2. Description of Prior Art In the field of seismic bracing of trapeze racks and ceiling suspended pipe and conduit in buildings, it has been the practice in many instances to disconnect the suspended pipes or trapeze racks from the support rods hanging from the ceiling in order to connect the required seismic brackets to which cable or rigid bracing assemblies may be attached. This practice has been unsatisfactory in that it is very labor intensive and difficult, especially if the trapeze rack is carrying electrical equipment as it sometimes does in addition to electrical conduit and plumbing.

There have been attempts in the prior art to devise devices that may be attached to these support rods without disengaging them from the trapeze rack or from the suspended conduit brackets. One example of such a prior art device is shown in Figure 1, a seismic cable brace with hook attachment. Seismic cable brace 11 has a"G"shaped hook 13 which is hinged to a frame 15 by a shaft 17 that passes through apertures in the frame 15. A pair of bolts 19 and 21 having a threaded shaft thick enough to allow a sufficiently long aperture through its diameter to receive a cable 27. The apertures in the bolt shafts are located underneath the heads. The cable 27 passes through the shaft apertures before the shafts pass through apertures in the frame 15 to be tightened by respective nuts 23 and 25. Cable 27 is thus held fast by pressure between the head of the bolts 19 and 21 and the back side of the frame 15.

Although this arrangement may work satisfactorily in certain applications, it is quite cumbersome in use and expensive to manufacture because of the many parts and assembly requirement.

The present invention, on the other hand, does not have these shortcomings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A rod capture bracket at one end, and an anchor bracket or similar connection at the other end of a cable or wire allows the bracing of suspended utility pipes conduits or trapeze racks holding these types of utilities and related apparatus without disconnecting the conduit or trapeze from the suspension rods, while providing an inexpensive and easy to install bracing system. The capture bracket has a right-angled shaped slot cut into it, at a width that is slightly larger than the diameter of the suspension support rods.

The cable is preferably looped and permanently attached at the anchor bracket and looped and adjustably attached at the rod capture bracket. For lighter duty applications, a wire, rather than a cable, may be permanently attached to both the rod capture bracket and the anchor bracket.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The exact nature of this invention as well as many of its advantages will be readily appreciated as they become better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in relation to the accompanied drawings in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures thereof and wherein: Figure 1 is a perspective of a seismic cable brace with hook attachment of the prior art; Figure 2 is a perspective of a cable brace assembly according to the present invention; Figure 3 is an elevation showing the use of the preferred embodiment of Figure 2 in bracing a trapeze rack; Figure 4 is a top view of the support system shown in Figure 3; and Figure 5 is a perspective of an alternate embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Figure 2 illustrates a seismic cable brace assembly 29 according to the present invention which utilizes a cable 41 which may be a braided core, galvanized aircraft cable for example, which is fastened to an anchor bracket 31 through an aperture 33 at the first end of the anchor bracket. The second end of the anchor bracket includes an aperture 34. An additional aperture 36 may be located between the two apertures 33 and 34 located at the extremes of the anchor bracket 31. The anchor bracket 31 is preferably bent at an angle of 45° from the plane of the first end. The aperture 34 at the second end of anchor bracket 31 is used to fasten the bracket to a ceiling.

Cable 41 passes through aperture 33 at the first end of anchor bracket 31 in a loop, and is contained in the trough of a loop guard 38 which is preferably made of high strength steel in order to prevent chaffing of cable 41 because of movement. The looped over end of cable 41 is inserted into a crimp lock 43 riding on cable 41 which is then crimped, to permanently attaching cable 41 to the first end of anchor bracket 31.

The other end of cable 41 is attached to a rod capture bracket 35 which has a right angle slot 39 at its first end with the axis of the slot running along the length of rod capture bracket 35, and the other axis of the slot running perpendicular. The second end of rod capture bracket 35 contains an aperture 37. Cable 41 is looped through aperture 37 within the trough of loop guard 40. The end of cable 41 is passed through a couple of U- clamps 45 which firmly attach the end of the cable to itself. These U-clamps allow the length of cable 41 between the anchor bracket and the rod capture bracket to be adjusted once the two brackets are into place.

For lighter bracing applications, the preferred embodiment 47 of a cable brace assembly shown in Figure 5 may be utilized. Instead of a cable 41, a wire 49 connects the anchor bracket 31 and the rod capture bracket 35. The wire 49 is preferably an 8 gauge or 12 gauge wire which passes through the respective apertures 33 and 37 of the anchor bracket and rod capture bracket and is wrapped around itself 51 at both ends by what is commonly known as a hospital wrap or eye-wire tie which consists of four tight factory wraps within an inch.

Referring now to Figures 3 and 4, the application of the seismic cable brace assembly described above is illustrated.

A pipe and conduit trapeze rack 55 carries various size pipes 65,69 and 67 that are held to the trapeze rack by standard pipe clamps 66,70 and/or a one-piece pipe strap 68. The single or multiple layer channel trapeze rack 55 is supported by a pair of threaded rods 57 and 59 at each end of the rack with nuts 63 and 61 at the bottom ends of the rods, and nuts 58 and 60 at the topside of the rods, thereby rigidly holding the rack to the rods 57 and 59.

To prevent sway that is created by seismic activity, seismic cable brace assemblies 29 are used on both ends of the trapeze rack 55 as shown in Figures 3 and 4 thereby preventing sway in the plane of the seismic cable brace assemblies. Seismic cable brace assemblies may be used in other planes to prevent sway in those planes as well. The anchor bracket 31 of each brace assembly is fastened to the ceiling 53 of a building by bolts 53. The ceiling also holds the other end of the threaded rods 57 and 59.

The rod capture bracket 35 is fastened to its respective rod 57 or 59 by simply loosening the top nuts 58 or 60, slipping the capture bracket around the threaded rod and tightening the nuts 58 and 60.

As can be seen, attachment of this seismic cable brace assembly to a suspended utility rack is swift and simple, especially when the seismic brace assemblies are being attached as part of a retrofit. Moreover, because the seismic cable brace assembly has a minimal number of parts and is so simple in design, it can be manufactured relatively cheaply compared to the prior art devices, thereby allowing much greater use of this brace assembly for the retrofit dollar.