Inventors:
Huu V. Le - Wilbraham MA
Michael W. Farslow - Bristol CT
Jack J. Chen - West Hartford CT
Michael S. Yarnall - Windsor CT
Assignee:
General Signal Corporation - Stamford CT
International Classification:
H01R 4300
Abstract:
There is provided a method for joining the buss wires of a pair of flexible cables by splicing and encapsulating the ends of the cables together. This method involves the splicing of the two cables together by stripping oppositely disposed ends of the two cables such that the buss wires are left exposed. The exposed wires are inserted into respective ends of a connector tube formed of a material having a similar melting point, tensile strength and electrical conductivity properties to the buss wires disposed therein. Both ends of the connector tube are then welded to the oppositely disposed buss wires. Thereafter, the welded wires are encapsulated within an polymer encapsulation layer which overlaps with portions of the flexible sheath that had not been stripped. The polymer encapsulation layer is preferably one which exhibits a similar melting point and tensile strength to the flexible polymer sheath. As such, the two cables are joined together and adhered to each other via the polymer encapsulation layer so that the joined area exhibits tensile strength, flexibility, heat suitability, moisture resistance and dimensional characteristics similar to the cables themselves.
