Cable Tray Fabricated from Curable Polymer Strips
AssigneeABB Schweiz AG
InventorJonah Kadoko
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cable tray of the ladder type configuration can be fabricated from soft solid curable polymer strips comprised of a thermosetting material. The curable polymer strips in a pliable state may be wound into strip rolls for storage and transportation to the installation site. At the installation site, the soft solid curable polymer strips can be deployed, molded into pliable formed rail sections, and transversely connected together by a plurality of rungs. The curing process can be completed by, for example, exposing the thermosetting material to a ultraviolet or visible light source to produce hardened rail sections of the ladder type cable tray.
Claims20
A method of fabricating a cable tray comprising:
- deploying a first pliable unformed rail section from a soft solid curable polymer strip;
- forming the first pliable unformed rail section into a first pliable formed rail section having a definitive shape;
- deploying a second pliable unformed rail section from the solid curable polymer strip;
- forming the second pliable unformed rail section into a second pliable formed rail section having a definitive shape;
- arranging the first pliable formed rail section and the second pliable formed rail section juxtaposed to each other;
- transversely connecting the first pliable formed rail section and the second pliable formed rail section with a plurality of rungs to maintain spacing apart of the first and second pliable formed rail sections;
- and
- curing the first pliable formed rail section and second pliable formed rail section to produces a first hardened rail section and a second hardened rail section connected by the plurality of rungs.
A cable tray comprising:
- a first hardened rail section photo-cured from a first pliable formed rail section comprised of a photopolymer;
- a second hardened rail section photo-cured from a second pliable formed rail section comprised of the photopolymer, the first hardened rail section and the second hardened rail section juxtaposed together;
- and
- a plurality of rungs transversely connecting the first hardened rail section and the second hardened rail section to maintain spacing apart of the first hardened rail section and the second hardened rail section.
A kit for fabricating a cable tray comprising:
- a strip roll of a soft solid curable polymer strip comprised of a photopolymer;
- a plurality of rungs selected from the group comprising rigid rods and rigid straps;
- and
- a photo-curing light source for polymerizing the photopolymer to produce one or more hardened rail sections.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.