Bending strain relief

A component of a bending strain relief assembly for elongated flexible members comprising:

• a preformed member having opposite end portions and being generally helically coiled about a longitudinal axis between said end portions, said member including a plurality of individual generally helically coiled preformed elements substantially encapsulated in synthetic plastic material, said member having a substantially plane inner surface lying generally on the surface of a cylinder;
• said member having generally helical leading and trailing edges along the length thereof, said leading and trailing edges being substantially parallel and being spaced apart a predetermined distance parallel to said axis, and said member having at least two coils axially spaced from one another parallel to said axis a distance which is at least as great as said predetermined distance;
• and a fitting on one of said preformed member end portions with said preformed elements having end portions communicating with said fitting.

A clamping head for a strain relief assembly used with elongated flexible members comprising:

• a body having a substantially straight hole therethrough for receiving an elongated flexible member, said body being longitudinally split generally along the axis of said hole into separable pieces which are releasably secured together, mounting means on one end portion of said pieces displaced from said hole for mounting said body to another structure, the other end portions of said pieces including internal arcuate circumferential grooves spaced axially from a terminal end of said pieces to define arcuate flanges, said flanges having flange surfaces facing toward the axis of said hole which lie on the periphery of a circle having a diameter substantially greater than the diameter of said hole, said pieces intermediate the opposite end portions thereof having tapered internal surfaces lying generally on the surface of a cone and converging in a direction from said one end portion of said pieces toward the other end portion thereof, wedges received in said pieces and having external surfaces generally complementarily shaped to said tapered internal surfaces, and said wedges having internal surfaces forming an axial portion of said hole.

A component of a bending strain relief assembly for elongated flexible members comprising:

• a preformed member having opposite end portions and being generally helically coiled about a longitudinal axis between said end portions, said member including a plurality of individual generally helically coiled preformed elements substantially encapsulated in synthetic plastic material, said member having a substantially plane inner surface lying generally on the surface of a cylinder;
• said member having generally helical leading and trailing edges along the length thereof, said leading and trailing edges being substantially parallel and being spaced apart a predetermined distance parallel to said axis, said member having at least two coils axially spaced from one another parallel to said axis a distance which is at least as great as said predetermined distance;
• a fitting on one of said end portions of said preformed member, said fitting having an external circumferential keying groove therein and a plurality of axial holes intersecting said keying groove, said preformed elements having end portions extending through said holes into said keying groove, and said keying groove being filled with said plastic material.