Braided cable sleeving: a quick guide

What are braided cables?

The braided cable sleeve is the ideal cable management solution to help you organise your cables. It’s economical, simple to install, fits tightly around wire bundles and can do the job with negligible change to the diameter or weight of the bundle.

Why is it so effective?

Braided cable sleeves are made of an open-weave construction. Because it’s open-weave and not solid, you can easily examine the wires underneath, or even remove individual wires. It’s also as flexible as you need it to be, conforming to the shape you need and allowing the encased wires to bend with ease.

This cable management sleeve is designed to resist damage, protecting wires from sharp or rough edges. Braided cable sleeving cushions wires from high impacts and vibrations. Heat dissipates, moisture drains and the sleeving withstands most fluid environments.

Materials: Nylon, PET, polyester, PPS or Nomex?

Braided cable sleeves come in a variety of materials, some a little bit better than others for giving you the characteristics you’re after. Here are five favourites across different industries that you should consider:

Nylon Braided Cable Sleeves

The wide expandability of braided monofilament sleeving, such as what nylon 6/6 offers, makes it ideal for managing large bundles of wires. Nylon gives you superior abrasion resistance, which makes it a great choice when cables and hoses are exposed to excessive wear and tear, such as cable assemblies and automotive applications.

Automotive manufacturers often opt for braided monofilament sleeving such as nylon to handle wire harnesses. This is due to the material’s flexibility, light weight and ease of installation. Nylon also offers outstanding fluid resistance, making it ideal in wet applications.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) Braided Cable Sleeves

When environmental factors expose wires to the petrol, engine chemicals – automotive fluids in general – and cleaning solvents, PET is a smart choice for your cable sleeves. PET is also idea for protecting wires from heat. It can stand up to extreme temperatures. Keep in mind, however, that there are variations of PET sleeves, so if it’s heat protection you want, check the specific product’s specifications.

PET also offers excellent abrasion resistance and a high expansion ratio, usually up to three times its resting diameter. If your bundle is large, PET is a good choice. It’s also UV resistant, which is another reason is suits outdoor applications.

Polyester Braided Cable Sleeves

Another highly flexible, sturdy material that expands to three times its nominal diameter. It’s easy to apply over irregular shapes and offers good insulation and abrasion resistance. It’s also resistant to corrosion and high temperatures, which is why polyester is often used for electrical appliances, electronics and some automotive applications.

Polyphenylene Sulfide Monofilament (PPS) Braided Cable Sleeves

You’ll find PPS in high-temperature, flame-resistant wire harnesses and cable assemblies. It’s incredibly lightweight and stands up to solvents. Engineers love PPS for its resistance to chemicals, low-moisture absorption, high-temperature stability, outstanding dimensional stability and extremely low wear. It’s inert to steam, strong bases, fuels and acids. For all of these reasons, the aerospace and telecom industries embrace PPS.

Nomex Braided Cable Sleeves

This highly expandable material is light weight with exceptional thermal stability. It stands up to chemicals, solvents and abrasions. It’s ideal in high temperatures, the same as nylon’s melting point. It also performs in the presence of beta, gamma and X-ray radiation and when exposed to high humidity or moisture. It withstands most acids, though some strength is compromised after exposure to hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric acids.

Braided cable sleeving materials: Best characteristics

Material	Abrasion resistance	Corrosion resistance	Flexibility	Lightweight	High-temperature stability	Chemical resistance	UV resistance	High-expansion ratio
Nylon	✔		✔	✔
PET	✔		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Polyester	✔	✔	✔	✔
PPS				✔	✔	✔
Nomex	✔			✔	✔	✔

Cable sleeving size guide

To find the correct size of braided sleeving that you need, follow these guidelines.

Step 1. Measure the diameter of the cable bundle you intend on covering.

Step 2. Determine how you want the sleeve to fit around your cables: snug or loose for flexibility?

→ For a snug fit: Go with braided sleeves with a slightly smaller diameter than that of your cables.

→ For a loose fit: Opt for a diameter equal to slightly larger than that of your cables.

Step 3. Braided sleeving contracts, or shortens, slightly when it expands. Add a few millimetres when calculating your size.

Download free CADs and try before you buy

Free CADs are available for most solutions, which you can download. You can also request free samples to make sure you’ve chosen exactly what you need. If you’re not quite sure which solution will work best for your application, our experts are always happy to advise you.

Whatever your requirements, you can depend on fast despatch. Request your free samples or download free CADs now.

Questions?

Email us at sales@essentracomponents.com or speak to one of our experts for further information on the ideal solution for your application 800-847-0486.