Appeal No. 1998-0127
Application No. 08/609,670
and retracting system including a fixed radius pulley cable
guide around which an intermediate portion of said electrical
cable is only partially wrapped once to form a single bight
portion in said cable with a minimum cable flexure radius
defined by said radius of said pulley cable guide, and a
substantially constant force spring system connecting said
pulley cable guide to said mainframe to retract said pulley
cable guide towards said mainframe when said modular component
is moved towards said mainframe, and to allow said pulley
cable guide to move away from said mainframe with said
substantially constant force when said modular component is
moved away from said mainframe, so that said bight portion of
said cable is extendible and retractable by said movement of
said modular component towards and away from said mainframe
with said substantially constant force; and a substantially
linear and elongated but partially open sided C shaped cable
guide and protective channel member partially surrounding most
of said extendible and retractable single bight portion of
said cable, providing a continuous cable access opening
therealong, said C shaped channel member also loosely
confining said pulley cable guide therein but allowing linear
movement of said pulley cable guide within said C shaped cable
guide, said C shaped channel member being open at a first open
end to allow the ends of said bight portion of said cable to
extend linearly from said first open end of said C shaped
channel member towards said modular component, and said C
shaped channel member being open at a second open end to allow
said constant force spring system to extend from said second
open end towards said mainframe, continuously during said
linear movement of said modular component towards and away
from said mainframe.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Kunkle 2,984,714 May 16, 1961
Abare, Charles A., “Electrical Tape Tensioner,” Xerox
Disclosure Journal, Volume 2, Number 3, May/June 1977, page
29.
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