Patent ID: 8280209

Claim:
A method of longitudinally slitting a cable conduit that includes an elongated tubular conduit body having an exterior surface and an interior surface that define a tube wall, a longitudinal internal cavity that is defined by the interior surface of the tubular conduit body, a first ripcord that is free-floating within a first longitudinally extending closed channel in the tube wall and a second ripcord that is free-floating within a second longitudinally extending closed channel in the tube wall, the method comprising: cutting through the conduit body and the first ripcord and the second ripcord to separate each of the conduit body, the first ripcord and the second ripcord into respective first and second subsections; grasping an end portion of the first subsection of the first ripcord; pulling the end portion of the first subsection of the first ripcord back along a portion of the length of the first conduit body subsection to form a first longitudinal slit in the first conduit body subsection; grasping an end portion of the first subsection of the second ripcord; and pulling the end portion of the first subsection of the second ripcord back along a portion of the length of the first conduit body subsection to form a second longitudinal slit in the first conduit body subsection, wherein the tubular conduit body includes a plurality of individually jacketed cables therein, and wherein the first and second ripcords are not exposed to the longitudinal internal cavity.