Electric irons and certain other kinds of appliances have a high risk of the power cord being exposed to very high temperatures, by direct contact with the heating element. Plastic or rubber materials work great as electrical insulators, but many of them fare very poorly and fail in undesirable ways when exposed to high temperatures.

In order to prevent this kind of hazardous failure, the cord is sheathed with a material that has:

  • good resistance to high temperatures
  • low thermal conductivity, to protect the rubber electrical-insulating layers inside
  • high flexibility
This kind of woven/braided fabric meets these requirements pretty well.