Knit Textile Sleeve with Self-Sustaining Expanded and Contracted States
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing textile sleeves require labor-intensive and costly fasteners to secure them around elongate members, which can be unsightly, prone to detachment, and leave residue, making them undesirable for secure and efficient protection.
Innovation Solution
A knit textile sleeve with a tubular wall made of heat-set and non-heat-set yarns that can change between a compressed and expanded state due to heat-setting, allowing it to self-sustain its configuration without external forces, eliminating the need for fasteners.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If fasteners (tie wraps, adhesives, tape) are used to fix the sleeve to the elongate member, then the sleeve can be secured in place, but it leaves adhesive residue, requires labor intensive application, and may come undone during use
Solution Approach 1:
The sleeve is designed with elastic properties that enable it to automatically expand and contract to fit around the elongate member without requiring external fasteners. The sleeve serves itself by using its inherent material characteristics to achieve secure fixation, eliminating the need for adhesives, tape, or tie wraps that would otherwise be required.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention removes and eliminates the fastener component entirely from the system. By designing the sleeve with inherent elastic expansion and contraction capabilities, the patent extracts the fastening function from separate components (adhesives, tape, ties) and integrates it into the sleeve structure itself.
2Reliability
If fasteners are used to secure the sleeve, then fixation is achieved, but it appears unsightly and requires having the particular fastener on hand during installation
Solution Approach 1:
The sleeve uses its own elastic material properties to achieve fixation without requiring separate fasteners. This self-service approach eliminates the complexity of managing different fastener types and ensures a clean, unsightly-free appearance while maintaining secure attachment.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the sleeve wall is made with heat-set yarns, then the sleeve can maintain its expanded or contracted state without external force, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies heat treatment to change the physical parameters of the yarns, transforming them from a temporary state to a stable, memory-retaining state. This parameter change enables the sleeve to maintain its expanded or contracted configuration without continuous external force, though it does add a thermal processing step to manufacturing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The sleeve provides secure, labor-saving, and cost-effective protection by maintaining its configuration until an external force is applied, allowing easy installation and removal without adhesive residue or unsightly fasteners.
Implementation Method 1
The wall includes knit, heat-set yarns imparting a bias on the wall, wherein the bias causes the wall to remain substantially in the first and second states absent some externally applied force
Implementation Method 2
heat-setting the heat-settable yarns while the wall is in one of a decreased length, increased cross-sectional area first state or an increased length, decreased cross-sectional area second state to impart a bias on the wall via the heat-set yarns
Data Source
AI summary
A protective textile sleeve and method of construction thereof is provided. The sleeve has a knit, tubular wall extending lengthwise along a central longitudinal axis between opposite ends. The knit wall has a first state with a decreased length, increased cross-sectional area, as viewed in cross-section taken generally transversely to the central longitudinal axis, and a second state with an increased length, decreased cross-sectional area, as viewed in cross-section taken generally transversely to the central longitudinal axis. The wall includes knit, heat-set yarns imparting a bias on the wall, wherein the bias causes the wall to remain substantially in the first and second states absent an externally applied force.