of the section with a respective like conduit of the adjacent section
Implementation Method 2
allowing pneumatic blowing of fibre through the conduits
Data Source
AI summary
A multi-conduit system has a joiner section comprising a plurality of conduits in parallel and a joining end for connection to a plurality of exposed like conduits of an adjacent section in use. The conduits of the section terminate at a proximal end of the joining end which comprises a collar widens in diameter from the conduits to form an open mouth. The collar defines an inner profile having a plurality of lobes having respective inner profiles corresponding to outer profiles of respective exposed like conduits such that, in use, when the like conduits of the adjacent section are inserted into the mouth, the lobes of the collar non-rotatably engage the like conduits to correctly align each conduit of the section with a respective like conduit of the adjacent section.