Patent ID: 8563863

Claim:
A thin-walled, flexible and collapse-resistant thermoplastic tubing having a substantially smooth bore and a helical outer support bead structure, the tubing including at least one conductor helically disposed within said support bead structure, said tubing comprising: a flexible tubing wall formed of an elongate thermoplastic ribbon including a comparatively thinner wall portion and a comparatively thicker plateau portion, said plateau portion defining at least one elongate fine-dimension groove, said ribbon while molten being helically wrapped repeatedly on itself to partially overlap successive wraps of said ribbon a certain amount forming a helical lap joint where successive wraps of said ribbon heat-bond integrally to one another so that an elongate tubular body is formed; at least one elongate conductor disposed in said elongate fine-dimension groove of said plateau portion and helically around and along said elongate tubular body; an elongate thermoplastic support bead portion disposed helically around and along said elongate tubular body atop of said plateau portion and at least one conductor, said support bead portion integrally heat-bonding to said ribbon so that said plateau portion and said support bead portion cooperatively form said bead structure, and said tubing comprises a unitary thin-walled tubing structure with helical outer support bead and embedded conductor extending helically about and along said tubing.