Knitted Wire Carrier With Undulating Reinforcement for Weather Seal

The wire carrier is segmented into multiple functional components: a knitted wire carrier base structure and separate reinforcement elements (such as rigid wire segments, strips, or profiles) that are integrated into the carrier. This segmentation allows the flexible knitted base to accommodate continuous-forming processes while the rigid reinforcement segments prevent excessive compressibility and elongation around tight corners, thereby maintaining seal profile accuracy.

The wire carrier employs composite construction by combining the knitted wire carrier material (providing flexibility and formability) with reinforcement elements made of rigid materials (such as steel wire, metal strips, or plastic profiles). This composite structure enables the carrier to be both manufacturable through continuous processes and precise enough to maintain profile accuracy when fitted around tight-radius corners.

The invention extracts only the essential reinforcement function from the complex perforated metal strip system. Instead of using full perforated strips requiring stamping and cutting equipment, the solution employs simplified reinforcement elements (such as welded wire segments, attached strips, or integrated rigid components) that are selectively placed only where corner reinforcement is needed. This reduces device complexity while maintaining seal profile accuracy.

The reinforcement elements can be designed as simpler, more economical components compared to traditional perforated metal strips. These may include basic wire segments, simple strips, or profiles that can be attached through straightforward methods (welding, adhesives, or mechanical attachment) rather than requiring involved stamping or cutting processes. This reduces both equipment complexity and manufacturing cost while achieving the same functional outcome of preventing puckering and wrinkling around corners.