A variety of coaxial cables have come into use which are quite small dimensionally, being on the order of less than a tenth of an inch in diameter and having a fragile construction. These cables may have conductors on the order of one hundredth of an inch in diameter and employ dielectric cores which are made light and spongy in order to have dielectric constants and velocities of propagation approaching that of air. Typically, the cable cores are surrounded by thin films of protective plastic materials such as Teflon or Mylar wrapped thereabout and other materials such as vinyl extruded thereover. Reference may be had to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 897,577 filed Aug. 18, 1986, now abandoned in the name of Norman Ralph Birch et al. for a teaching relating to such cable and the termination thereof.
While cable of this type is widely used, handling of such cable for the purposes of termination and stripping has proven difficult. Most typically, the prior art approach to such operations has involved the use of razor blades and a great deal of care. For example, stripping is typically done under magnification with a variety of jigs and other means used to minimize damage to the cable. Also typically, the operation of stripping and termination has been labor intensive, utilizing skilled personnel. With the ever increasing use of such cable, the problem has taken on an economic significance. Perhaps of even more importance and in addition to the cost of handling cable for stripping and termination, is the fact that the cable itself is damaged in handling. This is in part because no two operators are equally dexterous and the very fine dimensions of the cable, conductors, dielectric and sheath, make the job difficult.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 944,779 filed Dec. 22, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,669 issued Aug. 30, 1988 in the name of B. Schwartzman, there is taught a novel stripping tool for cable of the type under consideration. While this stripping tool is highly useful and of advantage, the need for clamping or holding the cable axially to allow its stripping has been made manifest, the tendency being either to squeeze the cable too hard, crushing its core beyond recovery or allowing the cable to slip, causing damage to the cable constituents.
The background of the invention is thus one of clamping or holding delicate coaxial cable and difficulty in stripping such cable.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tool to clamp delicate coaxial cable against axial movement so as to permit operation on such cable for the purposes of stripping, termination, insertion, or the like.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a tool for use with coaxial cable of a type having multiple fine conductors in conjunction with a soft, spongy dielectric core wrapped in a film of protective sheath material which permits such cable to be held without damage to the cable constituents while the cable is being worked upon.
It is yet a further object to provide an improved clamping tool for use with small, fragile cables.
Finally, it is an object to provide an improved method of stripping delicate coaxial cable.