Patent ID: 7399018

Claim:
A lifting sling, comprising: a) an elongated sling member that includes an elongated woven portion having first and second ends and a central passageway surrounded by woven material; b) first and second connections that join each end to the woven portion at the central passageway, and at spaced apart positions; c) at least one of the ends being connected to the woven portion to form a loop that can be engaged by a lifting member; d) a flexible spirally wrapped non-metallic polymeric sleeve that fits the loop, said sleeve being a separate member that is not a part of the sling woven portion, defining an interface between the loop and a lifting member that engages the loop, said sleeve being in the form of a polymeric tube having a tube wall thickness and a tube bore that is sized to provide compression to the connections; e) wherein the non-metallic polymeric sleeve spirally wraps around and compresses at least one of the connections; and f) wherein the sleeve applies compression to the connection by a combination of tube bore diameter and tube wall thickness and not by manual or machine induced loading applied during wrapping.