Motorsport Plumbing Systems: Sleeving & Tapes
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Sleeving & Tapes
03.03
| 00:00 | Before moving away from our plumbing lines and onto the fittings and connectors we use to join them, we need to cover the sleevings and tapes used to cover our plumbing. |
| 00:09 | This could be any type of sleeve we apply over the outside of the plumbing and there is a range of options available for a few different purposes. |
| 00:18 | Let's look at thermal protection first, which can be used for hard lines or flexible hose. |
| 00:23 | As we know, heat management is one of the biggest challenges in motorsport and can not only damage our plumbing, but cause a lot of problems with the fluid inside the plumbing and their respective functions. |
| 00:35 | Sleeving for heat protection works by insulating the plumbing, slowing the conductive and convective heat transfer. |
| 00:41 | This is most often achieved using sleeving with a fibreglass core which is generally in the form of a weave just like an overbraid. |
| 00:49 | The outside of the sleeve can be coated or laminated with a range of different materials. |
| 00:54 | Silicon is used for example to give a nice and smooth outer surface with good heat resistance. |
| 01:00 | Alternatively, the outer coating will be a reflective material like aluminium foil to help reflect radiant heat. |
| 01:07 | The outer coating not only needs to withstand the heat it's working to manage, but also the chemicals that it may come in contact with like oils or coolant that could be spilt during servicing. |
| 01:18 | While some forms of sleeving will be expandable, meaning they can be stretched over the plumbing with the fittings on the end, more often than not it'll be too stiff for this. |
| 01:27 | Instead, they'll have a velcro seam allowing the sleeve to be opened, applied to the plumbing and closed back over it. |
| 01:34 | If the sleeve isn't expandable or able to be opened, it'll most likely need to be applied over the plumbing before the hose ends and fittings are connected. |
| 01:43 | For the sake of completeness it's also worth noting that it's usually possible to buy the sleeving material in flat sheets which can be trimmed to size and wrapped around more obscure objects and then secured with locking wire. |
| 01:56 | An alternative to sleeving is tapes that can be used to wrap hoses, or plumbing or even applied to heat shielding. |
| 02:03 | Some tapes are a simple reflective foil layer which just like the sleeving, helps to reduce heat transfer from radiation. |
| 02:10 | There's also some thicker options available that provide some insulation effect through use of a polymer core. |
| 02:17 | The other purpose of the sleeving is to increase the abrasion resistance of our plumbing. |
| 02:21 | And while it generally isn't required for hard lines, if we still have some rubber hoses it could be a good form of insurance. |
| 02:29 | The result is just like an overbraid, but less secure. |
| 02:32 | For this reason it's good to fix the ends of the overbraid to the hose using heat shrink or what's referred to as a hose finisher. |
| 02:40 | But we'll be covering this in more detail in a coming module. |
| 02:44 | The key takeaway of this module is that sleevings or tapes can be used to protect our plumbing from heat, abrasion or chemicals. |
| 02:51 | These make use of a fibre or polymer core for insulation, and in some cases reflective outer layers to cut down on radiative heat transfer. |
