OPPOSITE SIDES

Technical Field

The present invention concerns a seal, lead-through or transit for cables or pipes. The invention especially concerns parts of the seal or transition, having peelable sheets for adaptation to diameters of a cable or pipe to be received.

Prior Art

In the prior art there are cable transitions or the like having a frame, inside which a number of modules to receive cables, wires or pipes are placed. The modules are made of an elastic material e.g. rubber or plastics and are thus compressible. Inside the frame normally a number of modules are received side by side in one or more rows together with some kind of compression unit. The compression unit is placed between the frame and the modules in such a way that when the compression unit is expanded the compressible modules will be compressed around the cables, wires or pipes. For ease of description the expression "cable" is mainly used in this description, but it should be construed broadly and a person skilled in the art realises that it normally also covers pipes or wires.

Another type of seal, cable transition, pipe penetration etc. has a general cylindrical form and is to be received in a sleeve in a wall or an opening in a wall. To func- tion in the desired way the seal should fit snugly into the sleeve or the opening of the wall in which it is received and the seal should be adaptable to the actual mounting dimension. The mounting dimension is dictated by the inner diameter of the sleeve or the opening. The seal has a cylindrical compressible body, which is compressed axially between fittings at the opposite ends of the compressible body. By the axial compres- sion the cylindrical body will expand radially both inwards and outwards. When doing so, any compressible modules arranged in the compressible body will be compressed as well, and thus sealing will be effected.

Furthermore, the pipes, wires or cables received may have different outer diameters, and, thus, the module should be adaptable to cables or pipes having different outer diameters.

Seals or transitions of both the above kinds are used for sealing in many different environments, such as for cabinets, technical shelters, junction boxes and machines. They are used in different industrial environments, such as automotive, telecom, power generation and distribution, as well as marine and offshore. The seals or transitions may have to seal against fluid, gas, fire, rodents, termites, dust, moisture etc., and may receive cables or wires for electricity, communication, computers etc., pipes for different gases or liquids such as water, compressed air, hydraulic fluid and cooking gas or wires for load retention.

The parts receiving a single cable etc. of both the types discussed above often have a pack of peelable layers or sheets on the inside. The layers or sheets are peeled off until the inner diameter of the part is adapted to the outer diameter of the cable received in said part. The sheets adhere strong enough to each other to stay together and at the same time loose enough to enable the sheets to be peeled off from the stack, either one- by-one or a number of sheets together. In some embodiments there are also peelable layers or sheets on the outside, making it possible to adapt the outer dimensions of for instance a circular seal to a specific opening or sleeve. A person skilled in the art realises that the exact shape and form of the different parts, including the layers, may vary without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example the pack of layers may have another cross sectional form than circular.

The present invention aims at providing a compressible module, which is im- proved in certain aspects in relation to prior art, in particular relating to installation time and sealing properties.

Summary

The present invention achieves the inventive objects by the provision of a base part for a compressible module for cable entries or pipe penetrations receiving one or more compressible modules surrounding each cable or pipe, which cable entries or pipe penetrations are placed either directly in an opening through a wall or other structural partition forming the wall or other partition or in a frame, whereby a barrier is formed of the one or more modules and at least one compression unit in either the opening or the frame, wherein the compressible module has at least one peelable layer for adapting to the diameter of a cable or pipe, which at least one peelable layer is placed in a base part, wherein each base part has several grooves, receiving at least one peelable layer. The inventive module is characterized in that the grooves are arranged on opposing sides of the module. The positive effects of this feature will be discussed in the following in relation to preferred embodiments thereof. One beneficial effect, however, is that a sys- tern comprising inventive module may be more space efficient, as compared to prior art modules, measured in terms of number of transitions per unit area.

In one or more embodiments the module may have base part has two or more grooves for peelable layers placed side by side, in order to improve space efficiency and stability even further. In another embodiment the base part has two or more grooves for peelable layers placed side by side on one side and one or more grooves for peelable layers placed on the opposite side, and according to one modification thereof the number of grooves on one side of the base part exceeds the number of grooves on the opposite side by one. This gives the possibility of even greater space efficiency, since a groove on the one side may be arranged between two grooves on the opposite side. This will be more easily understood when studying the detailed description.

According to one or more embodiments the base part is made of two parts foldable around a common hinge along a longitudinal side of the base part.

The present invention also relates to a sealing system comprising cable entries or pipe penetrations receiving one or more compressible modules surrounding each cable or pipe, which cable entries or pipe penetrations are placed either directly in an opening through a wall or other structural partition forming the wall or other partition or in a frame, whereby a barrier is formed of the one or more modules and at least one compression unit in either the opening or the frame, wherein the compressible module has at least one peelable layer for adapting to the diameter of a cable or pipe, which at least one peelable layer is placed in a base part according to the previous or following description.

Brief Description of the Drawings The invention will be described more closely below by way of example and with reference to the enclosed drawings. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of one example of a cable or pipe transition according to prior art.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a module half according to prior art, which may be used in the transition of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an end view of compressible modules according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a sub part of a compressible module according to a further embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 5is a perspective view of a sub part of a compressible module according to a further embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a sub part according to Fig. 4, combined with a base part for a compressible module of another design. Fig. 7 is an end view of a sub part according to still a further embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a sub part according to yet a further embodiment of the present invention, in an arrangement with additional sub parts.

Detailed Description of Different Embodiments

A common type of seals or transitions for cables and/or pipes is indicated in Fig. 1. It has an outer frame 1 received in a wall or any other type of partition. Inside the frame 1 a number of modules 2 are arranged to receive a single cable or pipe each. Furthermore, a compression unit 3 is received inside the frame 1. The modules 2 are sepa- rated by stay plates 4, which stay plates 4 are arranged to position the modules 2 safely inside the frame 1. The stay plates 4 have beeds in the width direction, which keeps the modules localized in the axial direction, or depth direction. The modules 2 are compressible parts of the seal or transition. Each module 2 has a central blind 5, which is removed when the cable or pipe is received. An alternative system including a frame is described in the simultaneously filed application entitled "Sealing System", filed by the applicant of the present application. This application is hereby incorporated by reference.

In alternative embodiments the seal, lead-through or transit of the present invention is furnished with means for lubrication as shown in the simultaneously filed application entitled "Lubrication of a Pipe or Cable Lead-Through", filed by the applicant of the present application. This application is hereby incorporated by reference. In Fig. 2 a module half is shown, which corresponds with the modules 2 of Fig. 1. The module half has a base part 6 with a generally rectangular appearance, having a semi cylindrical groove at one side. Inside the semi cylindrical groove of the base part 6 a number of peelable sheets 7 are received. In use two module halves are put together with the grooves facing each other. The module thus formed will have a central cylindrical opening, in which a cable or pipe is to be received. When a cable or pipe is to be received an appropriate number of sheets 7 are peeled off from each base part 6 in order to adapt the inner diameter of the cylindrical opening of the module to the outer diameter of the cable or pipe to be received. Thus, when a module 2 is to receive a cable or a pipe the blind 5 is first removed and then a number of sheets 7 are peeled off. When all pipes and/or cables have been placed in a module 2 each, the compression unit 3 is activated. The function of the compression unit 3 is to expand inside the frame 1. As the compression unit expands it will compress the modules 2, which are made of a com- pressible material such as rubber. The modules 2 will be compressed in one direction and expand in other directions, pressing the modules 2 against the frame 1 and cables.

The sheets may be arranged in many different ways and with different features as reflected in the simultaneously filed applications entitled " A Pipe or Cable Lead- Through having Interconnected Layers", "A Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having Layers of Different Thickness", "Cohering Between Layers of a Pipe or Cable Lead-Through" and "Identification of Layers of a Pipe or Cable Lead-Through", filed by the applicant of the present application. These applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

The modules described above offer maximum flexibility, since the individual type of module may be chosen for each cable to be sealed. The high flexibility has its benefits, yet regarding e.g. assembly time and space efficiency there are improvements to be made.

To that end Fig. 3 illustrates compressible modules according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the shown embodiment there are two base parts 6, corresponding with the base part 6 of Fig. 2, placed at the uppermost and lowermost sides. Furthermore, there is one base part 8, placed in the middle between the other base parts 6. The base part 8 in the middle has one half cylindrical groove on each of two opposing sides. In said cylindrical grooves one or more peelable layers or sheets 9 are placed.

The module of Fig. 4, or rather one base part 106 thereof is characterized in that several recesses or grooves 110 are arranged in each base part 106. Peelable sheets 107 are arranged in each groove 110. In the illustrated embodiment the grooves 110 are arranged "back-to-back", on opposite sides of the module, as compared to known modules where the groove is arranged on one side of the module only. This gives the advantage of reducing the number of compressible modules 102 needed in an installation, which also reduces the number of surfaces to seal, the number of modules to be aligned, and thus the installation or assembly time. Further the amount of material may be reduced between adjacent grooves, in the horizontal direction (or width direction) as well as in the vertical direction, with maintained rigidity as compared to a system of the type illustrated in Fig. 1. These results are gained and the resulting loss in flexibility is not severe. Compared to the modular system of Fig. 1 where a separate module may be se- lected for each cable transfer the present system where each separate module defines the dimensions of several cable transfers, the latter may be considered less flexible. Several comments may be made on this remark. One is that the inventive type of compressible module does not have to occupy the entire frame. Another is that comparably few in- stallations are of an "ad-hoc" type. Often it is known what types of cables, pipes or wires before the seals or transitions are ordered, and thus compressible modules of the correct dimension may be delivered. It should be noted that there may be discrepancies in e.g. cable dimensions from batch to batch, but the peelable sheets will absorb these variations excellently. An inventive compressible module, or again, a base part 206 thereof, is illustrated in Fig. 5. In this embodiment the base part is designed to cover an entire row of a frame. This reduces the number of modules even further. This design also enables the removal of the above mentioned stay plates 4 since the base parts may be designed to cooperate with the frame. This design simplifies the assembly even further, for obvious reasons. One less obvious result is that it also simplifies horizontal installations, e.g., when the seals or transitions are arranged in a ceiling or floor. In such cases the cooperation between base parts and the frame reduces the risk of modules falling out of the frame during installation.

From the previous description and drawings it is apparent that it will not be possible to use the inventive type of modules only. The lowermost and the uppermost base part, or any base part abutting a stay plate should be a base part of more conventional design. This is illustrated in Fig. 6, where the lowermost base part is a "module half 6 of a conventional design. However, even in the worst case, where two conventional base parts sandwiches one inventive base part, the total number of individual pieces will be three instead of four, which is an improvement. Stay plates are generally used to improve stability and load distribution in a sealing system. The present system may be used in combination with stay plates. It may also, however, be used without stay plates, and in this use it has advantages as compared to prior art systems, since the number of sealing surfaces will be reduced. The compressible module 306 of Fig. 7 has a larger number of grooves on the lower side than on the upper. This has the beneficial effect of making the module even more space efficient, since the shape of the grooves may be matched for this purpose. For this reason it is presently considered appropriate that the number of grooves on one side exceeds the number of grooves on the other by one. In the embodiment shown, the dimension of the grooves on the one side is smaller than the dimension of the grooves of the other side.

An effect of the embodiment of Fig. 7 is that it may be modified so that the angle between the conductors is 120° (measured from lines extending from the geometri- cal center for a group of three conductors each conducting a separate phase). This type of triangular configuration is, as is well known for the skilled person, highly beneficial for reduction of electromagnetical effects. This is shown in Fig. 8, which is not drawn to scale. Reference numbers have been omitted since the construction is obvious from the previous description. In yet another embodiment a base part may comprise a stayplate, which may be embedded in the base part or attached to the base part in another manner. In, e.g., the embodiments of Figs. 3, 4, 5, 7 it is conceivable to have an embedded stay plate arranged between the opposing grooves. In this way additional stayplates may be eliminated and the packing efficiency may be improved even further. Another effect is that the axial dimension of the base parts may exceed the corresponding dimension of the frame, implying that there will be an "overhang" in which the base parts are not directly supported by the frame. This may have little or no effect on the sealing properties in relation to fluids, yet the increased mass will increase the fire resistance of the sealing system. Such a solution may not have been possible using a conventional sealing system with regular compressible modules and stayplates. Note that the length of the stayplate still may be matched to the length of the frame rather than the module.

In a further embodiment (not shown) base parts having grooves with peelable sheets on two opposing sides are each made of two parts foldable around a common hinge along a longitudinal side of the base part. Such a base part having a hinge may be placed either as end parts or middle parts, depending of the mutual positions of the two hinged parts of the base part. If the two parts are placed side-by- side the base part is an end part and if the two parts are placed on top of each other the base part is a middle part.

Alternative embodiments of the modules are given in the simultaneously filed applications entitled "Eccentric Part of a Pipe or Cable Lead-Through", "A Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having a Part Indicating Compressing", "Pipe or Cable Lead- Through Blocks", "Modules of a Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having Alternating Geometry", "A Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having Modularized Modules", "A Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having Penetrateable Modules", "A Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having Modules with a Dimensioning Function" and "A Pipe or Cable Lead-Through having Layers of Alternating Geometry", filed by the applicant of the present application. In one embodiment the modules are separated from a stack of module halves sticking together, as described in the simultaneously filed application named "Modules of Pipe or Cable Lead-Through Sticking Together", filed by the applicant of the present application. These applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

In the described embodiments the groove has been given a semicircular cross section. The invention, however, is not limited to this shape, since the groove may be given any cross section for the adaptation of cables, pipes or wires to be received, such as rectangular, triangular, oval, etc. The base parts shown in the Figs, are only examples and a person skilled in the art realises that the number and size of grooves having peelabel sheets of each base part may be varied in other ways than shown. Thus, the grooves of the base parts may be combined in many different ways.