Abstract: A gasket assembly is made by securing together in a flexible, elongated gasket subassembly, a first, elongated, flexible tube of braided glass fiber and an adjoining, flexible, second, elongated knit wire mesh tube member by sewing together the first tube and the second tube member. Braid of the first tube permits elongation of that tube under tension. The adjoining tubes are secured together along their lengths in states of elongation such that the second tube member is fully elongated under tension, to the extent permitted by its metal wire fabric, before the first tube is stretched to a maximum elongation permitted by the braid. The resulting elongated flexible assembly is threaded onto an elongated, substantially rigid frame member, preferably by threading the frame member through a sleeve formed in the knit wire mesh tube member by the stitching.

Abstract: Flexible, composite tubular devices of the present invention include a flexible plastic tube and a reinforcing flexible, tubular member at least substantially embedded in the tube, the member having an outer side, an inner side opposing the outer side and surrounding a hollow interior of the member, and a multiplicity of macroscopic pores substantially uniformly distributed around and along the member and extending through the tubular member between the outer and inner sides before the tubular member is incorporated into the composite tubular device of the invention, and the plastic of the tube extending through the pores between the inner and outer sides of the tubular members.

Abstract: A welding backup tape assembly includes a flexible, elongated, heat resistant ribbon, such as a metal foil strip, with a flexible, elongated, heat resistant, fibrous rope having a flexible reinforcing core, preferably metallic, attached to one major side of the ribbon, suggestedly by stitching with a glass fiber thread, to form a substantially unitary assembly. Pressure sensitive adhesive layers are applied to the ribbon on either side of the fibrous rope to allow that side of the assembly to be adhered to the weldable workpiece. In the preferred embodiment, the fibrous rope is formed by a knitted, multistrand stainless steel wire core supporting a sheath of knitted, texturized, untwisted fiberglass yarns. Untexturized, low or no twist, continuous, glass fiber thread is used to stitch the rope to the ribbon.