Textiles: weaving – Fabrics – Special shape
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-24
2001-12-18
Falik, Andy (Department: 3765)
Textiles: weaving
Fabrics
Special shape
C139S38400B, C024S393000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06330892
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a belt to which slide fastener elements, snap fasteners, curtain hanging device or other elements can be attached, and more particularly, to a belt in which configuration of weaving structure is stabilized despite its low weft yarn density and excellent flexibility.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional belt is woven by increasing the densities of warp yarns and weft yarns so as not to produce gaps in the weaving structure in order to stabilize the configuration of a weaving structure for preventing deviation of pattern. With such a weaving structure, element attaching region of the belt, for example, an element attaching region of slide fastener elements, snap buttons, curtain hooks or the like always keeps a stabilized structure, so that the respective elements can be attached firmly without producing a deviation of pattern in the belt and further, the respective elements can exert their stabilized function.
However, according to the aforementioned woven belts, because a tape proper region in the belt, namely a portion for attaching the belt to an object to be attached by sewing or the like, has the same weaving structure as the element attaching region, the tape proper region lacks flexibility and the belt cannot be attached firmly and is unable to fit well to the object to be attached.
On the other hand, cloth woven by employing both weaving and knitting has been disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,202 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,601. According to these disclosures, a plurality of weft yarns are arranged in the width direction of the cloth and each of the weft yarns is returned back in each of plural sectioned region in the width direction of the cloth so as to be caught with warp yarns to be woven. Meanwhile, a loop formed at a return end of each weft yarn is caught with a loop formed at the return end of the weft yarn in an adjacent region so as to produce cloth.
Therefore, the cloth obtained in this way has a structure in which plural narrow tapes are connected with each other via a loop in the width direction, so that no deviation of the pattern of the weft yarn occurs. However, in a wale portion in which respective loops are caught, the cloth is likely to be folded in the width direction and elongated or contracted easily, thereby lacks stability of the configuration as a cloth. Thus, such a cloth is not easy to handle. Further, in this cloth, the aforementioned wale portions are formed throughout the entire width thereof at an equal interval in the width direction of the cloth. Therefore, it is not suitable for a belt to which the aforementioned attaching elements are to be attached.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been achieved to solve above-mentioned problems, and therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a belt having an excellent attachment stability to various elements and fitting property to an object to be attached. Another object of the invention is to provide a belt, in spite of its very low weft yarn density and excellent flexibility, no deviation of weft yarn pattern is occurred, thereby ensuring excellent productivity and configuration stability, and also an excellent operability for attachment thereof to an object to be attached.
To attach coupling elements of the above-mentioned slide fastener or other various elements such as a snap fastener or the like to a belt, at least the structure of an attaching region needs to lack flexibility and stable in configuration. On the other hand, to attach the belt having such elements by sewing or other means onto an object to be attached such as various clothes and bags, the belt needs to adapt well to the object.
Recently, the belt having the above mentioned elements, for example, slide fastener or snap fastener with tape, has been attached to thin, flexible object to be attached such as baby clothes and underwear. Therefore, there is a strong demand to a tape proper region, which is an attaching portion of the belt to the object, to be made of thin, flexible material. The same demand is also applied even when the object has some extent of stiffness.
Namely, this kind of belt needs to have regions with opposite functions: a region which lacks flexibility and a region having an excellent flexibility, if possible. Further, both regions must be stabilized in configuration.
As a result of considerations, the inventor of this invention paid attention to a fact that by forming a knitted portion using a knitting needle in a weaving structure, a deviation of the weft yarn pattern is suppressed so that the weaving structure can be stabilized as in the cloth disclosed in the aforementioned US patent specification, even in a belt of which a basic structure is obtained by weaving, although the belt has a very low weaving density and rough weave pattern. Further, the inventor has also discovered that it is advantageous to form the loop of the woven portion by of weft yarn running substantially throughout an entire width of the belt in order to stabilize the woven configuration.
A first aspect of the present invention has the basic feature obtained by such consideration. In the feature, there is provided a belt woven with warp yarn and weft yarn, characterized in that the belt is sectioned to element attaching region and tape proper region in a width direction thereof, and a loop is formed of weft yarns running over substantially an entire width of the belt in the tape proper region while the loop is caught with a loop formed with other weft yarns running in parallel.
In other words, according to this invention, the belt is sectioned to an element attaching region on which to attach elements such as coupling element of the slide fastener, snap fastener, curtain hanging device or the like, and a tape proper region to be attached to an object such as clothes and bag. Then, loops are formed in at least a partial region or entire region of the tape proper region by a weft yarn inserted throughout substantially entire width of the belt each time when the weft yarn is inserted and this weft yarn is caught with a loop formed of a weft yarn inserted next time or after. Then, weaving with the weft yarn in the longitudinal direction of the belt is repeated.
Due to the presence of such a weave pattern, the deviation of the weft yarn is prevented and the tape proper region can be provided with flexibility so that it adapts excellently to the object to be attached and smoothness of attachment can be secured. Further, the weaving yarn in the element attaching region, for example, the warp yarn is prevented from being deviated toward the tape proper region by an existence of the weave pattern, thereby stabilizing the weaving structure in the element attaching region so as to ensure a stabilized attachment of the elements.
On the other hand, the present invention does not specify the weaving structure of the aforementioned element attaching region. The reason is that the weaving structure of the element attaching region is determined appropriately depending on the kind of the element and its attachment state, for example, whether the element is formed of synthetic resin and molded integrally on the belt or the element is formed of metal and formed integrally on the belt by crimping. Therefore, according to the present invention, the element attaching region may be formed of only the weaving structure in which the warp yarn and weft yarn are caught with each other or other yarns may be woven into part of the weaving structure, or furthermore, may be knitted by forming knitting patterns by the weft yarn or additionally provided yarn in part of the weaving structure.
The invention further provides a feature of the tape proper region. According to this invention, there is provided a belt, wherein the tape proper region is structured of an ordinary weaving structure consisting weft yarns for forming the loop and warp yarns which catch the weft yarns. Namely, according to the invention, there exist together an ordin
Falik Andy
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
YKK Corporation
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