1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to textile sleeves, and more particularly to braided textile sleeves.
2. Related Art
It is known to protect elongate members in textile sleeves against a variety of environmental conditions and affects, or to just contain elongate members in textile sleeves for bundling and routing purposes, such as in knit, woven or braided sleeves. In the case of braided sleeves, the braided wall is commonly braided as a circumferentially continuous, seamless wall, sometimes referred to as a ‘closed’ wall. One known advantage of a closed, braided wall construction is that the wall can be circumferentially expanded to facilitate sliding the wall over an elongated member by manually pushing and physically holding the opposite ends of the wall in a compressed fashion. By pushing the opposite ends toward one another and manually holding the wall in an axially compressed state, the braided wall is caused to take on an increased diameter and a reduced length. When in the increased diameter state, the wall can be readily disposed over the elongate member. Then, after sleeve is installed over the elongate member, the installer can release the wall and the opposite ends automatically spring axially away from one another, thereby taking on a circumferentially decreased diameter and increased length.
Although the aforementioned ability to increase and decrease the diameter of a braided wall has an advantage over some other known types of sleeve construction, such as woven sleeves, it does come with potential drawbacks. Namely, the ability to manually increase the diameter of the braided sleeve requires applying a continual, externally applied compression force during installation, which can prove challenging, and thus, can complicate the ability of the installer to readily install the sleeve over the elongate member. Further complicating installation of a braided sleeve arises when the sleeve has a relatively long length. With the sleeve having a relatively long length, difficultly arises by having to axially compress the opposite ends toward one another without causing the sleeve to fold or buckle along the length of the sleeve. In addition, upon releasing the wall to have the sleeve resume its lengthened, decreased diameter state, the wall generally has a tendency to spring back, at least partially, toward its axially compressed configuration due to a pattern retention phenomenon caused by friction between the interlaced yarns. As such, the effective length of the sleeve can be unintentionally decreased.
It is further known to stretch, cut or tear openings in a sidewall of the sleeve to provide access for branches of wires and branched wire connections, such as with Y or T-shaped connectors. Unfortunately, stretching yarns to form openings is time consuming and can result in inadvertently breaking yarns, while cutting the sidewall typically results in frayed, loose yarns, which not only appear unsightly, but can also diminish the useful life of the sleeve by allowing the opening to become enlarged over time, thereby subjecting the contents to contamination. It is further known to bundle branches and branched connections with multiple sleeves, thereby avoiding having to form openings in a sleeve wall, and further, to use tape about the branches. Although this can prove useful, it is time consuming, cumbersome, and as discussed above, can result in an unappealing appearance, particularly if the tape comes loose. In addition, increased cost is generally associated with having to use multiple sleeves and/or tape.