a free percent heat-shrinkage

19:20 May 21, 2014 

Yes, absolutely! And as an electronics engineer, I've used heat-shrink sleeving countless times; I was just a bit phased by the GDT entry, which made me wonder if maybe I was missing something somewhere along the line ;-)

Oh, and thanks for the suggestion — I was wondering what to have for supper!

18:52 May 21, 2014 

@Tony, tu n'as jamais entendu le terme "thermorétractable"? Polymers aren't simple blocs of metal, they shrink when the chemical bonds get stronger. You can see it happens when you cook an egg!

18:27 May 21, 2014 

MDR !

In GDT, I found a suggestion for 'heat shrinkage' of 'contraction par refroidissement' or something like that; struck me as odd, except that normally, things do shrink when they cool and expand when the get hot.

So now, I'm not sure any more if this is 'shrinkage with heating' which it usually is, or what...?

Either way, I totally agree, the 'percent' has no real place in there — it is just typical in EN patent-ese, in the same way I suppose that FR often adds a 'valeur de...' in places where we wouldn't normally do so in EN.

18:09 May 21, 2014 

Quand la foudre de l'inspiration frappe, le PC n'est pas à l'abri! :)

18:05 May 21, 2014 

Exactly what I was saying earlier — glad you agree!

I did start posting an answer, but the thunderstorm here caused a power cut and I lost it :-(

18:01 May 21, 2014 

Je pense qu'il faut lire toute la phrase sans le mot "percent", qui est là seulement pour indiquer d'avance l'unité utilisée plus loin. "Free" indique que le rétrécissement a leiu en l'absence de contrainte. Voir ligne 22, colonne 4 dans http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...

13:46 May 21, 2014 

J'avais bien vu aussi le 2,5 % mais avec les brevets on ne sait jamais. Ils sont parfois bizarres.

13:42 May 21, 2014 

No, because it then goes on to mention the specific percentages it must not exceed, which would make no sense if it were 'three'; in any case, they would use the word 'three' AND the figure '3" in the same sentence like this.

13:35 May 21, 2014 

Ce ne serait pas three ? (three percent heat-shrinkage)