Design and analysis of an automatic cable reel for multiple cable connections

Abstract

The cable reels are widely used in highly mobile radars. The working efficiency and reliability of the traditional cable reels are not enough in the cases that the number of the cables is large and the power is high. A novel automatic cable reel is developed to provide a reliable and compact operating device for the radar cables. This paper describes the mechanical design of the winch unit and connection unit of the cable reel, which can automatically wind cables and join or separate the electrical connectors, respectively. The power of the motor is determined and the specifications of the system is presented. Then, the cable reel system is analysed and tested. The modal analysis of the system is conducted. The functions that the automatic cable reel can wind the cables, join and separate the electrical connectors efficiently are verified by the experiment results. Compared with the ordinarily manual cable reels or the slip rings, the automatic cable reel developed in this paper is innovative to realize the automation of the separation and joint of the connectors while winding the cables simultaneously, which can promote the efficiency and the reliability of the highly mobile radars, without twining and knotting the cables or wearing the slip rings, especially for multiple and high-power cable connections in limited spaces.