Ocean Design, Inc.

Ronald Gerald Wayne

John Robert Toth

An underwater cable branching apparatus has an elongate cable junction housing for positioning in line between two cables for installation underwater. The housing has through bores at each end for receiving the ends of respective first and second cables, and the cables are each terminated at a respective connector in the housing for releasably connecting the two cable ends together. Each connector is pivotally and retractably mounted in the housing by a respective pivotal linkage, such that the connectors can be separated and rotated upwardly out of the housing by an ROV for selective connection to other cables in an underwater network, to permit branching.

Underwater cable branching apparatus and method

A cable branching apparatus for installation underwater has a circuit distribution unit with first and second ports connected to respective cables, and at least two additional, third and fourth ports. A switch assembly in the circuit distribution unit selectively connects the first port to the second port in a straight through arrangement, or the first and second ports to the third and fourth ports, respectively, in a branching configuration. At least two wet mateable underwater connectors each comprise a dummy unit and an active unit releasably secured to the dummy and connected to a respective one of the third and fourth ports. Branch cables can be selectively connected to one or both cables underwater simply by separating one or both dummy units from the active units, and connecting the active units to mating connector units at the end of branch cables, using an ROV.

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Ormond Beach, FL, United States of America

Ronald Gerald Wayne