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US 9,958,091 B1Granted
Pipe with embedded wire
AssigneeAdvanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
InventorsMichael Maroschak, Douglas Everson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A corrugated pipe includes a corrugated pipe body circumscribing a hollow conduit and including alternating ribs and valleys extending along a longitudinal axis between a first end and a second end thereof. An electrically conductive wire is embedded in the corrugated pipe body, so that the wire spans adjacent ribs and valleys and extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis between the first and second ends.
Claims16
A method of embedding wire in corrugated pipe, the method comprising:
- introducing an extruded tube of resilient material into a molding apparatus having a plurality of cooperating mold members;
- inserting electrically conductive wire into the molding apparatus while introducing the extruded tube into the molding apparatus;
- molding corrugations into the extruded tube while embedding the wire into the resilient material by contacting the tube and wire with the mold members, thereby forming a corrugated pipe with the wire embedded in a corrugated body thereof.
A wire embedding system comprising:
- an extruder having an extrusion die head that extrudes tubular material from an output end thereof;
- a wire feed device including a hollow shaft that receives a continuous length of wire, feeds the wire through the shaft to an opening in the shaft adjacent the output end, deposits the wire from the opening onto the extruded tubular material;
- and
- a molding apparatus that receives the extruded tubular material together with the deposited wire and molds the deposited wire into the extruded tubular material.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.