Wrappable Heat-Resistant Sleeve With Water-Repellent Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing textile sleeves for protecting elongate members are bulky, heavy, and lack flexibility, making them difficult to assemble and route through tight spaces, particularly in applications like aerospace where weight and space constraints are critical.
Innovation Solution
A wrappable textile sleeve with a flexible, abrasion-resistant, and water-repellent design featuring interlaced heat-resistant yarn and aramid fasteners, which can be easily wrapped around elongate members to form a secure, enclosed cavity, and includes a silicone coating for enhanced protection against thermal, abrasive, and water-related hazards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple layers are used to provide comprehensive protection against abrasion, thermal conditions, and water ingress, then protection effectiveness is improved, but the sleeve becomes bulky, heavy, and less flexible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining heat-resistant yarn (such as aramid or fiberglass) with silicone coating in a single integrated sleeve structure. This composite construction provides multi-protection (thermal, abrasion, and water resistance) without requiring separate layers, thereby reducing weight while maintaining comprehensive protection effectiveness.
2Reliability
If multiple layers are used to provide comprehensive protection, then protection effectiveness is improved, but the sleeve becomes bulky and requires increased volume of space
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated composite sleeve combines multiple protective functions (thermal resistance, abrasion resistance, water repellency) into a single structure with optimized thickness. The silicone coating provides water and thermal protection without adding significant volume, while the heat-resistant yarn base layer provides structural integrity and abrasion resistance, achieving comprehensive protection with minimal volume increase.
3Reliability
If multiple layers are used to provide comprehensive protection, then protection effectiveness is improved, but the sleeve exhibits low flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The composite sleeve uses heat-resistant yarn (such as aramid) which inherently provides high flexibility while maintaining thermal resistance. The silicone coating is applied as a thin conformal layer that does not restrict the flexibility of the underlying flexible yarn structure, allowing the sleeve to bend and route through tight spaces while providing comprehensive protection.
4Device complexity
If a fixed cavity size sleeve is used, then protection structure is simplified, but the sleeve is challenging to assemble about elongate members
Solution Approach 1:
The sleeve employs a dynamic expansion mechanism where the circumferential walls can expand radially outward to accommodate elongate members of varying sizes. This dynamic adaptability allows the sleeve to be easily assembled over different member diameters and then maintain a secure fit, combining structural simplicity with operational ease.
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 effective protection against abrasion, high heat, fire, and water ingress while maintaining flexibility and ease of assembly, allowing for routing through complex paths without additional fixation mechanisms, thus addressing the limitations of existing sleeves in terms of size, weight, and usability.
Implementation Method 1
a silicone coating on an outer surface of the wall to render the wall being water repellant
Implementation Method 2
The wall is formed of interlaced heat-resistant yarn and has at least one hook-type fastener member along one of the opposite edges and at least one loop-type fastener member along the other of the opposite edges. The at least one hook-type fastener and the at least one loop-type fastener are formed of aramid, thereby further enhance the heat-resistance of the sleeve.
Data Source
AI summary
A textile sleeve for routing and protecting an elongate member and method of construction thereof are provided. The sleeve has a wall with opposite edges extending lengthwise between opposite ends. The edges are configured to be wrapped about a central longitudinal axis to bound the elongate member within an enclosed cavity. The wall is formed of interlaced heat-resistant yarn with at least one hook-type fastener member along one of the edges and at least one loop-type fastener member along the other of the edges. The hook-type fastener member and the loop-type fastener member are configured to attach with one another to maintain the opposite edges in releasably fixed, overlapping relation with one another.