There are numerous situations in which it is desirable to provide jacketing or sleeving for cables and piping and other articles as, for example, to provide protection against abrasion, for insulation or for the purpose of channeling a group of wires to prevent them from becoming tangled or snagged and broken when extended adjacent to moving machinery and for obvious purposes such as waterproofing or to organize them into easily identified groupings.
Typical sleeving products of the type referred to are braided, woven or knitted, depending upon the intended use, from materials such as polyester monofilaments and other engineered plastics or from bulky yarns made from materials such as glass fiber. Frequently, products constructed from monofilaments are formed with an open construction so that they provide protection against abrasion while allowing for circulation of air. Sleeving products woven, braided or knitted from bulky yarns formed of materials such as glass fiber or the like, either alone or in combination with monofilaments of synthetics or metal wires, are typically intended to be of a relatively closed construction so as to function as insulators.
For most applications, it is required that the sleeving be not only inexpensive and durable, but it must be relatively easy and inexpensive to install. Sleeving of the type described is frequently provided in tubular form and is axially slit so that it may be slipped over elongated bundles of articles. It is usual practice that when the axially slit product is applied, it is secured in place by tape and the use of ties or straps which are fastened at spaced intervals. The methods of application described involve a relatively high labor cost and a certain amount of inconvenience because of the need to have a supply of tape, ties or straps conveniently at hand.