Protective Fabric Sleeves

This invention relates to sleeves made from fabric and methods of making the same. More particularly, the invention relates to sleeves formed from fabrics comprised of engineered plastic filamentary materials in resilient tubular configuration for bundling and protecting elongated articles such as wires and hoses.

Encasing cables, hoses and other elongated flexible articles in tubular sleeves, particularly for the purpose of providing abrasion resistance thereby maintaining the mechanical and electrical properties of the article, is well-known in the art. Examples of such sleeving are those sold by The Bentley-Harris Manufacturing Company under the registered trademark EXPANDO. The EXPANDO sleeving is lightweight and provides tough physical protection for cable assemblies, hoses, wire harnesses and the like. The open construction of this type of product is of advantage over a solid material in that it breathes and prevents the entrapment of moisture. In addition, this type of sleeving maintains the bundled elongated articles in clean, compact condition and, depending upon the materials employed, may provide electrical shielding or protection from high temperatures, and has numerous other advantages well recognized in the art. The present invention provides advantages over the sleeving just described such as reduction in costs and simplified installation of the sleeving over multiple cables and other elongated articles and the ability to provide for multiple wire breakouts in a simple and effective fashion.

According to the invention, a resilient plastic material that has the ability to assume a set or bias, as by application of heat or pressure or by chemical modification is woven or braided to form flat fabric. Preferably a sleeve is formed from an elongated strip or ribbon of the woven material which is given a set or memory as by application of heat to a tubular configuration by forming the ribbon as a helically-wound strip with the edges of the strip in overlapping relationship when the strip is in the extended form. In another form of the invention, a woven or braided ribbon of heat-settable engineered plastic material is either first formed into a tube, heat set by passage through a heated die and cut lengthwise, or is heat set on a mandrel, with its overlapped side edges biased to the closed position.

An advantage of either form of the invention is the ease of use of the sleeving. In the case of the overlapping helical form of the invention, the sleeve in helical form can be compressed longitudinally into itself to form a multi-layered or turned spiral package having a cylindrical external shape with a length equal to the width of the fabric material forming the sleeve. This compressed cylinder can be placed over an elongated object or bundle of objects several feet long. When the forces acting to maintain it in compressed form are released, the biasing force on the preset spiral will cause the product to extend longitudinally to cover the elongated substrate with no additional assembly. When the ends of the substrate are inaccessible, the product may be helically wrapped on the substrate. The biasing forces will thereafter act to hold the sleeve in place. Either configuration also has the advantage of allowing for a multiplicity of breakouts of wires or tubes where required. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved sleeve for enclosing elongated articles, such as cables and the like, in which assembly of the sleeving over the substrate article is facilitated and breakouts are permitted.

A further object is the provision of sleeving which can be readily bent to follow a relatively sharp radius without kinking or opening up along its longitudinal seam.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a sleeving product which facilitates the breakout of wires, cables or other elongated articles bundled within the sleeving.

The foregoing and various other objects of the invention will become more fully apparent from the brief description of the drawings and detailed description of the invention which follow.

FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred form of sleeve incorporating the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows the sleeve of FIG. 1 wherein the product is axially compressed to form a multi-turned cylinder having a length equal to the width of the fabric strip forming the sleeve;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the product illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an alternative form of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view of a portion of an assembled wiring harness using a sleeve formed according to FIGS. 1-3; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view showing partial assembly of a wiring harness using the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 4.

With reference to FIGS. 1-6, two embodiments of sleeves are shown formed in accordance with the invention.

According to the invention, the sleeves are made from fabric in ribbon or strip form constructed from engineered plastic materials by shuttle loom, needle loom, scrim, fused lattice or braid techniques. In addition, the objectives of the invention may be achieved by knitting, braiding or weaving articles in tubular form, which are thereafter treated and cut to form sleeves having properties of the present invention. In the context of this invention, "fabric" means any woven, knitted, braided or plaited material made wholly or in part from filamentary materials comprised of engineered plastics. The fabric products utilized are characterized by an open construction which produces sleeves that breathe and prevent entrapment of moisture.

Preferably, the fiber or yarn used is polyester, but it will be appreciated that other members of the family of plastics known as engineered plastics are suitable for use in sleeves formed according to the present invention.

Materials in the family of engineered plastics of the type referred to herein include plastics that have a tensile modulus of greater than 50,000, and in the range from about 50,000 to about 200,000. Examples of engineered plastics are the olefin polymers of which are poly 4-methyl pentene and fluorinated polyolefins for ethylenetetrafluoroethylene copolymers, and vinylidene fluoride polymers, especially polyvinylidene fluoride and blends thereof, for example, the fluorinated olefin blends as described and claimed in British Pat. No. 1,120,131 polyesters, for example, polyethylene terephthalate, polytetramethylene terephathalate for example that are treated as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,968,015; 4,073,830; and 4,113,594, polyphenyleneoxide and -sulphide, blends of polyethylene oxide with styrene, silicone carbonate block copolymers, polyketones, such as polyarylether ketones, for example, those described and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,953,400; 4,024,314; 4,229,564; 3,751,398; 3,914,298; 3,956,146; and 4,111,908; and in British Pat. Nos. 1,387,303 and 1,383,393, polysulphones, for example, polyaryl sulphones. polyarylethere sulphones. polyetherimides for example those described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,867, polycarbonates especially those derived from bis phenol-A, polyamides especially those described and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,551,200 and 3,677,921 and in British Pat. No. 1,287,932, poly ether ether ketone (peek), epoxy resins and blends of one or more of the above-mentioned polymeric materials either with each other or with other polymeric materials. A more detailed discussion of the above materials is found in British Specification No. 1,529,351 which is incorporated herein by reference. It is especially preferred to use polyester as the material for the fiber.

Engineered plastics of the type described may be caused to take a permanent set by forming a product comprised of the plastic material to a specific geometry and then modifying the properties of the material. This is usually accomplished by the application of heat to raise its temperature to a point either above the glass transition temperature or above the softening point in the case of amorphous polymers and thereafter cooling the material. The product thereafter has a permanent set or bias (sometimes called an "elastic memory") in the shape in which it was formed as is wellrecognized by those of ordinary skill in the art. Although the application of heat is the usual and most widely employed method of producing this set or bias, it should also be recognized that other, chemical or physical, methods may sometimes be employed.

Although products formed of monofilaments of engineered plastic materials have been produced which yield excellent results, multifilament yarns may also be employed either entirely or in combination with monofilament materials. Moreover, combinations of engineered plastic materials and yarns or strands or filaments comprised of metals or mineral materials such as glass in fiber form may be used. Blends of different basic monofilaments and combinations of different diameters of monofilaments will be of advantage for certain applications.

FIGS. 1-3 show a sleeve 10 of preferred form for carrying out the principles of the invention. The sleeve of FIGS. 1-3 is preferably formed from woven strip material comprised of polyester monofilament typically of about 0.010 inches in diameter. The sleeve is formed to the specific geometry desired as by wrapping the strip material in helical fashion upon a mandrel of the desired diameter of the ultimate product. Preferably, one side edge of the strip overlies the other side edge as can be seen in FIG. 1 at 11. Preferably, the amount of overlap should range from about ten to about fifty percent of the width of the strip when the material is wrapped upon the mandrel, although this may vary somewhat. Subsequent to wrapping, the polymeric material is exposed to heat to bring the material to the softening point. Typically the material is heated by a hot air gun although other heating means may be employed. Thereafter upon cooling, the strip material retains a permanent set so that upon removal from the mandrel it maintains its tubular helical shape with the side edges overlapping one another by the amount stated above. Temperatures and times required to achieve the desired set without destruction of the integrity of the article can be determined for each material selected by a few field trials.

According to the invention, the materials employed are sufficiently resilient so that the helical sleeve may be compressed longitudinally from the extended condition shown in FIG. 1 to the compressed condition of FIGS. 2 and 3, so that the turns fully overlap and form a spiral with the external form of a multi-layered cylinder 12, the length of which is approximately equal to the width of the strip material. Preferably this short cylinder is packed in compressed form for use as required for jacketing of cables, conduits or other elongated substrates. When the cylinder is unpacked and no longer restrained, the biasing forces cause the sleeve to extend to its approximate original length which may be two feet or more. In use, the short cylinder is held against extension by the user, placed over the end of the bundle of elongated articles and is then released to allow the biasing force to cause the sleeve to extend lengthwise over the entire bundle, thus covering or jacketing the bundle with no additional assembly steps.

As can be seen in FIG. 5, an advantage of the helical sleeving of the invention is that the sleeving material can be bent on a relatively tight radius without collapsing or without physical separation of the turns. This characteristic of the product is enhanced by the combined use of the helical configuration and by the inherent flexibility of woven materials. By braiding, the fabric takes on the additional qualities of being radially expandable and axially compressible so that even more flexibility is imparted to the product.

FIGS. 4 and 6 show a form of the invention in which a tubular sleeve 13 having a lengthwise slit 14 is employed. In accordance with the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the fabric is set in tubular form as by the application of heat so that it is biased to provide a 360 degree snap fit over a substrate without the need for other attaching means. FIG. 6 shows the application of the tubular material of FIG. 4 to a bundle of elongated wires.

According to the invention, the woven sleeve material is sufficiently resilient so that wire breakout at any point along the sleeve may be easily accommodated. As seen in FIG. 5, one such wire is shown at 16. In the form of the invention shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 5, wires may be pulled from between the edges of the strip material on any edge point on any turn. The biasing force imparted by the set tends to resiliently urge the material around any wire broken out, thereby restricting the passage of foreign matter into the bundle of wires within the sleeve. Using the form of invention shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, wires may be similarly broken out lengthwise of the overlying edges of the strip material.

Although tubular articles having a substantial cylindrical cross-section are illustrated in the drawings, it should be appreciated that other cross-sections, such as rectangular, square or triangular, may be set into the fabric by the use of dies or mandrels of the desired shape. Various combinations and multiples of these shaped may also be employed.