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AssigneeFrance Telecom Etablissement Autonome de Droit Public
InventorsAlain Pecot, Yvon Beaumanoir
Estimating the term…
A process for simultaneously lubricating the interior wall of a underground conduit, while by use of compressed air, placing in the conduit a cable along the entire length of the conduit. The cable is drawn through the conduit by a puller, or comparable device, which is connected to the head of the cable, and rests in the conduit in a substantially air tight relation. This puller transmits a traction force to draw the cable through the conduit. The internal surface of the conduit is lubricated substantially uniformly over the entire length as the puller travels along the conduit by means of a reservoir of lubricant of a variable volume. This reservoir is at the rear of the puller, but in front of the cable. The lubrication and placement of the cable is along the entire length of the conduit. The invention also concerns an apparatus for carrying this process.
An apparatus for laying down a cable in a conduit comprising a first puller (11) to be connected (9) to the cable, and having a transverse dimension with an external diameter just slightly less than an internal diameter of the conduit (1), and a second puller (12) positioned at a predetermined distance from the first puller, and in front thereof in the direction of the movement of the cable in the conduit, and joined to the first puller by a flexible connection (14), said flexible connection (14) between the first puller (11) and the second puller (12) is formed of a flexible cable adopted to accommodate a change of the distance between the two pullers as said distance changes due to squeezing out of lubricant from a reservoir (17) between said two pullers and the laying down of the cable (8) along the length of the conduit (1), said second puller having an external diameter substantially equal to the internal diameter of the conduit, the volume formed between the two pullers and the inside wall of the conduit forming said reservoir for a volume of lubricant which is determine as a function of the total length of the conduit where the cable is to be placed, and the amount of lubricant which is to be spread out behind the first puller and the periphery thereof.
A method for placing a cable in a buried conduit comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.