Anti-chafe sleeving for wires

[Canadian_JOY]

The "mesh stuff" was introduced to me by a vendor who euphemistically referred to it as "snake skin". That name has stuck in my poor little pea brain for over three decades now!

Many of the comments above are spot-on with respect to the difficulties in wire tracing and troubleshooting that come with bundles covered in snake skin. I use it where there is a need for mild abrasion protection in locations where there is also very little room for something that adds a little more diameter to the finished wire bundle size.

My favorite for abrasion protection is spiral wrap. It can be installed quickly, can be placed strategically in short pieces, can be held in location with zip ties or lacing cord, and is very easily removed for service. It also has a significant advantage over heat shrink or other solid tubular coverings in that it will allow fluids to drain since the spiral wrap is not a continuous tube.

Spiral wrap comes in several different materials - selecting one which meets the flame retardant requirements for use in the cockpit/cabin is very important. The stuff I use will melt with heat applied but passes the vertical flame test in that it extinguishes after the heat source (propane torch) is removed.

[BillL]

Coating its covered here.

I found that lacing worked way better than zip ties for me. I learned to do it and accessibility to bundles is better, it has higher temperature capability, it is lighter, and way cheaper than zip ties. 99% laced. But - get the good stuff so it is not sticky. I used black. A search will find a post I made with the numbers.

Zip ties are the only way to go for install though, add ties, add wires, cut ties add ties in a seemingly endless routine. Get a thousand. zip, clip, run new wire, zip, clip . . . .

Doing a multi hour lacing session is hard on the fingers to pull tight so use tape or a single glove finger for that. A seamstress tool to pick and cut sewn threads works well to safely cut tight lacing in a finished bundle. Sometimes the flush cutter won't reach.

[catmandu]

Originally Posted by Draker

Can anyone share best practices around using anti-chafe sleeving for (non-engine compartment) wire runs? I'm talking about this stuff:

1. Do you put this sleeving around all wire runs? If not, how to determine which ones to protect?
2. What's the appropriate size to use? Should the wires fit loosely, or should you jam wires in so the sleeving expands tight?
3. How to securely start and end the sleeveing? Heat shrink?
4. How to branch/merge wire runs that are protected by sleeving?
5. Is it worth it to even use this stuff? I'm tempted for simplicity to just lace or zip tie my wires and just run them through the fuselage "bare".

I don?t know if it is best practice, but I use it, even firewall forward. Lacing was never my strong point, Mom always bought me Velcro shoes.

1. I only use it where I want some chafing protection or bundling to keep things neat in frequently visited locations.
2. Snug but not tight is my choice.
3. Wire ties, including a few along the length.
4. I use the split version to facilitate this, as well as ease of modification of the run down the road.
5. See #1.

[larrynew]

Originally Posted by catmandu

I use the split version to facilitate this, as well as ease of modification of the run down the road.

+1. Available on Amazon in many sizes. The split makes it very easy to install and remove. A zip tie at each end and maybe one in the middle or around adel clamps.

After too much reading on VAF when building, I used the split techflex on half of my firewall forward wiring and aircraft grade spiral wrap on the other half. After two years, I removed all the spiral wrap which was looking a little ragged although probably still functional and replaced with the split loom stuff. Zero problems coming up on 5 years and 800+ hours and looks really good.

[mbell]

I must have used 20 feet of it on the last project. Looks better than spiral wrap but less abrasion resistance in the areas where that is a bigger concern. One downside is it has very low heat resistance. It's easy to melt as you apply heat shrink to the ends. Mike C, thanks for the source of the split version. I had a sample from someone at OSH; useful but never could locate any more. You can apply it/remove it after a bundle is already in place.