Heat shrink protection is an excellent technique for protecting crucial electrical connections and keeping wires secure and insulated. However, some confusion lingers over the procedure and how it’s used.
Keep Wires Insulated
At its most basic, heat shrink protection, also called heat shrink tubing or heat shrink, is a wire insulation technique. Before an automotive wire is patched or otherwise connected, a sleeve is fitted over the wire. Once the wiring is complete, the sleeve is moved over the connection. The sleeve is then exposed to hot gas via an oven, a hot gas gun, or some other technique that applies heat, and it shrinks around the connection, providing tight wire insulation.
Why Use Heat Shrink?
The most common use of heat shrink protection is to secure wiring connections against abrasion and other damage and provide insulation where it can be difficult to use insulated wires otherwise. But it has a multitude of other uses around your fleet. It can be used to replace worn insulation on wiring almost anywhere on a vehicle, bundle together multiple wires to keep them from hanging down or otherwise being too loose, protecting small parts from abrasion, or even creating cable entry seals for environmental protection.
• Polyolefin Heat Shrink is the standard for heat shrink tubing material because of its overall temperature and chemical resistance, commonly used for cable management when bundling and insulating wires. For protection against moisture, dual wall adhesive lined heat shrink sleeving provides a water-proof seal.
• Fabric Heat Shrink sleeving uses a unique blend of Polyolefin and Polyester yarns to resist trapping water and humidity.
• Kynar Heat Shrink tubing provides the ultimate heat resistance and flexibility, making it ideal for small spaces like fuse coverings.
• Neoprene Heat Shrink is a popular choice for military and aerospace applications because neoprene is flame-retardant and is also highly resistant to lubricating oils and hydraulic fluids.
When you think about it, heat shrink tubing is a unique and extremely useful invention. Think about all the things you couldn’t do if it did not exist. If you have a project that demands high-quality, low-cost heat shrink tubing, contact Nu-Tech. We’ll get your wires insulated in no time.
