Material as thin as a drinking straw and as flexible as a latex tube?

[SamWedge]

Or perhaps blow compressed air in along with the beads. This will both expand the channels and encourage the beads to move along.

Interesting- I'll have to try this.

 

[SamWedge]

Even with the staggered brick pattern, you still start out with long parallel tubes; then, the staggered pattern is simply created by staggering your cross seams after the beads are installed.

Exactly.

 

[verbamour]

It sounds like you want to place the beads until they are sewn into the cells.

How about:

1. painting or printing a water-soluble glue onto one piece of fabric
2. spreading beads across the surface so beads stick only where there is glue
3. sewing a fabric cover over the bead-glued fabric, stitching along cell boundaries
4. washing the glue away

 

[Rive]

Or perhaps blow compressed air in along with the beads

Sounds like a marriage between 'sand blasting' and 'airsoft gun' celebrated by a 'shot blaster'.

It is sand blasting which is available as handheld device and works with compressed air: shot blasting is which is about small and heavy beads but it is often using mechanical acceleration. To have them mixed for this usage it will be like some airsoft thing, but with continuous air and only the release of beads is triggered.

 

[SamWedge]

Your answer may be a combination of a thin wall brass tubing and a flexible tubing with the I.D. required for the beads. Use a short length of the brass tubing for insertion into the end of the fabric channel and with its other end inserted into the end of a required length of the flexible tubing.

This sounds interesting. Can you explain a little more? I'm not sure I understand exactly what the short length of brass tubing would be for.

 

[JBA]

The OD of the thin wall brass tubing might be able to fit into the fabric channel and still have an ID large enough to pass the balls and the connected flexible tubing then providing for an ease of loading of the balls.
Go to the below site to see the ranges of diameters and lengths available:
https://www.grainger.com/category/p..._D_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!317451745875!b!g!

 

[Nik_2213]

There's a surprising range of Teflon / PTFE tubing sizes available on eg Amazon, intended to feed 3D printing filament. Although pricey, it is fairly stiff, and may be bought with a kit of connectors. You may need to apply mild suction to load with beads, then a little air-pressure to dispense. A modest aquarium pump may suffice...Um, I have no idea what material is used for 'Intermittent Self Catheterisation' aka 'Enlarged Prostate Stretch', but its combination when 'fresh' of stiffness, mild flexibility and surprising reluctance to squash or kink may approach your need. Downside, each sterile, one-use device becomes remarkably, intractably stiff when the initial lube dries off...