The subject of the invention relates to an aid with improved characteristics for facilitating the movement of signal transmitting cables in cable ducts, which has a thin- walled, flexible limiting body at least partly made from plastic and a closed reception duct enclosed by the limiting body, the limiting body enclosing the closed reception duct has a gas-tight sealed shell surface and the limiting body is made from a base ribbon with a longitudinal limiting edge and a lateral limiting edge.

With the dynamic development of telecommunications and computer technology there is an increasingly greater need for facilities and auxiliary devices that receive and protect signal transmitting cables. One such important device in the cable duct, in which underground cables can run safely. However, installing the cables in the case of longer underground cable sections was difficult and required significant energy and the investment mechanical and manual work.

In order to overcome this several different solutions have been developed already. Publication document number EP 578959 presents rigid-walled pipe elements that can be placed in the cable duct the internal limiting surface of which is ribbed. As a consequence ^* of this if these insert bodies can be placed in the cable duct then when the cable is inserted the external surface of the cable running in the insert bodies and the internal surface of the insert body are in contact with each other over a smaller area, as a result of which friction is reduced and so it is easier to insert the cable and involves less energy investment. However, the disadvantage of the solution is that it is difficult to place the insert body into the cable duct, what is more, it is not always possible. A further disadvantage is that running the cable through the insert body still requires a lot of energy and involves a lot of manual work, in other words it does not really moderate the installation costs or the amount of time required.

Utility model specification registration number HU 3.275 relates to an insert body solution which, among others, may also be applied in traditional cable ducts, and its use creates the possibility for the difficult, manual labour-intensive insertion to be simply and quickly mechanised. Its essence is that the insert body is formed by a textile pipe with a gas-tight seal, which is easy to insert into the inside of cable ducts, and then the cable can be inserted into it with minimal friction inside the aid.

However, the disadvantage of this solution is that if later on it becomes necessary to insert further cables into the given cable duct, then the installation of further aids serving to make this easier present an extra cost, which is undesirable during the laying of a cable in the scope of a telecommunication investment.

Plastic pipe groups with rigid walls that can be placed in cable ducts are also known of that have channels that are separated from each other. An example of such a construction is also shown by patent specification registration number HU 213.195.

However, the disadvantage of this is that the group of rigid pipes connected to each other is even less easy to handle, therefore the solution may only be used in the case of the laying of new cable ducts.

A further deficiency is that after the limited number of channels of the pipe has been used, there is no way whatsoever to insert further signal transmitting cables into the cable duct.

Our objective with the set-up according to the invention was to overcome the deficiencies of aids that make the insertion of signal transmitting cables into cable ducts easier and to create a version that is easy to use, takes up a minimum of space in its status before use, and after use only fills up the free space in the cable duct to a slight degree, furthermore, it contains independent channels that can be easily filled with signal transmitting cables in such a way that by inserting a single aid several potential insert bodies may be placed into the cable duct and the operation may be performed quickly with a small investment in manual labour.

The recognition that led to the set-up according to the invention was that if the limiting body is formed from a ribbon of gas-tight material known in itself using a folding method different to the usual, and we perform the fixing together of the individual material layers in a novel way, then from a single ribbon several flexible pipes running next to each other can be made which are gas-tight from inside, which may be easily manufactured and which can be easily handled even in significant lengths and with insertion technology can be simply inserted into the cable duct, and so the task may be solved.

In accordance with the set aim the aid with improved characteristics for facilitating the movement of signal transmitting cables in cable ducts according to the invention, — which has a thin-walled, flexible limiting body at least partly made from plastic and a closed reception duct enclosed by the limiting body, the limiting body enclosing the closed reception duct has a gas-tight sealed shell surface and the limiting body is made from a base ribbon with a longitudinal limiting edge and a lateral limiting edge - is set up in such a way that there are surface bands made from the base ribbon layered on each other in harmonica fashion along folding lines parallel with the longitudinal limiting edge, the surface bands lying on each other are fixed to each other with one or more fixing bands that are parallel to the folding lines, and in this way through the surface bands the limiting body is separated into more than one gas-tight sealed, parallel tube bodies that delimit an insertion space that are independent from each other but connected in each other's material.

A further feature of the aid according to the invention may be that the base ribbon of the limiting body is made at least partly from artificial fibres, by weaving.

In the case of a possible embodiment of the aid at least some of the fibres of the base ribbon are a polymer containing styrene and/or polycarbonate and/or polyester and/or polyethylene and/or polyphenylene and/or polypropylene and/or polyvinyl and/or polyamide and/or acetate. One surface and/or the other surface of the base ribbon of the limiting body is coated with a gas-tight sealing layer, the gas-tight sealing layer is formed by a plastic film mixed with additive materials.

In another different embodiment of the invention the base ribbon of the limiting body is made from plastic sheeting, e.g. PVC sheeting or from plastic film, e.g. PVC film. From the point of view of the aid it may be favourable if the fixing band connecting together the surface bands lying on each other are formed by adhesive and/or cohesive bonds.

In another embodiment of the invention the fixing band is formed by cohesive material strips made using an ultrasound welding machine.

The aid according to the invention has numerous advantageous characteristics. The most important of these is that due to the unique structure of the limiting body and the thin- walled, flexible tube bodies, the aid may be manufactured in great lengths, but in spite of this taking the same length into consideration it requires much less space than the insertion bodies made from rigid-walled plastic pipe. Therefore, the storage, handling and transportation of the aid according to the invention is much more simpler, cheaper and the specific transportation and "installation" costs with respect to its length are lower than in the case of traditional solutions.

A further advantage is that due to the thin base ribbon serving as the material of the limiting body, the wall thickness of the tube bodies of the limiting body is much smaller than that of the traditional rigid-walled plastic insert pipes, in this way the space-filling proportion of the limiting body according to the invention located in the cable duct is much lower than in the case of traditional solutions. As a consequence of this, however, in the case the limiting body according to the invention is used more signal transmitting cables may be installed in the standard-sized internal space of cable ducts, in other words the same cable duct gains greater capacity in the case of the use of the limiting body according to the invention than in the case of the use of traditional solutions. This may result in the significant reduction of specific investment costs.

Another advantage is that the insertion of the limiting body according to the invention into the cable duct using a pulling in method may be solved quickly, simply and with a smaller investment of manual labour, irrespective of whether the installation involves the renovation of an old cable duct or the installation of a new one. Another favourable feature deriving from this is that by installing a single limiting body numerous independent tube bodies may be installed into a given cable duct. In their condition before use the tube bodies take up a minimal amount of volume, in this way installing the signal transmitting cable in through the tube body that is being used requires less energy and may be carried out faster and with greater reliability.

Another feature that may be viewed as an advantage is that an optional number of tube bodies may be formed in the limiting body of the aid according to the invention, which, in a given case, may be suitable for receiving signal transmitting cables of varying cross- sectional size. In this way the single aid installed in the cable duct in a single operation creates the possibility for the signal transmitting network to be quickly and cheaply extended at a later date without having to install further aids into the cable duct again.

In the following we present the aid according to the invention in more detail in connection with construction examples on the basis of drawings. On the drawing

Figure 1 shows a view image of a possible version of the positioning of the base ribbon serving for the production of the limiting body,

Figure 2 shows a view image of a finished structure of the limiting body of the aid according to the invention, but which has not yet been used

Figure 3 shows a view image of the aid with a version of the limiting body in its position of use.

On figure 1 a detail of the base ribbon 10 of the aid according to the invention may be observed. It is from this base ribbon 10 that the limiting body 20 illustrated in figure 2 is made. Here the base ribbon 10 is a woven textile strip that contains, at least partly, artificial fibres. The artificial fibres may be of a polymer containing styrene and/or polycarbonate and/or polyester and/or polyethylene and/or polyphenylene and/or polypropylene and/or polyvinyl and/or polyamide and/or acetate, but also from other plastics as well that are capable of establishing the bonding according to the purpose with ultrasound welding. Here we also must mention, however, that the base ribbon 10 may also be made from plastic sheeting or even from plastic film that is suitable for ultrasound line welding. Such materials include, among others, PVC sheeting or film as well. Naturally the thickness of the base ribbon 10 should favourably not exceed the value of 1 mm, actually it should fall between 0.2-0.8 mm.

The first surface 10a and the second surface 10b of the base ribbon 10 is coated with a gas-tight sealing layer 40. The gas-tight sealing layer 40 is a plastic film with additive materials, which may be, for example, a polyurethane layer. However, it is very important for the bonding of the material forming the gas-tight sealing layer 40 to be able to be effectively created using ultrasound welding, and in such a way that the gas-tight sealing of the base ribbon 10 does not cease to exist on the effect of the ultrasound welding.

In this case the base ribbon 10 is a rectangular strip that is encompassed by two parallel longitudinal limiting edges 11 and two lateral limiting edges 12 perpendicular to them. The base ribbon is divided into three - in this construction example - essentially identically sized areas, surface band 15, surface band 16 and surface band 17 by the folding line 13 and the folding line 14. Surface band 15 is delimited by the one longitudinal limiting edge 1 1, a part of each of the two lateral limiting edges 12, and the folding line 13, while surface band 16 is delimited by a part of each of the two lateral limiting edges 12 and by folding line 13 and folding line 14, and surface band 17 is delimited by longitudinal limiting edge 11, a part of each of the two lateral limiting edges 12 and folding line 14.

Now moving over to figure 2, here it can be easily seen that the final limiting body 20 is created from surface band 15, surface band 16 and surface band 17 of the base ribbon 10 and from further surface bands not indicated with the help of the fixing band 30, which contains the tube body 21 enclosing the insertion space 21a, the tube body 22 enclosing the insertion space 22a, and further tube bodies not indicated. The tube body 21 consists of the surface band 15 of the base ribbon 10 and of the part of the surface band 16 between folding line 13 and the fixing band 30, while tube body 22 consists of the part between the fixing band 30 of surface band 16 and folding line 14 and the piece of surface band 17 between folding line 14 and fixing band 30. Here the fixing band is formed by cohesive material strip 31 , which is a line weld made using ultrasound welding equipment. With the help of the cohesive material strip all of the surface bands of the base ribbon 10 may be unified, therefore, in the case of using the appropriate ultrasound welding parameters a limiting body 20 containing numerous tube bodies may be made.

In figure 3 the aid according to the invention may be seen in an installed state. It may be observed that tube body 21 and tube body 22 of the limiting body 20 located in the space 3 inside the cable duct 2 are now in use. In this way a signal transmitting cable 1 is located in insertion space 21a of tube body 21 and in insertion space 22a of tube body 22, while the other tube bodies - not indicated - remain empty. Because of the signal transmitting cables 1 inserted into tube body 21 and tube body 22 they have a widened cross-section, while the other tube bodies take up minimal volume. The fixing band 30 responsible for the creation of tube body 21 and tube body 22 - in the present construction — runs along the centre of the limiting body 20, which has a cross-section in the shape of a daisy, and tube body 21, tube body 22 and the other tube body not indicated with insertion space 21a and insertion space 22a and other insertion spaces surround the fixing band 30 in the form of petals.

Here we must remark that the base ribbon 10 may be given fixing bands 30 parallel with the longitudinal edges 1 1 in several places. In this case a more complex spatial form is created. The essence in every case, however, is for the limiting body 20 to be built up of tube bodies gas-tight sealed per band integrated with each other but divided from each other that are each separately suitable for signal transmitting cables 1 being inserted into them in the space 3 of the cable duct 2.

The aid according to the invention illustrated in figure 2 may be made in the following way. Firstly the base ribbon 10 must be folded up as a harmonica along folding line 13 and folding line 14 - and along other folding lines in a given case - then between folding line 13 and folding line 14 a line weld needs to be made using an ultrasound welding machine parallel to the longitudinal limiting edge 11. When performing the line welding the gas- tight sealing layer 40 located on the one surface 10a of the base ribbon 10 and on the other surface 10b of the base ribbon melts, and the fixing band 30 consisting of the cohesion material strip 31 is established, which, on the one hand, separates the insertion space 21a of the tube body 21 and the insertion space 22a of tube body 22 from each other, and, on the other hand however, keeps tube body 21 and tube body 22 together with each other. The base ribbon 10 may be selected to be any length. On the one side of the equipment forming the fixing band 30 the prepared and folded base ribbon 10 passes in, while on the other side the finished limiting body 20 comes out. After this with respect to its flexible textile material the limiting body 20 may even be rolled up into a roll, and may be stored in this condition and transported to the place it is to be used at.

When using the finished limiting body 20 a length of limiting body 20 suiting the length of the given cable duct 2 is inserted in the space 3 of the cable duct 2 using a drawing-in cable - in a way known in itself. Following the drawing-in a limiting body 20 consisting of several tube bodies is located along the entire length of the space 3 of the cable duct 2.

Following this the desired signal transmitting cable 1 may be "floated" - also in a way known in itself — into the insertion space 21a of the tube body 21 of the limiting body 20, which has favourable friction characteristics, using air-injection technology, and so it may be inserted into the space 3 of the cable duct 2 with the investment of a small amount of energy. After the tube body 21 has been filled with the signal transmitting cable 1, tube body 22 may also be filled up.

In the case of the extension of the signal transmitting cable 1 network, further signal transmitting cables 1 may also be inserted into the insertion spaces of the still free tube bodies of the limiting body located in the space 3.

More detailed information in connection with the basic material of the limiting body 20 may be found in utility model specification registration number HU 3.275, which has already been mentioned when presenting the state of the art.

The aid according to the invention may be used efficiently in all cases when several signal transmitting cables 1 have to be simply and quickly inserted into the space 3 of a cable duct 2 with favourable investment costs. This is especially true if it is possible that after some time the given signal transmitting cable 1 network may be extended as well.

List of references

Signal transmitting cable Cable duct Space Base ribbon 10a one surface

10b other surface

11 longitudinal limiting edge

12 lateral limiting edge

13 folding line

14 folding line

15 surface band

16 surface band

17 surface band limiting body 21 tube body

21a insertion space

22 tube body

22a insertion space fixing band 31 cohesive material strip0 gas-tight sealing layer