Patent ID: 7965930

Claim:
A thin-walled, flexible and collapse-resistant plastic tubing having a substantially smooth bore and a helical outer support bead, the tubing including plural conductors helically disposed within said wall of the tubing and beneath said support bead, said tubing comprising: a flexible tubing wall formed of elongate thermoplastic ribbon having opposite side edges, said thermoplastic ribbon including an elongate fine-dimension portion and a comparatively thickened elongate plateau portion, said plateau portion defining plural elongate fine-dimension grooves, said ribbon while molten being helically wrapped on itself to overlap said opposite side edges a certain amount forming a helical lap joint whereat opposite side edge portions of said ribbon heat-bond integrally to one another so that an elongate tubular body is formed; plural elongate conductors each disposed one in a respective one of said fine-dimension grooves of said plateau portion and helically around and along said elongate tubular body; and an elongate thermoplastic support bead disposed helically around and along said elongate tubular body atop of both said plateau portion and said conductors, while molten said support bead integrally heat-bonding to said tubing wall to form a unitary thin-walled tubing structure with helical outer support bead and embedded conductors, whereby, said embedded conductors are spaced from one another within said plateau portion, and are insulated from ambient by said support bead.