Method of making a cable wrap

Abstract

The subject matter of the invention is a method for the production of a cladding (1) for elongated material (2), in particular a sheath for cable sets. In this context, two adhesive tapes (3, 4) that are provided at least on one side with an adhesive coating (3) are axially spaced apart from one another by means of a carrier tape (5) are joined to form a laminate (3, 4, 5). For this purpose, both adhesive tapes (3, 4) arc each joined, on the side thereof with the adhesive coating, with the carrier tape (5), in the longitudinal direction, while defining a free region (6) limited by both adhesive tapes (3, 4). According to the invention, the carrier tape (5) is configured free of adhesive coating and is only provided with an own adhesive coating (7) at least in the free region (6) after the laminate (3, 4, 5) has been produced.

Claims

1. A method of making a wrap for an elongated object, the method comprising the steps of: adhering two axially extending adhesive tapes each provided at least on a back face with an adhesive coating at a spacing from one another to a support tape to form a laminate and, for this purpose, the two adhesive tapes being adhered along their longitudinal length with the support tape on a front face thereof with the adhesive coating while defining a gap delimited between the two adhesive tapes the support tape being free of adhesive coating; and providing the support tape with an adhesive coating at least partially in the gap after formation of the laminate.

2. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the two adhesive tapes are spaced from one another by an axially or longitudinally extending spacing that is narrower than twice the smallest width of the respective adhesive tape.

3. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the two adhesive tapes are on a common front face of the support tape.

4. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the two adhesive tapes have the same or different widths.

5. The method defined in claim 4, wherein the two adhesive tapes are present in a width ratio from 1:1 to 1:10.

6. The method defined in claim 5, wherein a width of the support tape corresponds approximately to a width of the wider of the two adhesive tapes up to a sum of the widths of the two adhesive tapes.

7. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the two adhesive tapes have at outer edges lateral overhangs extending transversely past outer edges of the support tape and a width ratio of the lateral overhangs in the range from 1:1 to 1:5.

8. The method defined in claim 7, wherein in the laminate the outwardly facing adhesive coatings of the adhesive tapes are exposed at the two overhangs.

9. The method defined in claim 7, further comprising the steps of: aligning the laminate with the adhesive coating on one overhang parallel to the elongated object and fixed thereto, then wrapping the laminate longitudinally around the material and finally adhering the laminate to the longitudinal wrap with the adhesive coating of the other, second overhang.

10. A sheath for wrapping an elongated object and made according to the method of claim 1.

11. A method of making a wrap for and applying the wrap to an elongated object, the method comprising the steps of sequentially: adhering two adhesive tapes having adhesive-coated back faces to a front face of a support tape with inner edges of the adhesive tapes transversely spaced and defining a longitudinally extending gap at which the front face is exposed and outer edges of the adhesive tapes transversely overhanging outer edges of the support tape to form a laminate; applying a longitudinally extending strip of adhesive to the front face in the gap of the laminate; and wrapping the laminate around the object with a back face of the support tape directly against the object, the back face of one of the overhangs adhering directly to the object, the adhesive strip on the front face adhering to a back face of one of the adhesive tapes, and the back face of the other of the overhangs adhering to the adhesive strip.

Description

(1) The invention is explained in further detail below with reference to a schematic drawing, which illustrates only one illustrated embodiment:

(2) FIGS. 1A to 1C show a method of making a wrap for an elongated object in various process stages, and

(3) FIG. 2 shows the wrap installed on the elongated object.

(4) The drawing shows a wrap 1 for an elongated object 2. In the illustrated embodiment, and without constituting a restriction, the elongated object 2 is several grouped-together cable harnesses, cable sets, etc., in a motor vehicle. With the aid of the wrap 1, the elongated object 2 or the cable harnesses are enclosed along their longitudinal length. The wrap 1 therefore corresponds to a longitudinal wrapping as a sheath as shown in FIG. 2 and its manufacture is shown in detail in FIGS. 1A to 1C. Here, the wrap 1 and the various manufacturing steps are shown in an extended state.

(5) During manufacture of the wrap 1, two adhesive tapes 3, 4 each provided with an adhesive coating 3 on at least one face, are first provided. In addition to the adhesive coating 3, the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 have a substrate 4. The substrate 4 can be a substrate made of a fabric or warp-knitted fabric. Normally, a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) fabric or also a polyamide fabric is used. In general, however, the substrate 4 can also be embodied as a velour substrate, warp-knitted fabric, or nonwoven mat. The substrate 4 is generally a textile substrate 4 that can in principle also be a nonwoven fabric.

(6) The adhesive tape 3, 4 has a width B in the range from about 15 mm to 250 mm. Preferably, the width B lies in the range between 15 mm and 100 mm. The weight per unit area of the respective adhesive tape 3, 4 is in the range from 40 g/m.sup.2 to 800 g/m.sup.2 and preferably between 100 g/m.sup.2 and 250 g/m.sup.2. Its thickness may lie in the range from 0.1 mm to 5 mm and preferably in the range between 0.2 mm and 1 mm.

(7) The adhesive coating 3 is an adhesive compound based on natural or synthetic rubber. An acrylate adhesive and, in particular, hot-melt adhesive is usually used. In principle, adhesive compounds based on silicone, polyurethane or polyester can also be used. In addition, adhesive compounds are also conceivable that are composed of 20 wt % to 85 wt % of a polyurethane or polyether as well as 15 wt % to 85 wt % of an adhesive resin that is compatible with the abovementioned component, as well as 0.01 wt % to 3 wt % of a crosslinking agent. As the application weight for the adhesive coating 3, the invention recommends values in the range between about 30 g/m.sup.2 and 300 g/m.sup.2.

(8) The two adhesive tapes 3, 4 provided with the adhesive coating are axially spaced from one another with the aid of a support tape 5 and joined to form a laminate 3, 4, 5. For this purpose, the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 are joined together along their longitudinal length with the support tape 5 on the respective face with the adhesive layer, thus defining an empty gap 6 bordered by them. This can be seen by comparing FIG. 1A to FIG. 1B.

(9) During this process, the support tape 5 is adhered to the adhesive coatings 3 of the adhesive tapes 3, 4. In this connection, the invention as a whole proceeds in such a way that the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 are carried on a common front face 5a of the support tape 5. It is of special inventive significance in this connection that the support tape 5 is coating-free on both its front face 5a and back face 5b and is particularly configured so as to be free of adhesive coating as a whole. That is, the support tape 5 is pressed directly onto the adhesive coating 3 of the adhesive tapes 3, 4 and adheres to the adhesive coating 3.

(10) It is only after the laminate 3, 4, 5 is produced in this manner that the support tape 5 is provided with its own adhesive coating 7 at least in the gap 6, particularly at least in part. This can be seen by comparing FIG. 1B to FIG. 1C. In fact, in the illustrated embodiment, the invention proceeds such that the coating-free support tape 5 is first joined with its front face 5a with the adhesive coatings 3 of the adhesive tapes 3, 4. For this purpose, the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 are aligned so as to be axially spaced from one another. This applies to the support tape 5. After that, the adhesive tapes 3, 4 are joined to the support tape.

(11) After the gap 6 between the confronting inner edges of the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 has been defined in this way, this gap 6 is provided with the adhesive coating 7. For this purpose, the adhesive can be applied to the support tape 5, more particularly to its front face 5a, by spraying through a mask into the gap 6 in question In the illustrated embodiment, the adhesive coating 7 being shown to be significantly thicker than the adhesive coatings 3. The purpose of this is only to clarify the manufacturing process and the arrangement of the adhesive coating 7. In fact, the adhesive coatings 3, 7 are normally applied with a comparable surface coating weight (mass per unit area) to the substrates 4, 5. This is usually in the range from 30 g/m.sup.2 to 300 g/m.sup.2, as was explained previously above relative to the adhesive coating 3.

(12) Alternatively, it is also possible for the adhesive coating 7 to be present on a transfer film (not shown) and applied with the aid of the transfer film in the gap 6 to the support tape 5, more particularly to its front face 5a. Moreover, the additional possibility exists of placing the adhesive coating 7 in a contactless manner in the gap 6 onto the support tape 5. Various methods and approaches are available in this regard, for example so-called kiss coating or curtain coating, as well as the previously mentioned spray-coating method.

(13) From a topological perspective, the configuration as a whole is set up such that the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 are spaced apart along their longitudinal length by an axial spacing A that ranges from about half of the smallest width of the adhesive tapes 3, 4 to two times this smallest widths B.sub.1, B.sub.2. In the illustrated embodiment, the adhesive tape 3, 4 to the right in FIGS. 1A to 1C has the smaller width B.sub.1 that in this case is greater than the axial spacing A between the two adhesive tapes 3, 4. The spacing A can correspond to values in the range between about 20 mm and 50 mm.

(14) Accordingly, the gap 6 defined in this way also has a respective width A.

(15) It can be seen that the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 have different widths B.sub.1, B.sub.2. The two adhesive tapes 3, 4 can obviously also have the same widths B.sub.1, B.sub.2. Moreover, in the illustrated embodiment, the width ratio B.sub.1:B.sub.2 is in the range between about 1:1 to 1:3. This width ratio B.sub.1:B.sub.2 can in fact assume values of up to 1:10.

(16) The illustrated width C of the support tape 5 corresponds approximately to the width B.sub.2 of the wider of the two adhesive tapes 3, 4. At most, the width C of the support tape 5 can correspond to the sum of the widths B.sub.1, B.sub.2 of the two adhesive tapes 3, 4. In other words:
CB.sub.2 to B.sub.1+B.sub.2.

(17) Furthermore, it can be seen from the views that the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 are joined with the support tape 5 with a lateral overhang U at each edge. In the illustrated embodiment, each lateral overhang U is configured so as to be approximately equal on both the right and left edges of the support tape 5. The overall orientation and configuration of the laminate 3, 4, 5 ensures that the laminate 3, 4, 5 is oriented at its two overhangs U with the outwardly facing adhesive coatings 3 of the adhesive tapes 3, 4. With the aid of the overhang U and of the adhesive coating 3 of the adhesive tapes 3, 4 exposed there, the sheath or wrap 1 produced in this way is wrapped around the elongated object 2 to be enclosed as shown in detail in FIG. 2.

(18) For this purpose, the laminate 3, 4, 5 is first fixed to the elongated object 2 with the adhesive coating 3 on the associated overhang U of the adhesive tape 3, 4 as shown to the right in the illustrated embodiment. The sheath is then wrapped longitudinally around the elongated object 2 according to the illustration in FIG. 1C. Finally, the other overhang U, which belongs to the adhesive tape 3, 4 to the left in the example, is adhered to the longitudinal wrap produced in this way. An especially intensive adhesion is obtained because the adhesive coating 3 of the overhang U to the left in this case corresponding to the illustration of FIG. 1C contacts the adhesive coating 7 of the support tape 5, and the two adhesive coatings 3, 7 are adhered to one another (cf. FIG. 2).

(19) In the illustrated embodiment, the overhang U of the first adhesive tape 3, 4 corresponds with the smaller width B.sub.1 to the so-called fixing strip, with the aid of which the first adhesive tape 3, 4, more particularly the overhang U there, is fixed to the elongated object 2 as shown in FIG. 2. The overhang U of the second adhesive tape 3, 4 having the width B.sub.2 is usually designed to be bigger in terms of its width than the overhang U of the first adhesive tape 3, 4. The overhang U of the second adhesive tape 3, 4 corresponds to a closure strip. Consequently, the overhangs U, more particularly the width of the fixing strip in comparison to that of the closure strip, has a width ratio that is in the range from 1:1 to 1:5 and preferably in the range from 1:1 to 1:3.

(20) It is obvious that, depending on the variation of the widths B.sub.1, B.sub.2, and C, different overall widths of the laminate 3, 4,5 and also different sizes of the gap 6 and of its width A can be proposed and implemented. Not only the widths B.sub.1, B.sub.2, and C of the two adhesive tapes 3, 4 and of the support tape 5 play a role here, but also the overhangs U that are provided. Total widths of the laminate 3, 4, 5 in the range from about 80 mm to 600 mm can be obtained so that elongated objects 2 of very different diameters can be wrapped. As will readily be understood, these estimations are to be understood as being only for the sake of example and are of course not restrictive.