Buckles – buttons – clasps – etc. – Including readily dissociable fastener having numerous,... – With feature facilitating – enhancing – or causing attachment...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2003-08-12
Brittain, James R. (Department: 3677)
Buckles, buttons, clasps, etc.
Including readily dissociable fastener having numerous,...
With feature facilitating, enhancing, or causing attachment...
C024S448000, C024S450000, C024S446000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06604264
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a female engaging member for surface fastener having a plurality of fiber piles on a surface of a flat plate-like substrate made of thermoplastic synthetic resin. It also relates to a production method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a surface fastener is comprised of a male engaging member having a plurality of male engaging elements formed in the shape of a hook, mushroom or other configuration on the surface of a flat plate-like substrate and a female engaging member having a plurality of pile-like female engaging elements on a surface of a flat plate-like substrate. By pressing both the flat plate-like substrates with the male engaging elements and female engaging elements opposing each other or peeling them from each other, the engaging elements are engaged with each other or disengaged from each other through their entire surfaces. Thus, this surface fastener is used for engaging or disengaging two structure members with or from each other. Further, in some case, the aforementioned male and female engaging elements may be mixedly formed on the same surface of a flat plate-like substrate or may be formed on front and rear surfaces of a flat plate-like substrate respectively, so as to be used various types of a fastening device.
As configuration of the male engaging element, hook shape, mushroom shape, palm tree shape and the like are currently used. One of the typical types is produced by knitting or weaving monofilaments in fabric structure simultaneously with producing the same fabric structure such as knitted fabric structure and woven fabric structure and then cutting out part of the monofilaments. Alternatively, it may be produced by rotating a die wheel having a plurality of engaging-element-molding cavities on its peripheral face in one direction, and introducing molten resin material to the peripheral face of the die wheel so as to mold a flat plate-like substrate and engaging elements integrally and continuously.
On the other hand, the aforementioned female engaging member is generally produced in the form of dense fabric made piles. As the most typical female engaging member, a multiplicity of fabric piles are formed densely on a surface of a flat plate-like substrate composed of fabric knitted cloth, unwoven fabric or synthetic resin sheet. This fabric piles are generally formed by knitting or weaving at the same time when fabric substrate such as knitted cloth is produced. Alternatively, it is automatically produced when unwoven cloth is produced. U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,234, for example, discloses a case that the aforementioned flat plate-like substrate is composed of synthetic resin sheet to form piles on a surface thereof. In this known method, the synthetic resin sheet is molded integrally with male engaging elements and a multiplicity of long fabric yarn rows that are arranged in parallel are introduced to a peripheral face of a heating drum having a multiplicity of loop molding concave portions on the peripheral face and then, the fabric yarn rows are bent to loop shapes inside of the aforementioned loop molding concave portions. Then, the bent fabric yarn rows are continuously joined to the aforementioned synthetic resin sheet. Finally, base portions of the loops that are formed of the long fabric yarn rows are fixed integrally to the surface of the synthetic resin sheet by fusion.
Further, as disclosed by for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63-63405, it is known that a surface of thermoplastic synthetic resin sheet is softened and a fabric structure composed of knitted cloth or unwoven cloth having a multiplicity of piles is pressed to the softened surface and fixed integrally thereto. Because part of the softened synthetic resin sheet invades into the fabric structure to be integrated therewith, the configuration of the piles is stabilized thereby eliminating the necessity of back coating. According to, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2-191735, multifilaments of two kinds having a difference in melting point are fed to an air temporary twisting apparatus at different feeding speeds to cover a core string with a multiplicity of loops. As a result, a heat-set covered string is produced. Plural pieces of the covered strings are arranged together and placed on a surface of a sheet composed of unwoven cloth or the like. Then, by carrying out heat processing at a temperature higher than a melting point of the low-melting-point multifilament and lower than a melting point of the high-melting-point multifilament, the low-melting-point multifilament is fused to the aforementioned sheet so that the male engaging member is produced.
The female engaging member similar to the technology disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication NO. 2-191735 is disclosed in for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,593 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,298. In the female engaging member disclosed in these specifications, multifilaments having a multiplicity of piles on a surface of a substrate sheet made of synthetic resin film are integrated intermittently to the surface in a length direction of the multifilaments by bonding with adhesive agent, melting together using base material or fusion with ultrasonic wave.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication NO. 11-46811 discloses a female engaging member in which pile yarn rows composed of a multiplicity of filaments wound around a core string are bonded integrally to a surface of a flat plate-like substrate. This female engaging member also can be produced continuously by a simple operation. A length of one winding of the filaments around the core string is set to be larger than a round of the core string. Further, when the pile yarn rows are fixed to the surface of the flat plate-like substrate, a distance of maximum portion between a peripheral face of the aforementioned core string and an inner circumferential face of the filament is set to be 0.1 mm≦D≦5 mm. As a result, piles of various sizes can be produced arbitrarily and easily thereby leading to an expansion of application field of the engaging member.
However, according to the production method of the female engaging member as disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,234, if tension control upon feeding the multiplicity of the multifilaments as being supplied in parallel to the drum is not carried out at high accuracy, bending of the filaments equally in zigzag shape is difficult. Further, in order to fix the same filaments to the surface of the synthetic resin sheet stably with the shapes of the loops being maintained, synchronous driving between multiple operating portions have to be controlled at high accuracy, thereby increasing production cost. Furthermore, this method is troublesome because an expensive drum has to be changed or for the other reasons. Thus, the kinds of the product are limited and application field of the product is limited, therefore there is no possibility for development.
According to the female engaging member as disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63-63405, thermoplastic resin sheet exists on an entire back surface of the fabric structure instead of back coating. Further, part the resin sheet invades an entire face of the fabric structure so as to be fused integrally therewith. Thus, stiffness increases on the boundary, in addition to the existence of the thermoplastic resin sheet, so that it is difficult to secure flexibility.
According to the female engaging member as disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63-63405, as described in its specification, the multifilaments of two kinds having a difference in melting point which are substantially untwisted are arranged together and passed through swirling air flow to be entangled with the others at random, which is called “temporary twisting” by swirling air flow. Then, these filaments are heat set and then the multifilaments of low melting point are fused at a subst
Akeno Mitsuru
Naohara Masayuki
Nishiyama Hissai
Brittain James R.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
YKK Corporation
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