Rack-Mountable Fiber Cable Panel for Bend-Radius-Safe Slack Storage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional optical fiber distribution systems suffer from poor cable organization, leading to tangling and signal loss due to the use of vertical raceways for slack storage, which are often crowded and require wide spaces that may not be available.
Innovation Solution
A rack mountable cable management panel with a base, cable supports, and retaining structures that optimize slack storage by maintaining fiber optic cables within a minimum bend radius, eliminating the need for additional slack management structures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If vertical raceways are used for storing slack cables, then cable storage is provided, but cable tangling occurs and organization deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The vertical raceway is segmented into multiple horizontal shelves that divide the storage space into distinct levels. Each shelf provides a separate storage plane for cables, preventing them from tangling while maintaining organized separation. This segmentation transforms the single vertical storage space into multiple organized horizontal compartments.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from purely vertical cable storage to a three-dimensional arrangement incorporating horizontal shelves. Cables are routed horizontally across shelves rather than hanging vertically, utilizing the horizontal dimension to prevent tangling while maintaining efficient space utilization within the raceway.
2Ease of operation
If wide vertical raceways are provided for cable routing, then cable management is improved, but space availability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention utilizes the vertical dimension by installing horizontal shelves at different heights within the raceway. This allows cables to be organized horizontally across multiple levels rather than requiring a wide single-level raceway, thereby maintaining effective cable management while preserving horizontal space.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple horizontal shelves are nested vertically within the raceway structure, creating a compact multi-level storage system. This nesting arrangement maximizes the use of vertical space while maintaining organized cable routing, eliminating the need for wide horizontal clearance.
3Quantity of substance
If slack cables are stored in crowded vertical raceways, then storage is achieved, but signal transmission reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the raceway into horizontal shelves, cables are separated into distinct compartments that prevent contact and potential damage between adjacent cables. This segmentation reduces the risk of signal interference and physical damage, thereby improving transmission reliability while maintaining storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of allowing cables to hang vertically where they can tangle and interfere with each other, the invention inverts the storage approach by laying cables horizontally across shelves. This inversion of the storage orientation eliminates cable contact and potential signal interference while maintaining efficient storage.
Data Source
AI summary
A cable management panel for optimizing management and storage of a slack portion of a fiber optic cable includes a base portion and a cable support portion that is configured to extend from the base portion. The cable support includes a curved portion configured to prevent a fiber optic cable that is wrapped around the curved portion from being bent beyond a minimum bend radius. The cable support is configured to provide a path structure for optimizing management and storage of different lengths of slack of fiber optic cables such that a selected path length from an end of the base portion to the curved portion of the cable support and back to the end of the base portion substantially matches a length of slack of a fiber optic cable such that the length of slack is maintained within the height of the base so as to eliminate the need for slack cable management structures in space about a rack to which the panel is mounted.