Optical fiber splice case

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a housing assembly for enclosing cable splices generally comprising a pair of housing members having main body portions with peripheral clamping flanges extending outwardly therefrom and cooperatively positioned in opposed relationship to be clamped together.
The clamping flanges have inner end portions adjacent the main body portions and free outer end portions.
A resilient sealing gasket is positioned between the inner end portions, and a rigid rib means is located at the free outer end portions.
The total thickness of the rib means between opposed clamping flanges is greater than the normal uncompressed thickness of the sealing gasket such that when the clamping flanges are brought together, engagement takes place first on the rigid rib means and subsequent sealing engagement with the gasket requires application of sufficient clamping forces to produce deflection and torquing of the flanges about the rigid rib means.
The arrangement described above allows the gasket to be more uniformly compressed and provides improved gasket engagement.
In accordance with a more limited aspect, the rib means can be a rigid protrusion formed integrally on the outer free end of one or both of the flanges and the gasket can be one or more separate gasket elements located between the flanges.
In addition, and in accordance with a more limited aspect, the flanges are preferably clamped together through the use of a plurality of uniformly and closely spaced threaded connectors passing through the flanges between the rib means and the gasket means.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the invention, a housing assembly for enclosing and storing cable splices generally comprises first and second end plates axially spaced from one another and defining a storage space therebetween.
A rigid torsion bar member extends through the storage space and has its ends rigidly joined to the end plates.
A pair of opposed housing members are contoured to enclose the end plates and the storage space