Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
2~9~6
~AN8LS FOR CONTAINING TBLECOMMUNICATIONS BQUIPM~NT
This invention relates to panels for containing
telecommunications equipment.
In certain electronic installations such as
transmission installations, electrical current breaker
interface panels are used to interconnect certain items of
equipment. Such a panel comprises a rigid structure
carrying within it interface equipment and wiring and the
lo panel may be installed in a stacked position with other
equipment. The panel is also provided with manually
operable switches which are mounted upon a breaker carrier
structure for access from the front of the panel when this
is in a use position.
Conventionally, to connect a breaker to wiring
within the panel, this needs to be performed from the front
of the panel. It is necessary to move the breaker carrier
structure to a forward position, possibly by it being
hinged, so as to enable the breaker to be secured by screws
to the rear of the support, the rear then being in an
accessible position from the front of the panel.
The problem with this conventional arrangement is
that the carrier structure in operating like a swinging
door requires space for its swinging operation. Further, a
large mass or ~nest~ of electrical wiring may be present
within the panel and swinging the carrier structure between
open and closed positions disturbs the positions of the
individual wires in the Unestu while causing them to flex
and pull around each other, thereby placing undue stress
and strain upon the wiring which may eventually lead to
failure after repeated opening and closing of the carrier
structure.
Further to this, upon opening of the carrier
structure for the replacement or insertion of one of the
breakers, the large number of wires extending to the door
from within the panel may prove to be extremely obstructive
to any procedure required.
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The present invention seeks to provide a panel for
containing telecommunications equipment which will overcome
or minimize the above problems.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a
5 panel for containing telecommunications equipment
comprising boundary wall means including a front wall which
is formed with a plurality of electrical current breaker
receiving chambers each of which has a forwardly facing
front opening for reception and removal of a corresponding
electrical current breaker into the chamber, and holding
means for each chamber for detachably retaining the breaker
in an operative position within the chamber, each chamber
also having a rear opening to allow for the breaker to be
connected to wiring within the housing.
The holding means may be of any structure, such as
a front retaining plate, suitable for detachably holding a
breaker within each chamber. Advantageously, however, the
holding means comprises a latch for retalning the breaker
within the chamber and at least one seating surface for
abutting engagement with the breaker.
As may be seen from the panel according to the
invention, with the chamber arrangement the breakers may be
received and removed into the chambers through the front of
- the housing without it being necessary to open the panel so
as to provide access for the breakers from the rear. Upon
removal of the breakers, any electrical wiring connected to
the breakers will be automatically drawn from the front of
the chamber for access purposes to the wiring and breaker
terminals. Other wiring within the panel is thus not
unduly interfered with and such other wiring does not cause
a hindrance to the insertion and removal of breakers.
It is preferable that chambers are disposed in a
rectilinear row and a wall extends along one side of the
row and partly defines its chamber. Latches of the holding
means for the row of chambers are formed by individually
resiliently flexible parts of this wall.
2 ~
It ls also preferable that the chambers are
provided by a chamber defining structure which is
detachably mounted upon the panel. Thus this structure may
be separately formed, e.g., by an advantageous molding
operation, before being added as a single element to the
rest of the housing.
It ls also preferred that each chamber unoccupied
by a breaker is occupied by an electrically inoperative
individual chamber closure member and this closure member
lo is detachably retained within the chamber by a respective
holding means. In this arrangement, it is preferable that
each chamber closure member is secured through the rear
opening of the chamber to electrical wiring which is to be
used for connection to a breaker later to be inserted into
the chamber upon removal of the closure member. The
closure member is removable through the front opening of
its chamber so as to draw with it, through the front
opening and for wiring access purposes, the electrical
wiring connected to the closure member. It follows
therefore that when using closure members and adding a
further breaker into a previously unused chamber, the
electrical wiring is made accessible from the front of the
panel to enable the electrical connections to be made
easily.
The invention will now be described, by way of
example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in
which:-
Figure 1 is an isometric view of a breaker
interface panel to be disposed between other panels of
telecommunications equipment;
Figure 2 is an isometric view, to a larger scale
than Figure 1, of a chamber defining structure which is to
form part of the panel of Figure l;
Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view through the
structure of Figure 2 and taken along line III-III in
Figure 2 with an electrical current breaker and a chamber
closure member disposed in respective chambers;
4 2~9~fi
Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view through the
structure taken along line IV-IV in Figure 3; and
Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 3 with the
breaker and the closure member removed from the front of
the structure.
In the embodiment as shown in Figure 1, a breaker
interface panel 10, for electrical disposition between two
other panels of telecommunications equipment, comprises two
side walls 12 and 14 extending forwardly from a rear wall
o 16 of the panel. Each of the side walls 12 and 14 may
comprise a printed circuit board or have a printed circuit
board attached to the inside surface of the wall. Within
the panel, as is well known in the telecommunication art,
are provided brackets, such as bracket 18, for holding
15 various items of telecommunications equipment such as
inductors 20, and a backplane 22 spaced from the front of
the panel and extending partly between the side walls 12
and 14. Forwardly of the backplane 22 is disposed a
conventional structure 24 for the sliding reception of edge
cards (not shown) to be received through an opening 26 at
the front of the panel, the opening defined by a front
panel border 28. Between an inner edge of the border 28
and a short front wall 30, extending slightly inwardly from
the side 12, extends a chamber defining structure 32 for
holding electrical current breakers for connection to
wiring within the panel.
As is more clearly shown by Figures 2, 3 and 4,
the structure 32 is horizontally elongate and is formed
with two horizontal rectilinear rows of chambers 34
30 extending from side to side of the structure. The chambers
are of vertically elongate rectangular shape from a front
of the structure 32 and are disposed one above the other
from one row to the other, being partly defined by vertical
walls 36 and a horizontal central wall 38, each wall 36 and
38 partly defining a chamber on each side of it. Chamber
definition is completed by two end walls 40 and two
horizontal top and bottom walls 42 and 44, the end walls 40
2Q59~6
and the top and bottom walls 42 and 44 also providing the
boundaries for the structure 32.
Each breaker 46, as is shown by a comparison of
Figures 3 and 4, is rectangular in cross-section so that a
5 breaker when inserted into a respective chamber 34 has its
longitudinal access extending vertically.
The panel 32 is provided with a holding means in
; respect of each chamber for holding a breaker 46 within the
chamber. With respect to the upper rectilinear row of
lo chambers, the holdin~ means for each chamber comprises a
flexibly resilient latch which is provided by an
individually resiliently flexible part or finger 48 of the
wall 42. As may be seen, the fingers 48 lie in a row with
slots 50 formed rearwardly from the front edge of the wall
15 42 at each side of each finger 48 allowing for individual
resilient flexibility of the finger about a fixed base
connected to the remainder of the wall 42. At a forward
end of each finger, the latch is completed by a
conventional short downward latch protruberance 52. The
lower row of chambers 34 is similarly provided with latches
of locking means by fingers 54 formed in the wall 44 in a
fashion similar to the fingers 48. The fingers 54 have
upward end latch protruberances 56.
The holding means for each of the chambers 34 also
includes at least one seating surface for abutting
engagement with the breaker when this is disposed within
the chamber. As may be seen more clearly from Figure 4, in
respect of èach chamber, each vertical wall 36 is formed at
its rear edge with an upwardly extending flange 58 which
extends partly across a rear opening 60 of the chamber so
that the flanges 58 at the two sides of the chamber
approach each other. An additional L-shaped flange 62
extends rearwardly of each flange 58 to terminate in an
inward projection 64 of the L-shape. Forwardly facing
surfaces 66 of the flange 58 provide seating surfaces for
abutting engagement with rear facing surfaces of the
breaker, as will be described. The inward projections are
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6 2 ~ 6
spaced-apart a distance to contact side surfaces of the
breaker as this moves into an operative position, as will
be described, so as to assist in breaker location. The end
walls 40 are similarly provided with flanges (not shown)
5 which cooperate with flanges 58 and 60 on the adjacent
vertical wall 36 for providing seating and location
surfaces for breakers when received in the end chambers of
each of the rows.
AS may be seen from Figure 2, at the forward edges
lo of the sides 40 of the structure 32, are provided two
vertical end flanges 70 having screw holes 72 for screwing
the structure 32 at its ends to the panel border 28 and to
the short front wall 30 of the panel 10.
Initially, with the panel equipped with its
15 required telecommunications elements and having a unest~
wiring 74 extending as necessary between the elements and
to the structure 32, any individual wires required for
connection to individual breakers are passed through the
respective chambers 34 by passing the wires through the
rear opening 60 and out through the forwardly facing front
opening 76. This operation together with the assembly of
the breakers onto the panel is performed with the structure
32 assembled into the rest of the panel as shown in Figure
1. Any breaker 46 that is immediately required for use
with the panel 10 (Figure 3) is then connected by its
terminals 78 to its respective wiring 74 and the breaker is
inserted into its chamber by sliding it between the walls
of the chamber and passing it beyond its flexed latch
finger 48 or 54 into the chamber. Upon the breaker
. 30 reaching its operative position (Figure 4), two vertical
rearwardly facing surfaces 80 at sides of the breaker
contact the seating surfaces 66 while rear side surfaces 68
of the breaker are located between the free ends of the
.: inward projections 64. In this position of the breaker, if
the breaker is in a chamber of the top row, then its finger
48 resiliently descends to engage its latch protruberance
52 in front of the breaker to hold it in its operative
7 2 ~ s ~
position. Similarly if the breaker is in the lower row,
then the latch protruberance 56 holds the breaker in
position. In the assembled position, each breaker has a
forward facing manually operable toggle 86 for breaker
operation and this toggle is partly shrouded at its sides
by two forwardly facing finger guards 88 extending
forwardly from the respective walls 36 or 40. These finger
guards 88 help to prevent inadvertent operation of adjacent
breakers.
lo To enable the individual breakers to be removed
for replacement or inspection or repair, it is a simple
matter to resiliently deflect the appropriate latch finger
48 or 54 to enable the respective breaker to be removed
forwardly from the front opening of its chamber. This is
the position shown in Figure 5. AS may also be seen from
this figure, upon removal of the respective breaker, the
wiring 74 attached to it is drawn forwardly through the
chamber 34 and out through the front opening 76 so that it
may be removed from the terminals 78, if required, and
easily attached to a replacement breaker. Thus access to
the inside of the panel, such as by moving of the structure
32, is completely unnecessary and the nest of wires 74
within the panel is thus virtually undisturbed by removal
of any particular breaker 46.
In addition, the embodiment also includes an
electrically inoperative individual chamber closure member
90 which is provided to fill and close any particular
chamber 34 which is at any time unoccupied by a breaker.
Each closure member serves a double purpose in that it
closes off an unused chamber so as to prevent inadvertent
access through the chamber to the inside of the panel such
as could cause damage to equipment within that panel, and
it also enables easy access to wiring 74 which will
subsequently be required for connection to a breaker
assembled into that chamber. To this latter end, each of
the closure members is connected at a rear facing side to
the appropriate wiring 74 and, for convenience, terminals
8 2Q~56
78 such as are normally used upon a breaker may also be
used for this purpose. As may be seen in Figure 3, each
closure member is retained in position by a latch finger 48
or 54 in a similar manner to the location of the breakers
s 46 in the operative positions. Upon removal of any closure
member 90, this is necessarily removed through the front
opening 76 of its respective chamber thereby drawing the
associated wires 74 with it so as to provide access to
these wires for connection to a breaker to be assembled
io into the chamber. Hence with the use of the closure
member, while the wires 74 associated with that particular
chamber are protected before assembly of a breaker into the
chamber, nevertheless the wires are immediately accessible
for assembly to the breaker. Thus access into the inside
of the panel is not necessary for breaker assembly
purposes.
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