Cables with intertwined strain relief and bifurcation structures
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsDouglas J. Weber, Jonathan S. Aase
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electrical device such as a headset may have a cable. Wires in the cable may be used to connect speakers in the headset to a connector such as an audio jack. The cable may have a tubular intertwined cable cover that covers the wires. Computer-controlled servo motors in fiber intertwining equipment may be adjusted in real time so that intertwined attributes such as intertwining density and intertwining tension are varied as a function of length along the intertwined cable cover. The fiber intertwining equipment may make these variations to locally increase the strength of the intertwined cable cover and the cable in the vicinity of a bifurcation in the cable and in the vicinity of the portion of the cable that terminates at the audio jack.
Claims19
A method of forming a cable with an intertwined cable cover, comprising:
- intertwining fibers to form the intertwined cable cover using a computer-controlled intertwining tool, wherein the intertwined cable cover comprises at least one intertwined attribute and wherein intertwining the fibers comprises adjusting the intertwined attribute as a function of length along the intertwined cable cover in a segment of the cable that comprises a bifurcation.
A method of forming a cable, comprising:
- coupling a connector to a first end of a conductor;
- intertwining fibers to form an intertwined cable cover around the conductor using a computer-controlled intertwining tool, wherein the intertwined cable cover comprises at least one intertwined attribute, and wherein intertwining the fibers comprises decreasing the intertwined attribute as a function of distance from the first end of the conductor;
- mounting the connector within a shell structure;
- and
- mounting an elongated strain relief structure partly within the shell structure and partly within a segment of the intertwined cable cover.
A method of forming a cable comprising:
- intertwining fibers to form an intertwined cable cover around a conductor and along a length of the conductor;
- and
- in real-time with the intertwining, adjusting an interweaving formation parameter of the intertwining, wherein:
- the adjusting causes a first segment of the cable cover to be at least one of stiffer, stronger, and more durable than a second segment of the cable cover;
- the first segment and the second segment extend along different portions of the length of the conductor;
- and
- the first segment comprises a bifurcation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.