Wrappable Textile Sleeve With Silicone Coating for Arc and Fluid Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing textile sleeves for protecting elongate members, such as wires and hoses, are bulky, heavy, and lack flexibility due to their multilayered structure, making them difficult to route through tight spaces and impractical for weight-restricted applications like aerospace, where they require multiple layers for arc, abrasion, heat, and fluid resistance.
Innovation Solution
A wrappable sleeve with an interlaced layer of heat-resistant yarns, coated with a silicone-based material that includes a flame retardant and heat stabilizer, featuring a closure member with adhesive properties to maintain the sleeve's edges in overlapping relation, allowing for flexible routing and protection against arcing, abrasion, thermal conditions, and fluid ingress.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple layers are used to provide arc resistance, fluid resistance, abrasion resistance, and heat resistance, then protection against various environmental conditions is improved, but the sleeve becomes bulky, heavy, and inflexible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining heat-resistant yarns (meta-aramid multifilaments and PEEK monofilaments) with a silicone-based coating containing flame retardants and heat stabilizers. This single-layer composite structure provides multiple protective functions (arc resistance, fluid resistance, abrasion resistance, and heat resistance) simultaneously, eliminating the need for multiple separate layers while maintaining protection reliability.
2Reliability
If multiple layers are used to provide comprehensive protection, then protection against various environmental conditions is improved, but the sleeve becomes bulky and requires increased volume of space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite material system where heat-resistant yarns provide structural integrity and baseline protection, while the silicone-based coating with flame retardants and heat stabilizers adds protective functions. This integration of multiple protective functions into a single-layer composite structure reduces the sleeve volume compared to traditional multilayer constructions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple protective functions (arc resistance, fluid resistance, abrasion resistance, heat resistance) into a single integrated layer rather than using separate layers for each function. The heat-resistant yarns and silicone-based coating work together in one layer to provide comprehensive protection, reducing the overall sleeve volume.
3Reliability
If multiple layers are used to provide comprehensive protection, then protection against various environmental conditions is improved, but the sleeve exhibits low flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a composite material structure where heat-resistant yarns provide structural support while the silicone-based coating with flame retardants and heat stabilizers provides protective functions. This single-layer composite maintains flexibility because it does not require the thickness and rigidity of multiple separate layers, allowing the sleeve to be easily routed through tight spaces.
4Device complexity
If a fixed cavity size is used, then protection structure is simplified, but the sleeve is challenging to assemble about elongate members
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the sleeve flexible and wrappable rather than rigid. The single-layer construction with heat-resistant yarns and silicone-based coating allows the sleeve to be dynamically adjusted and wrapped around elongate members of varying sizes, facilitating easy assembly while maintaining protection.
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 solution provides a lightweight, flexible, and effective protection against high heat, fire, and fluid ingress, allowing the sleeve to be easily routed through tight spaces while maintaining protection levels, including arc resistance and fluid repellency, with enhanced durability and reduced bulk.
Implementation Method 1
fluid repellant, high temperature and abrasion resistant, wrappable textile sleeve... protects against fluid absorption into a wall of the sleeve
Implementation Method 2
The closure member has an adhesive surface configured for adhesion to an outer surface of the wall to maintain the opposite edges of the wall in overlapping relation with one another
Data Source
AI summary
A wrappable sleeve has a wall including an interlaced layer providing an inner surface and an opposite outer surface extending widthwise between opposite edges and extending lengthwise between opposite ends. The opposite edges are wrappable about a central longitudinal axis to bound the elongate member within a cavity bounded by the inner surface. The interlaced layer is formed of yarns interlaced with one another, wherein a least some of the yarns include multifilaments resistant to heat and monofilaments resistant to heat. The wall further includes a silicone-based coating adhered to the outer surface of the interlaced layer, and a closure member fixed along one of the opposite edges. The closure member has an adhesive surface configured to maintain the opposite edges of the wall in overlapping relation with one another.