At&t Bell Laboratories

At&t Technologies, Inc.

American Telephone and Telegraph Company, At&t Technologies, Inc.

Joe B Moss

Eric R Campbell

William C Reed

Francis J Mullin

A cable closure includes two spaced end plugs (110-110) through which cable nd portions extend and two cover portions (60-60) which are mated together along tongue and groove portions and held together by C-shaped clamps that engage the tongue and groove portions. Conductors of the cables are spliced together and enclosed in a membranous container (40) which subsequently is caused to be filled with an encapsulant. The cover portions, which in a preferred embodiment are identical, include internally disposed plates each having spaced end strap portions which secure the cable end portions extending through the end plugs into the closure at locations external to the membranous container and prevent unintended lateral, longitudinal and torsional movement of the splice work relative to the encapsulant. This is particularly important when as here the closure is filled with an encapsulant and relative movement between the cable portions and encapsulant is to be avoided to maintain the integrity of the encapsulant and prevent the ingress of moisture.

Cable support system

A termination closure (20) for buried or underground service cable splice locations includes molded stepped end blocks (40--40) and a cover (100) which comprises a sheet adapted to be wrapped about service cables (28--28) having conductors (26--26) which are spliced to conductors (24--24) of a distribution cable (22) and secured by clamps. The closure also includes a pivotally mounted organizer (80) which is perforated to allow an encapsulant to be flowed therethrough into engagement with an enclosing bladder (90). The organizer effectively isolates splice connections from the distribution cable core (23). The bladder which is wrapped about the organizer is adapted to receive encapsulant from a tube which extends through one of the end blocks to allow it to be flowed into the interstices among the spliced conductors and distribution cable core. Air in the closure is pushed from one end of the closure and evacuated through a relief valve (59) in the other end block. The relief valve is arranged so that an indicator thereof is not moved outwardly to provide a visual indication until the closure has been filled properly.

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Lawrenceville, GA, United States of America

Joe B Moss