The present invention relates to a mounting clamp for a tubular part such as a cable, a hose, a coupling, or indeed a tube.
Mounting clamps are metal elements for holding cables, tubes, hoses, or the like.
In use, it is necessary to be able to open a mounting clamp so as to pass it around the element that is to be clamped, with this opening taking place by deforming the metal strip constituting it or by means of a xe2x80x9chingexe2x80x9d, or any other form of articulation.
The difficulties encountered at present are associated with the fact that once the clamp has been mounted, it remains open and free to move in translation and rotation on the object to be clamped, which means that no or little preassembly can be performed and which gives rise to difficulties when positioning the holding screw or other clamping element.
Solutions exist at present which make use of clip systems integrated in the clamp.
The drawback of such clip systems is that they require the clamp to be clamped fully by hand during positioning, and they do not allow for any sliding of the clamp on the object to be clamped during xe2x80x9cfinexe2x80x9d positioning, and in addition they provide no capacity for additional tightening of the clamp.
An object of the invention is to provide a mounting clamp that enables the clamp to be prepositioned accurately at a desired location prior to fixing.
To this end, the invention provides a mounting clamp for a tubular part such as a cable, a hose, a coupling, or a tube, the clamp having a loop region for surrounding the tubular part, said loop region being open and terminating in fixing tabs, each provided with at least one fixing hole, wherein at least one of said fixing holes presents at least one claw enabling a fixing element of a fixing device to be tightened in preliminary manner by being moved in translation.
Advantageously, the clamp presents a plurality of claws distributed around said hole.
The loop region can be surrounded by a protective element, in particular an element made of elastomer.
The invention also provides a method of installing a clamp of the above-specified type and comprising:
a) installing the loop region around the tubular part;
b) inserting a fixing element of the fixing device to perform preliminary tightening;
c) positioning the clamp at a desired location on the tubular part; and
d) tightening the fixing element.
For a fixing device of the screw-and-nut type, step c) can comprise:
c1) prepositioning the clamp on the tubular part;
c2) engaging the screw in the corresponding nut; and
c3) final positioning of the clamp at the desired location.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds