In the telecommunications industry telephone distribution cable is introduced to individual telephone sites such as residences, mainly through use of a splice of pairs of tip and ring signal wires of the cable to tip and ring wires of a respective service cable at a junction located outside the house. The junction is housed within a protective enclosure which is mounted usually to an outside wall of the house.
A variety of enclosures are known, mountable to poles or walls, within which are mounted one or more terminal blocks used to interconnect tip and ring wires of distribution cable and a plurality of service cables, including a rugged enclosure such as disclosed in U.S. The enclosure includes arrays of openings along both side edges of the rear wall and to each side of the array of terminal blocks, and also through the bottom wall, through which extend respective service cables. Sealing about the openings around the cables is provided by a pair of elongate strips traversing the array of openings, held in place by the structure of the enclosure. A first strip adjacent the rear wall includes discrete slits aligned with the wall's openings, and a second strip outwardly of and adjacent the first strip includes small diameter holes punched therethrough aligned with the centers of the cable openings, all permitting insertion therethrough of cable ends and sealing therearound, and also closing off any particular opening into which no cable is inserted.
Other such enclosures are disclosed in U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 098/032,890 and Ser. No. 08/085,129; both filed Mar. 18, 1993; assigned to the assignee hereof; the enclosures similarly contain terminal blocks mountable therein each interconnecting conductors of a distribution cable and an array of service wires, or two arrays of service wires, and which are easily openable to stable positions permitting access thereinto.
It is desired to provide a grommet for a telephone line enclosure having a plurality of cable exits which provides for environmental sealing about the cables extending through the respective cable exits.
It is also desired to provide such a grommet that seals about each of a plurality of such cables and closes off unused ones of the cable exits, and is replaceable.