Textiles: manufacturing – Textile product fabrication or treatment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-08
2001-05-22
Vanatta, Amy B. (Department: 3741)
Textiles: manufacturing
Textile product fabrication or treatment
C289S001500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06233796
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates primarily, but not exclusively, to the bundling of electrical wiring harnesses or other such elongate assemblies. Numerous methods of bundling cable/wire assemblies are in common use. Braided tubular sleeving is widely used as are adhesive tape and plastics cable ties. It is also common to employ a low cost lacing yarn, thread or cord, which is knotted around the wire bundle at spaced intervals, the lacing yarn being continuous so that it extends alongside the wire bundle between successive knots.
The application of lacing yarns of this kind is labour-intensive, which offsets the low cost of the yarn itself, because each knot has to be tied firmly before moving along to make the next knot in the series. Accordingly, more expensive bundling methods are often preferred because they are less labour intensive.
Such elongate assemblies may be other than electrical wiring harnesses and with this in mind it is appropriate to preserve the generality of the invention by considering it in relation to applying a lacing yarn to an elongate substrate.
In this specification the term slip knot is used to mean a knot formed by a loop in a single cord or by interengagement between loops whereby the position of each loop is dependant upon the tension in the cord. Also a slip knot expanded to define a loop of greater cross section than a said substrate is referred to herein as a loosely knotted loop.
It is an object of the present invention to at least reduce the time taken to apply a lacing yarn, as well as to at least in part automate its application.
According to the present invention, a method of applying a knotted lacing yarn to an elongated substrate such as a bundle of electrical wires comprises the steps of forming a set of loosely knotted adjacent loops of larger diameter than the bundle from a continuous length of a lacing yarn, passing the plurality of loops over a free end of the bundle, securing the first loop at or adjacent said free end by knotting or otherwise clamping it thereto followed by progressively displacing said set of loops away from said first loop lengthwise of the substrate so as to progressively tighten successive loops about the bundle, at spaced intervals along the length of the latter.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the set of loosely knotted loops exhibits a progressively decreasing diameter from one end of the set to the other, the smallest diameter of the set being at that end of the set which in use forms the first loop. By producing a set of loops progressively decreasing (or increasing) diameter from one end to the other, it is easier to ensure both sensibly uniform knot spacing and uniform lacing yarn tension.
Advantageously, the set of loosely knotted loops is provided on a tapered or conical former to prevent or at least minimise the risk of tangling. Alternatively, the set may be waxed or otherwise impregnated with a relatively soft binder composition in order to retain it in its as-formed state until individual loops are pulled off.
According to another embodiment of the invention, a plurality of pre-formed lacing cord loops are incorporated as the weft (fill) ends in a woven fabric tube. It will be appreciated that the warp yarns serve to retain the pre-formed loops, but otherwise have no function, because on withdrawing the weft loops in an axial direction, the warp threads simply fall away. Alternatively, they could be of water-soluble material to facilitate their removal.
In use, the invention makes it possible to locate the woven fabric tube over an elongated substrate, anchor one end of the lacing cord to the substrate and then draw the fabric tube along the latter, releasing and thereafter tightening the lacing cord loops progressively. The unwanted warp yarns fall away, leaving the lacing cord loops knotted about the substrate.
According to another embodiment of the invention the pre-formed loops are made from heat shrinkable filaments, so that a heat treatment after installation would cause the loops to more firmly grip the wire bundle, or other substrate.
The lacing cord may comprise more than one yarn assembled side by side, because this can simplify manufacture of the tube by weaving. It will also be appreciated that the woven tube can have any appropriate diameter; it can also be prepared in any convenient length suitable for wrapping a particular length of substrate.
In order that the invention be better understood, preferred embodiments of it will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
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Pindar Carol Jayne
van Wassenhove Denis
Federal-Mogul Systems Protection Group S.A.S.
Synnestvedt & Lechner LLP
Vanatta Amy B.
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