Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Hollow or container type article – Shrinkable or shrunk
Patent
1996-07-17
1999-02-09
Dye, Rena L.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Hollow or container type article
Shrinkable or shrunk
428 351, 428 352, 428192, 428195, 428212, 428349, 428913, 138104, 156 84, 156 86, 174 35R, 174139, B65B 5302, F16L 5700, H01B 1700
Patent
active
058691537
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to dimensionally heat-recoverable articles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Dimensionally heat-recoverable articles are well known and are used for enclosing many substrates, for the provision of environmental sealing, mechanical protection and/or electrical insulation for example. Depending on the use to which the articles are to be put, the material from which the articles are made is often required to have one or more of a variety of different properties. This `tailoring` of properties is often achieved by the incorporation of additives in a polymeric material. Examples of the types of additives that are used include antioxidants, reinforcing or non-reinforcing fillers, flame retardants, plasticisers, pigments, stabilisers and lubricants.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a novel form of article for enclosing at least part of a substrate, at least part of the article being dimensionally heat-recoverable polymeric material comprising in its heat-recoverable state (i) at least one relatively transparent portion and (ii) at least one relatively opaque portion. Preferably the position of the substrate can be detected through the said transparent portion when the substrate is enclosed by the article in use. The position may be detectable before or after or both before and after heat recovery of the article around the substrate.
In many cases, it will be preferred that the said opaque portion is heat-recoverable and/or the said transparent portion is heat-recoverable. The article may have a heat-recoverable wall, e.g. its outer enclosing wall, substantially wholly constituted by the said opaque and transparent portions.
Preferably the opaque portion(s) comprise(s) at least one additive, which additive is substantially absent, preferably completely absent, from the transparent portions. This has the advantage of permitting production of articles wherein the said additive is present in sufficient concentration in the opaque portions, and the opaque portions constitute a sufficient proportion of the article to achieve a preselected level of additive effect. Thus, additives which opacity the heat-recoverable material and are necessary to achieve specific characteristics, for example halogen-free flame retardant fillers, may be included so as to give the article as a whole a preselected level of the characteristic (e.g. flame-retardancy), while also providing for positional adjustment, for example by visual inspection by means of the additive-free transparent portions. Flame-retarded heat-recoverable articles have hitherto been impossible to make transparent except by use of halogenated materials, e.g. inherently transparent halogenated polymers.
The invention includes other possibilities, for example where the material other than the additive constituting the opaque portions has a characteristic other than opacity which is not present in the transparent portions, and the relative proportions of the opaque portions and transparent portions in the article are such as to achieve a pre-selected degree of the said characteristic in the article as a whole. Thus, it could be characteristics of relatively opaque polymers used in the opaque areas, rather than additives, which are imparted to the article as a whole while maintaining areas of transparency for visual inspection or other purposes.
At least in the broadest aspect of the invention, the fact that the article comprises at least one relatively transparent portion and at least one relatively opaque portion is intended to mean that at least one portion of the article allows at least some incident electromagnetic radiation to pass through it and at least one other portion of the article allows a smaller proportion (e.g. at least 30% less, preferably at least 50% less, more preferably at least 70% less) of the incident electromagnetic radiation to pass through it. For any particular embodiment of the invention the relative transparency or opacity of portions of the article may refer to a par
REFERENCES:
patent: 3885015 (1975-05-01), Ono
patent: 4685184 (1987-08-01), Satkamp
patent: 5369225 (1994-11-01), Natwig et al.
patent: 5393932 (1995-02-01), Young et al.
Lewington Sean Michael
Melton Keith Nelson
Sutherland Alistair Alfred Preston
Burkard Herbert G.
Dye Rena L.
Raychem Limited
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