Patent ID: 8671817

Claim:
A braider for braiding a plurality of wires onto a tube, comprising: an iris assembly comprising a plurality of stacked iris plates, each of which includes a center aperture, a wire orifice disposed radially outward from the center aperture, and at least one arcuate channel in circumferential alignment with the wire orifice the iris plates being rotatable relative to each other to adjust a circumferential orientation of the wire orifices of the respective iris plates relative to each other, wherein the at least one arcuate channel of each respective iris plate is coincident with the wire orifice or orifices of the remaining respective iris or irises; a feeder assembly configured for advancing the tube through the center apertures of the iris assembly, and advancing the plurality of wires through the respective wire orifices of the iris assembly; and a braiding assembly configured for braiding a plurality of filaments around the tube and the plurality of wires as they are fed through the iris assembly, thereby creating a braided tube assembly, wherein the respective iris plates are rotatable relative to each other while the plurality of are fed through the iris assembly, such that the wires are circumferentially oriented relative to each other differently along at least a portion of the braided tube assembly.