What
is Braided sleeving?
Braided
sleeving is a 200 million dollar business. Braided
sleeves are used in many places in our everyday
lives: Cars, electronics, electrical appliances,
motors, wire management, toys. Called by many names
including Nylon braided sleeving, sheathing, wire
mesh, Expando, skuff jacket, snakeskin. Expandable
braided sleeving resembles "Chinese Finger
Cuffs". When you push the end back it expands
to go over wires easily, and then when you let go,
the sleeving comes back to its original diameter
(or the diameter of your wire harness or bundle,
whichever is larger).
How
is Braided sleeving manufactured?
The
braiding process in itself is actually very simple.
It gets tricky when one needs to control the properties
of the final braid. Spindles of yarn (or monofilaments)
are placed on what's called a carrier. The carrier
rotates on a circular braiding machine in a "zig-zag"
fashion, while the yarn is pulled off the spindle.
On a braiding
machine, half the carriers move in the clockwise
direction, while the other half move in the counter-clockwise
direction. This, combined with the alternating movement
of the carriers causes a braided sleeve to come
out of the machine.
Braiding
machines range in size from 8 to 144 carriers. Generally*,
the size of the braided sleeve is determined by
the braider (i.e. the number of carriers) it is
made on. Expandability of the braid is controlled
by two factors: type of yarn used, and braid angle.
The type of yarn directly controls the expandability:
A monofilament
PET (a single strand) will result in a much more
expandable braid than a multifilament
Nylon will. Also, the braid angle is equally important.
A tighter braid angle will result is a much less
expandable braided sleeve. Such a braid is called
a "tightweave". A looser braid angle may
result in the same nominal diameter as a standard
braid, but the expandability will be much higher.
Another
factor that controls the properties of the braid
is the number of ends per carrier. For example:
a 96 carrier braid with 1 end per carrier will be
much more see through than a 96 carrier braid with
3 end per carrier. The 96-3 will also be more abrasion
resistant.
What
types of braided sleeving are available?
At
BuyHeatShrink.com, we can handle all of your sleeving
needs. Our people have many years experience in
braiding, wire harness design and manufacture, monofilament
design and manufacture, etc. Whether you need Electrical
Insulation (coated braided fiberglass), Abrasion
Resistance (Polyester
PET, Flame
Retardant PET, Nylon
braided sleeving, Nomex®, Kevlar®, Halar®
and cotton), Thermal Protection (metallized products,
T-Glass sleevings, Ceramic, Quartz and Silica braided
sleevings ), EMI/RFI shielding (tin coated copper,
silver coated copper braid - QQB575), or extreme
Chemical Resistance (Ryton PPS, Teflon PFA, Halar
E-CTFE), we can supply it all to you. Does your
assembly require the use of only Plenum
rated materials? Our Halar braided sleeving
is the perfect solution.
Capitalizing
on our relationships with the largest manufacturers
in the world, we can even braid your custom yarns.
Do you have a yarn that you want braided? Do you
have a specific resin that you want coated or impregnated
onto E Glass? Do you need Nomex braided over a special
wire? We can do it all for you. Are animals chewing
on outside electrical or network lines? We
can help.
Our
braids meet the toughest industry standards. Our
products are UL listed, CSA listed, and our flame
retardant products meet the UL VW-1
and UL 94V0 standards. also, where noted, our products
are Mil spec compliant (e.g. AMS-DTL
23053 formerly MIL-I-23053).
We have recently rotated our stock, carrying only
RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substances) compliant
materials. This standard bans the use of various
materials in manufactured products. Such products
include: lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium,
polybrominated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl
esters, CFCs, PCBs and PCTs.
*
the information posted on this website is meant
to give the reader a general understanding of the
braiding process, and how the properties of braided
sleeving can be influenced. This is by no means
a "tell-all" tutorial. If you would like
specific information on custom braided sleeves,
please feel free to contact
us
