Stretch hose and hose production method

Abstract

An extensible-retractable helically reinforced hose is formed by helically wrapping a freshly extruded bead of thermoplastic material about a rotating mandrel to form a helical array of spaced reinforcing coils, and by helically wrapping a freshly extruded thin yet wide web of thermoplastic material so edge regions of the wide web are placed onto and bond continuously with the peripheries of each adjacent pair of the reinforcing coils, with a leading edge region of each new wrap of the web overlying and bonding to a trailing edge region of a prior web wrap. Central portions of each web wrap extend radially inwardly and are sandwiched between adjacent reinforcing coils when the hose is retracted to a minimal axial length.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a flexible, extensible and retractable corrugated hose of a general type known to those who are skilled in the art as a “Stretch Hose” or a “Stretchable/Retractable Hose” that is formed from helically wound thermoplastic material.

The present invention also relates to a hose production method, namely to a method of production of helically reinforced extensible and retractable hose from newly extruded thermoplastic materials that are wound onto a rotating mandrel in a general manner such as is disclosed in the above-referenced application Ser. No. 13/507,172 (Atty's Dkt. 6-548), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention also relates to extensible and retractable “stretch hose” produced in accordance with the hose production method described herein, which is a variation of a hose production method disclosed in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,453,681 (Atty's Dkt. 6-451) and in the above-referenced continuation application Ser. No. 13/986,465 (Atty's Dkt. 6-459), the disclosures of which patent and application are incorporated herein by reference.

SUMMARY

One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of continuous production of a stretchable, crush resistant, axially extending hose formed from freshly extruded thermoplastic material—a hose is reinforced by an axially extending helix of reinforcing coils, and can extend to an unusually long length because a thin web that connects each adjacent pair of reinforcing coils is unusually wide.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a hose that can stretch axially to an unusual extent because adjacent pairs of reinforcing coils that are formed by a helix of thermoplastic material have their peripheries bonded continuously to an unusually axially lengthy yet thin web of thermoplastic material that forms a continuous outer wall of the hose.

Still another aspect of the invention relates to a stretch hose of the type just described that, when retracted to a minimal axial length, causes portions of the thin web to extend radially inwardly so as to be sandwiched between the adjacent pairs of reinforcing coils, with innermost portions of the web being folded to extend axially to define interior diameter portions of the retracted hose.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to procedures for treating discrete lengths of a stretchable, crush resistant, axially extending hose (preferably of the type described above)—procedures that instill desirable behavioral characteristics in the discrete lengths of hose.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features of, and a fuller understanding of the present invention will be better grasped by referring to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying claims and drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a short length of helically reinforced stretch hose produced in accordance with one method of preferred practice of the present invention, with the hose length shown extended;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the short length of extended hose shown in FIG. 1, with the view showing how the flexibility of the hose permits adjacent coils of the helix to move transversely relative to each other;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the short length of extended hose shown in FIG. 1, with the view showing as separate components the helical coils of extruded thermoplastic material and a thin cover that is formed by bonding-together portions of a tape-like web of thermoplastic material that is helically wound to overlie the helical coils;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the short length of extended hose that is similar to FIG. 3, but showing the short length of hose axially retracted to its minimal length, with portions of the thin cover of the web of the hose (which extends between and continuously connects each adjacent pair of the reinforcing coils of the hose) sandwiched between adjacent pairs of the helical coils of the hose length;

FIG. 5 is an enlargement of a small area designated by an oval in FIG. 4, showing how innermost portions of the thin cover of the web preferably are folded to underlie coils of the helix when the hose length is retracted to its minimal length; and,

FIG. 6 is a schematic depiction of a hose production station, and shows how a freshly extruded tape-like, relatively wide yet thin web of thermoplastic material and a freshly extruded bead of thermoplastic material are concurrently helically wrapped around a rotating mandrel to form a substantially endless length of corrugated hose which has reinforcing coils formed by the helically wrapped bead, a cover or outer wall formed by the helically wrapped web, with adjacent pairs of the reinforcing coils having their peripheries bonded to edge regions of the web wraps, and with an arrow indicating a direction of precession followed by the newly formed hose as it travels axially along the rotating mandrel.

DESCRIPTION

1. The Stretch Hose Product

Referring to FIGS. 1-5, a short length of flexible, stretchable, crush resistant hose is indicated generally by the numeral 100. In FIGS. 1 and 3 the short hose length 100 is shown partially axially extended. In FIG. 2 the length of hose 100 is shown with its adjacent helical reinforcing coils moved transversely relative to each other—to illustrate a desirable flexibility characteristic of the length of hose 100. In FIGS. 4 and 5, portions of the short length of hose 100 are shown axially retracted (or axially compressed, as the case may be) to what will be referred to as a minimal axial length.

FIG. 6 schematically depicts a hose production station 49, and a method of hose production that takes place at the hose production station 49 which causes substantially continuous production of a stretch hose 99 on a mandrel 89 that rotates about a central axis 79. The short hose length 100 shown in FIGS. 1-5 is a cut off discrete length of the continuous hose 99, and extends substantially concentrically about the central axis 79.

The hose production method depicted in FIG. 6 includes separate but concurrent extrusions from a nozzle 108 of a continuous, solid, strand-like bead 109 of thermoplastic material, and from a nozzle 118 of a continuous, narrow yet wide, tape-like web 119 of thermoplastic material. The nozzles 108, 118 (depicted in FIG. 6) represent any of a wide variety of conventional extruder equipment that is suitable to heat and extrude thermoplastic material in a tacky state that permits the freshly extruded thermoplastic material to bond to other heated, tacky thermoplastic material.

Both the bead 109 and the web 119 maintain substantially uniform cross-sections (that are defined by the extruder nozzles 108, 118, respectively) as the bead 109 and the web 119, respectively, are extruded. The bead 109 and the web 119 are fed toward and are helically wrapped about the rotating mandrel 89 to form the continuously extending hose 99 which precesses (during production of the hose 99) along the rotating mandrel 89 in a direction indicated by an arrow 69. Precession of the hose 99 along the mandrel 89 in the direction of the arrow 69 is primarily due to an application of force to the hose 99 exerted by equipment (not shown) located downstream from the hose production station 49.

The bead 109 is wrapped helically about the rotating mandrel 89 to form a helix 59 of substantially equally spaced reinforcing ribs 110 for the hose 99 that is formed about the mandrel 89. The web 119 is wrapped helically about the rotating mandrel 89 and about the helix 59 to form a continuous cover or outer wall 120 of the hose 99. As will be explained, opposite edge regions 119a, 119b of each newly installed wrap of the web 119 are positioned to engage outermost peripheral regions 109a of the reinforcing ribs 110. And, as will be explained, each newly installed wrap of the web 119 has a leading edge region 119a that very slightly overlaps and bonds almost instantly to a trailing edge 119b of the previously installed wrap of the web 119.

Although the schematic depiction provided by FIG. 6 shows central portions 125 of each wrap of the web 109 extending substantially concentrically about the central axis 79, during formation of the hose 99, the central portions 125 actually often tend to sag radially inwardly toward the central axis 79. This sag of the central portions 125 continues, bringing the central portions 125 into engagement with the mandrel 89. When the newly formed hose 99 is pulled in the direction of arrow 69, the sagging central portions 125 drag on the mandrel 89, and this contributes to the formation of the parallel-extending formations 140, 145 (shown in FIG. 5) being formed as the hose 99 is pulled along and off of the rotating mandrel 89.

To properly understand the makeup of the hose 99 being formed on the rotating mandrel 89, it will be helpful to more fully describe some features of the production method depicted in FIG. 6—whereafter, the text will return to a discussion of specific aspects of the method of hose production.

Referring to FIG. 6, as the freshly extruded (typically tacky) bead 109 and the freshly extruded (typically tacky) web 119 are brought into contact with each other, they bond almost immediately—indeed, substantially instantaneously. As the bead 109 is wrapped about the mandrel 89, the wraps of the bead 109 form the helix 59 of substantially equally spaced reinforcing coils 110.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 6, the reinforcing coils 110 are formed prior to (usually just before) the web 119 is wrapped about the rotating mandrel 89—so that opposed edge regions 119a, 119b of the tacky web 119 can be overlaid to rest upon (and to bond substantially immediately with) peripheries 109a of the reinforcing coils 110. In FIG. 6, the numeral 119a indicates leading edge regions of the wraps of the web 119, and the numeral 119b indicates trailing edge regions of the wraps of the web 119. As FIG. 6 illustrates, each leading edge region 119a of a new web wrap slightly overlaps a trailing edge region 119b of a prior web wrap that is already in place (which is why the leading edge regions 119a are shown located radially outwardly from the trailing edge regions 119b).

In actuality, although the schematic depiction of FIG. 6 shows lines of demarcation that separate the engaged leading and trailing edge regions (119a, 119b, respectively) of the web 119, the fact that the leading and trailing edge regions 119a, 119b engage each other means that these overlapping end regions bond substantially instantaneously—and, this instantaneous bonding leaves no such lines of demarcation, and no such outwardly turned formations (or tell-tale formations of any kind) where the edge regions 119a, 119b overlap. The overlapping edge regions 119a, 119b essentially melt smoothly together as they bond with a peripheral portion of one of the reinforcing ribs 110.

An interesting feature of the hose 100 that is shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 5 is the manner in which the thin outer wall or cover 120 extends inwardly between adjacent ones of the reinforcing coils 110 (as designated in FIG. 5 by the numeral 150), with innermost portions 140, 145 of the thin outer wall or cover 120 folding to underlie the reinforcing coils 110 when the hose length 100 is retracted to the minimal length best shown in FIG. 5. The portions 140, 145 (which extend substantially parallel to the central axis 79 can be seen to execute a reverse turn or fold 149 so the portions 140, 145 overlie each other as they extend in generally axial directions.

A characteristic of the stretch hose 100 that is produced in compliance with what is described just above is the behavior of the hose 100 when extending and retracting between extended modes (such as are depicted in FIGS. 1 and 3, and the minimal length retracted mode best shown in FIG. 5. The hose 100 has something of a snap-action as it extends, and as it retracts, due to the innermost portions 140, 145 folding to and unfolding from the overlying relationship shown in FIG. 5.

In effect, the hose length 100 essentially seems to “pop” as it snaps from a retracted length to an extended length, and back to its retracted length—which provides quite a unique and noticeably pleasant sensation when one pulls on opposite ends of the hose length 100 to extend the hose length 100, and then releases the force that caused the hose length 100 to extend, whereupon the hose length 100 preferably retracts due to a “memory” that has been instilled in the hose length 100 during a stress reduction procedure to which the hose length 100 preferably has been subjected while the hose length 100 is axially compressed to the minimal axial length depicted in FIG. 5 (as will be explained below).

2. Hose Production Method

The hose production method of the present invention is carried out by first forming a substantially continuous length of hose 99 using the production steps described just above, which are depicted in FIG. 6.

When the newly produced hose 99 is axially compressed, parts 150 (FIG. 5) of the central portions 125 that bridge between adjacent pairs of the reinforcing ribs 110 are sandwiched between the adjacent reinforcing ribs 110, and centermost parts of the central portions 125 form a fold or reverse-turn bend 149 (FIG. 5) that lays over as compression continues, which causes the parts 140, 145 to assume the positions shown in FIG. 5.

Stated more simply, as the hose 99 is axially compressed, the central portions 125 assume the configuration shown in FIG. 5, and the fold 149 as well as the parallel-extending parts 140, 145 are formed. The fold-over (indicated in FIG. 5 by the numerals 140, 145, 149) is a result of the web being significantly softer than the reinforcing rib helix 59—and, the configuration of the fold-over that is depicted in FIG. 5 simply occurs quite automatically and naturally without need for any other exertion of force or effort. The length of the parallel-extending parts 140, 145 of the fold-over is directly related to the initial pitch with which the hose 99 is produced. Stating this relationship in another way, the wider the web 119, the longer are the parts 140, 145.

The thermoplastic material used to form the hose is selected to cure slow enough to allow the completed hose 99 to be compressed directly after being produced, and then held in compression until the hose 99 cures while it is retained in compression. Suitable thermoplastic materials are listed in the above-referenced patent and continuation application, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. The hose product of this production process can also be annealed at a low temperature to reset the compression and to keep the compression consistent along its length.

Discrete lengths (such as the hose length 100) of the hose 99 that is manufactured continuously may be cut into discrete lengths 100, may be axially compressed to the minimum length (such as is shown in FIG. 4), and may then be annealed or otherwise treated to diminish, minimize or eliminate stresses in the hose length 100. If the hose length 100 is cured while being axially compressed to a minimal length, the hose will retain the compressed state once the curing has completed, and will tend to return to the minimal axial length when stretch and then released.

Although experiments are underway to find more ways of treating a newly produced thermoplastic hose held in axial compression to diminish, minimize or eliminate stresses in the hose, two hose treatment stress reduction techniques have come to light that may be used to advantage.

One such technique is to expose an axially compressed length of newly produced thermoplastic hose to radiation to cause cross-linking to occur—a technique that is the subject of one of the provisional applications to which reference is made at the beginning of this application (Atty's Dkt. No. 6-865). Radiation exposure can vary along the length of the hose, and can produce cross-linking to an extent that tends to be proportional to the magnitude of the radiation exposure, which can give the hose a spring constant that varies along the length of the hose—which can be useful in many applications.

The other known technique is to anneal an axially compressed length (such as the hose length 100) of newly produced thermoplastic hose—a technique that is disclosed in the previously referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,453,681 which issued on Jun. 14, 2013 from application Ser. No. 12/779,263 filed on Apr. 21, 2010 entitled FLEXIBLE, STRETCHABLE, CRUSH RESISTANT HOSE WELL SUITED FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS (Atty's Docket No. 6-451), and in a continuation application Ser. No. 13/986,465 filed May 6, 2013 entitled METHOD OF HOSE MANUFACTURE (Atty's Docket No. 6-459), the disclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

A length of hose that is annealed while being axially compressed (as described in the referenced patent and continuation application) will have a uniform spring force measured along the axis of the hose. However, a length of hose that has not been exposed to an annealing process but has been allowed to cure while being held in an axially compressed state will have a variable spring force measured along the axis of the hose, with the spring force being greater at an end that has been cut most recently, and less at an end cut first during production.

Providing a hose length that has a spring force that varies along it length can be of benefit to a customer who wishes to have such a hose length to overcome gravity or other forces that may be applied to the hose length.

3. Scope Of The Invention

Although the invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts and techniques may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. It is intended to protect whatever features of patentable novelty that exist in the invention disclosed.

Claims

1. A flexible, stretchable, crush resistant, axially extending hose comprising a helix of extruded thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section defining a plurality of reinforcing coils that extend substantially concentrically about an axis, and a relatively thin and relatively wide web of substantially uniform cross-section that has its opposed edge regions each bonded continuously to the peripheries of different ones of each adjacent pair of the reinforcing coils to form a single continuous outer wall of the hose, with the web having portions that extend toward the axis and are sandwiched between each adjacent pair of the reinforcing coils when the hose is retracted to a minimal axial length, wherein the molecules of the thermoplastic material are relaxed as by annealing during axial compression of a discrete length of the hose to its minimal length.

2. The stretchable hose of claim 1 wherein the molecules of the thermoplastic material are relaxed such that stress is substantially absent from the hose when the hose is retracted to the minimal length.

3. The stretchable hose of claim 2 wherein the relaxation of stress results from the length of hose being annealed while being axially compressed to the minimal axial length.

4. The stretchable hose of claim 1 wherein the web has central portions that define at least part of the interior diameter of the hose when the hose is retracted to the minimal axial length.

5. The stretchable hose of claim 4 wherein the central portions cooperate to define a folded formation that substantially parallels the axis when the hose is retracted to the minimal axial length.

6. The stretchable hose of claim 5 wherein the central portions that define the folded formation overlie each other and connect with a reverse-turn fold.

7. The stretchable hose of claim 5 wherein the hose exhibits a noticeable snap action when at least some of the central portions that define the folded formation unfold during an axial extension of the hose.

8. A discrete length of a flexible, stretchable, crush resistant, axially extending hose comprised of a helically wound bead of extruded thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section along the length thereof that defines an axially extending helix of reinforcing coils, and a helically wound, relatively thin and relatively wide web of thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section along the length thereof, with the web defining an uninterrupted outer cover of the hose, formed by progressive wraps of the web that slightly overlap and are bonded substantially seamlessly, with opposite edge regions of each wrap being continuously and substantially seamlessly bonded to the peripheries of adjacent pairs of the reinforcing coils, with the hose being stress-relieved via annealing during axial compression to a minimal length.

9. The discrete length of claim 8 wherein portions of each wrap of the web extend radially inwardly toward a central axis of the hose when the hose is axially retracted to a minimal axial length.

10. The discrete length of claim 9 wherein the portions of the web that extend radially inwardly toward the central axis connect with portions of the web that extend along the central axis when the hose is axially retracted to a minimal length.

11. The discrete length of claim 10 wherein the portions of the web that extend along the central axis overlie each other and connect with a reverse-turn fold.

12. The discrete length of claim 11 wherein the reverse-turn fold is set during the annealing process.

13. The discrete length of claim 8, wherein the annealing during axial compression diminishes stress that may have been instilled in the discrete length during production of the hose.

14. A discrete length of an extensible and retractable, helically reinforced hose formed by 1) concurrently and continuously extruding both a strand-like bead of thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section, and a relatively wide, relatively thin, tape-like web of thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section and having equidistantly spaced, continuously extending edge regions, 2) wrapping the freshly extruded strand-like bead around and in engagement with peripheral portions of a rotating mandrel to provide a substantially uniformly spaced array of reinforcing coils for a hose that is being formed so as to extend along a central axis of the rotating mandrel, and 3) helically wrapping the freshly extruded web about the rotating mandrel with the equidistantly spaced edge regions of the wrapped web continuously contacting and substantially immediately bonding to outer peripheral portions of each adjacent pair of the reinforcing coils, with each new helical wrap of the web having a leading one of the equidistantly spaced edge regions overlapping and bonding substantially immediately and continuously to a trailing one of the equidistantly spaced edge regions of a previous wrap of the web, and with the discrete length of the hose being stress relieved due to being axially compressed to a minimal length while being annealed.

15. The discrete length of hose of claim 14 wherein the annealing during compression causes the length of hose to possess a memory that will cause the length of hose to tend to return to the minimal length when stretched to an extended length.

16. The discrete length of hose of claim 14, wherein the discrete length comprises one of multiple discrete lengths of the hose that are cut from the hose as the hose is formed.

17. The discrete length of hose of claim 14 wherein adjacent ones of the reinforcing coils that are equidistantly separated when the hose is stretched are drawn toward each other by a spring force that is substantially identical.

18. The discrete length of hose of claim 14 wherein adjacent ones of the reinforcing coils that are equidistantly separated when the hose is stretched so as to define a stretched portion of the hose, are drawn toward each other by a spring force that varies along the length of the stretched portion of the hose.

19. The discrete length of hose of claim 14 having adjacent pairs of reinforcing coils that are drawn toward each other by a spring force that differs along the length of the hose.

20. The discrete length of claim 14, wherein the annealing during axial compression diminishes stress that may have been instilled in the discrete length during production of the hose.

21. A discrete length of an extensible and retractable, helically reinforced hose formed by 1) extruding a strand-like bead of thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section, 2) wrapping the freshly extruded strand-like bead around and in engagement with peripheral portions of a rotating mandrel to provide a substantially uniformly spaced array of reinforcing coils for a hose that is being formed so as to extend along a central axis of the rotating mandrel, 3) extruding a relatively wide, relatively thin, tape-like web of thermoplastic material of substantially uniform cross-section and having equidistantly spaced, continuously extending edge regions, 4) helically wrapping the freshly extruded web about the rotating mandrel with the equidistantly spaced edge regions of the wrapped web continuously contacting and substantially immediately bonding to outer peripheral portions of each adjacent pair of the reinforcing coils, and with each new helical wrap of the web having a leading one of the equidistantly spaced edge regions overlapping and bonding substantially immediately and continuously to a trailing one of the equidistantly spaced edge regions of a previous wrap of the web, 5) axially compression the discrete length of the hose to its minimal length cause central portions of the web to extend inward toward the central axis and to form a reverse-turn fold that defines at least part of the interior diameter of the hose when the hose is retracted to its minimal length, and 6) annealing the discrete length of hose while axially compressed to its minimal length to stress relieve the discrete length.

22. The discrete length of hose of claim 21 wherein the annealing during compression causes the length of hose to possess a memory that will cause the length of hose to tend to return to the minimal length when stretched to an extended length.

23. The discrete length of hose of claim 21 wherein adjacent ones of the reinforcing coils are equidistantly separated when the hose is stretched.

24. The discrete length of hose of claim 23 are drawn toward each other by a spring force that is substantially identical.

25. The discrete length of hose of claim 21 having adjacent pairs of reinforcing coils that are drawn toward each other by a spring force that differs along the length of the hose.