Flexible cable guide with two-directional joints

~'~ The present invention rela-tes to a flexible cable guide.

In furniture for offices, such as desks, working tables and the like, as indeed in other furnishing items, the need arises for having available equipment of various types which require electrical supply and/or connections, by means of electrical cables, to other equipment physically remote from them.

Examples of such items of equipment are telephone apparatuses, computers, calculating machines, illuminating equipment and so on, which are frequently present, often simultaneously, on desks and similar furniture.

This has the result that there is a large number of cables, which must reach different zones of the furniture and which it is undesirable to allow to hang freely from the furniture itself, both for aesthetic and for safety reasons.

The requirement therefore arises for having available a cable guide which will enable such cables to be housed in a single element, keeping them aligned and separate from one another, and which moreover can be arranged along the profile of the wall of the furniture by which the cable guide must be carried, following also variations in direction.

According to the present invention, there is provided a flexible cable guide comprising a plurality of shaped elements of I-section having curved flanges, defining aligned cylindrical spaces separated from one another-by a central web of each of said shaped elements, the elements being connected to one another by twodirectional joints, a pIurality of electrical supply cables, signal cables or the like can be housed in the cylindrical spaces defined by the curved flanges.

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~g~ !395 Preferably, each shaped element possesses, on each of its base surfaces, a pair of lugs projecting from the central web parallel to the axis of the element itself, spaced from each other, adapted for receiving in articulated manner at the end a pair of pins of an articulation element, constituted of an annular body having two pairs of pins projecting radially in mutually perpendicular directions, the lugs of a contiguous shaped element, rotated through 90 with respect to the first, being capable of being connected to the second pair of pins of the articulation element, the pairs of lugs and the articulation element connected to them constituting the two-directional joint, of cardan type, for connecting together contiguous shaped elements.

Preferably, the web of the shaped element possesses an axial hole, which, in the assembled position, is aligned with the central hole of the articulation element, permitting a stiffening cable to be inserted into said aligned holes.

Preferably, in a median position of the flanges of the shaped element, there is a groove having undercut re-entrant edges, into which groove shaped profiles for securing the cable guide to fixed members may be locked.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a flexible cable guide for a plurality oE electrical conductors, comprising:

a plurality of generally I-shaped elements each formed with a central web provided with a throughgoing bore adapted to receive a stiffening cable, curved flanges defining laterally open generally cylindrical spaces adapted to receive respective electrical conductors, and respective pairs of mutually parallel spaced-apart lugs projecting axially from opposite sides of said central web; and d,~ ~ z~ annular articulation bodies interconnecting said elements in contiguous end-to-end articulated relationship, said articulation bodies each having two mutually perpendicular pairs of pins projecting radially, said lugs being provided with formations pivotally engageable with said pins, one of the pairs of pins of each articulation body being pivotally engaged with a pair of lugs of a respective one of said elements and the other pair of pins of each articulation body being pivotally engaged with a pair of lugs of a respective other of said elements angularly offset from said one of said elements through 90, whereby each of said articulation bodies and the pairs of lugs pivotally connected thereto form a cardantype bidirectional joint, said joints spacing the flanges of successive ones o said elements apart so that conductors can pass into and out of said guide between said elements.

Further details may be found from the following description, with reference to the attached drawings, in which the figures show:

Fig. 1, a perspective view of the cable guide according to this invention, in a curved layout;

Fig. 2, the cable guide of Fig. 1 in lateral view, curved in one direction;

Fig. 3, the cable guide curved in a direction perpendicular to that of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4, a shaped element of the cable guide in front view:

Fig. 5, the element of Fig. 4, in lateral view from one direction;

Fig. 6, the element of Fig. 4 in lateral view in a direction perpendicular to the first;

Fig. 7, the articulation eIement of the cable guide in front view;

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r ~ 395 Fig. 8, the articulation element in lateral view.

As Figures 1, 2, 3 show, the cable guide according to this invention is constituted of an articulated chain of shaped elements, which is flexible in every direction; the articulated elements possess seatings adapted for receiving and holding in position, separa~ed.

in orderly manner, a plurality of electrical and signal cables.

In particular, the cable guide comprises a plurality of shaped elements 1, connected together by the interposition of an articulation element 2; both the articulated elements 1 and the articulation elements 2, as can be better seen from Figures 4 and 7, are axially tralS versed by holes and into said hole it is possible to insert a central guide cable 3.

Each element 1 is constituted of a substantially I-section body, in which the opposed fIanges 4 are curved towards each other to form, in cooperation with the central web 5, four substantially cylindri.cal, defined spaces 6, intended for housing the cables and accessible from outside through the open zone 7.

On the central web there are formed the projections 8, each formed at the end with a hole 9a, as shown in Figs. ~ to 6 or, as illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, equipped with a fork 9b having re-entrant ends~ Into the holes 9a or the forks 9b, the opposed radial pins 10a of the articulation element 2 are inserted i.n locked manner, the articulation element being composed of an annular member from which two pairs of mutually perpendi~cular pins, 10a and 10b, project radially outwards.

The pins 10b engage into the holes or forks of a following element 1, angularly offset through 90 with respect to the preceding one, thus forming a joint ~" ~ ~9~895 of the cardan type which enables the axes of the two consecutive shaped elements 1 to be orlentated at an angle relative to each other in any plane. The cable guide according to this invention is therefore composed of a plurality of shaped elements and of articulation elements connected alternately, constituting a flexible structure adap~ed to be curved according to requirements, as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

The spaces 6 of the consecutive shaped elements 1 are aligned with one another and therefore can each house one or more cables 11, indicated in broken lines in Fig. 4, which are separated from one another by the webs 5 of the successive shaped elements 1.

The insertion and removal of the cables 11 into and out of the cable guide is effected through the openings 7, utilizing the flexibility of the cables themselves and of the cable guide. It is also possible to lead out through the openings 7 branches of the cables to some apparatus connected to them, or to lead in new cables at an in~ermediate position in the cable guide.

With advantage, the flanges 4 of the shaped body 1 comprise the grooves 12, of substantially cylindrical form, having re-entrant external edges undercut in respect of the maximum width of the groove. In ~his groove, which, in the contiguous shaped elements rotated through 90 relative to each other, is aligned with the openings 7, shaped profiles 13 or the like may be inserted in locked manner, by means of which the cable guide may be secured to fixed structures, such as items of furniture, walls and the like, by adhesive, screws, locking-in or similar fixing means, depending upon the surface to which the profiles 13 are fixed.

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