Oil-tight lay-in duct

Claim 1

A lay-in duct for electric current carrying wires and comprising: a pair of like open top troughs connected together end to end in alignment with each other, and each having upper lateral marginal flanges at its top extending endwise of the troughs, and each of said marginal flanges having an upper face; covers for the troughs, respectively; said covers, in their closed position, having their adjacent ends spaced endwise of the troughs from each other and from said connected ends of the troughs, and each of said covers being of a width such that, in said closed position, its lateral margins overlap said lateral flanges of its associated trough; means for fastening the covers in closed positions on the troughs, respectively; a joint sealing device comprising a rigid body extending endwise transversely of the troughs across the open tops thereof at their connected end portions, and hingedly connected at one of its ends to at least one of said troughs for swinging upwardly to an open position and downwardly to a closed position, selectively; means on the other end of the body for detachably holding the body in closed position; said body including a top plate which, in the closed position of the body, extends endwise transversely of the troughs and, has end portions in overlapping relation to both lateral flanges of both troughs at, and adjacent, their connected ends, and a base plate of less length, transversely of the troughs, than the top plate and which, in said closed position, lies within the troughs and extends transversely of the troughs with an end near to the inner lateral limit of the flanges at one side of the troughs and the opposite end near to the inner lateral limit of the flanges at the other side of the troughs; said base plate being of greater width than the top plate and having lateral margins extending, in a direction endwise of the troughs, beyond the lateral limits of the top plate sufficient distances, respectively, to underlap adjacent end margins of said covers, respectively; sealing means carried by the body and positioned to lie in sealing relation between said upper faces of the trough flanges and said respective overlapping end portions of the top plate, between under faces of said adjacent end margins of the covers and upper faces of the underlapping lateral margins of the base plate for substantially the full length, in a direction transversely of the troughs, of said base plate, and directly between the faces of the lateral flanges of the troughs and the faces of those portions of said end margins of the covers overlapping said lateral flanges; wherein the sealing means includes a single piece of resilient sealing material clamped between the plates and which overlies said base plate at its said lateral margins for their full length transversely of the troughs and endwise of the base plate beyond said end portions of the base plate at and between said lateral margins of the base plate so as to underlie said end margins of the top plate near its ends for the full width of the top plate; and connecting means securely fasten the plates to each other in said clamping relation to the said piece of material.