US3135230A - Method of attaching sliding clasp fasteners - Google Patents

Description

June 2, 1964 G. WARBURTON METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS 7 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 27, 1961 In ventar Attorneys June 2, 1964 G. WARBURTON 3,135,230

METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS Filed Feb. 27, 1961 7 Sheets-Sheet 2 A tlorheyg lnve for June 2, 1964 G. WARBURTON 3,135,230

METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS Filed Feb. 27, 1961 7 Sheets-Sheet 3 WMfM Attorneys a. WARBURTON METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS Filed Feb. 27. 1961' June 2, 1964 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 yMY-M Altorneys June 1964 G. WARBURTON METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Fe'b. 2'7, 1961 In venlor Attorney 8 J 1964 s. WARBURTON METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Feb. 27, 1961 J n 2, 1 G. WARBURTON METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 Filed Feb. 27, 1961 FIG. 16

IN VENTOR. GEOFFREY WARBURTON ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office 3,135,230 Patented June 2, 1964 3,135,230 METHOD OF ATTACHING SLIDING CLASP FASTENERS Geoliirey Warburton, Cardilf, Wales, assignor to Aero Zipp Fasteners Limited, and Lightning Fasteners Limited, London, England, and Birmingham, England, hothBritish companies Filed Feb. 27, 1961, Ser. No. 91,669 Claims priority, application Great Britain Mar. 17, 1960 9 Claims. (Cl. 112-265) The invention relates to sliding clasp fasteners of the kind comprising strings of connected fastener members, which may be made of thermoplastic material, the strings being sewn to flexible carriers. Hitherto, in some cases a beading in the shape of a cord, tape or the like was placed on top of each string at least. at one face thereof, the beading being sewn to the carrier simultaneously with the string. The purpose of the beading is to cover, at least partly, the fastener members to give rigidity to the fastener assembly and also to give some mechanical protections to the sewing threads. The headings are expen sive and have to be accurately located relatively to the string and carrier while being sewn thereto, so as to enable a sewing needle, and therewith a sewing thread to pass through the beading when forming a stitch.

;It is an object of the invention to avoid the use of a preformed beading which has to be penetrated by the sewing needle and the sewing thread.

It is another object of the invention to provide a simple method of attaching a string of U-shaped fastener members to a carrier while simultaneously making a beading.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will apear from the following detailed description of the invention.

To make the invention clearly understood reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of example and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a sliding clasp fastener;

FIG. 2 illustrates a part of a string of connected fastener members of the fastener of FIG. 1, on a larger scale;

FIG. 3 is a diagram, on a still larger and in part exaggerated scale, illustrating sewing stitches by means of which the string of FIG. 2 is sewn to a tape in the manufacture of the fastener of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a general perspective view of a sewing machine for sewing the string of FIG. 2 to a tape;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the sewing machine of FIG. 4 on a smaller scale;

FIG. 6 is a detailed plan view of part 'of the sewing machine of FIG. 4 on a larger scale;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of the sewing machine of FIG. 4 on the same scale as that of FIG. 6, the view being taken in the direction of the arrow A of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 illustrates a detail of the sewing machine of FIGS. 4 to 7;

FIG. 9 illustrates a section along the line IX--IX of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 illustrates a section along the line XX of FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 illustrates a detail of the sewing machine of FIGS. 4 to 10 on a larg r scale;

FIG. 12 illustrates a section along the line XII-XII of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 somewhat diagrammatically illustrates part of the sewing machine while sewing the string of FIG. 2 to atape;

FIG. 14 illustrates a portion of FIG. 13 in a different operating position;

.FIG. *1 5 illustrates a portion of FIG. 13 in yet another operating position and FIG. 16 is a diagram similar to that of FIG. 3, but illustrating a modification.

The sliding clasp fastener portion illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises two strings 101 of connected fastener members 102 sewn by means of stitches 103 to adjacent edges of flexible carriers in the shape of tapes 104. A slider 105 having an operating pull member 106 opens and closes the fastener in usual manner. It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the stitches 103 partly conceal the string 131 and constitute means for guiding the slider 105 along the string 101 or at least assist in so guiding the slider.

The string 101 of connected fastener members 102 may be of any convenient known construction and shape. A specific embodiment of such a string 101 shown in FIG. 2 comprises the fastener members 102 which are U- shaped, each U having at its base a coupling portion 107 and having limbs 103, one end 111 of each member 102 being connected by a bridge portion 112 only to an adjacent end 113 of a preceding member, the other end 114 of each member being connected by another bridge portion 115 only .to an adjacent end 116 of a succeeding member (except for the last members of the string). This shape of string will hereinafter shortly be called meander string. The string 101 is preferably made of nylon or similar plastic material.

The meander string 101 of FIG. 2 is joined to the tape 104 with the limbs 108 of each fastener member straddling an edge of the tape 104 and is sewn to its tape 104 by stitches 103, which as illustrated in FIG. 3 are double chain stitches formed by two threads 121 and 122. At one side of the tape 104 two additional threads 123 and 124 are provided, which cross each other at points 125 lying between each pair of adjacent passages 126 of the thread 121 through the tape 104, so that the additional threads 123 and 124 are held in position by the thread 121. From FIG. 3 it will be noted that the thread 124 always lies on top of the thread 123, that is to say, at the side of the thread 123 which is remote from the tape 104 and the string 101. From FIGS, 1 and 3 it will be seen that each of the additional threads 123 and 124 extends in zig-zag fashion along the tape 104.

The string 101 may be sewn to the tape 104 by means of a sewing machine 131 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 The sewing machine 131 may be a conventional chain-stitching machine using two threads 121 and 122 (which correspond to the threads 12 1 and 122 of FIG. 3) for forming double chain stitches,- an attachment 132 being fitted to the sewing machine 131 for feeding the tape 104 from a storage coil 133 through the machine in a step-by-step manner, for guiding the meander string 101 from another coil 134 onto an edge of the tape 104, and means 135 for periodically crossing two additional threads 123 and 124 (which correspond to the additional threads 123 and 124 of FIG. 3) in front of a sewing needle 136 of the sewing machine 131. The threads 121, 122, 123 and 124 are drawn from bobbins 137.

The attachment 132 comprises a main block I mounted on a bed 2 of the sewing machine 131 below a sewing head 3 of the machine (see also FIGS. 6 and 7) by screw means 100. The tape 104 is fed in a step-by-step manner by two feed rollers 4 and 5. Feed roller 4 is mounted on a shaft 6 which extends through the main block 1 in a direction parallel to, and in the longitudinal direction of, the bed 2 of the sewing machine, the feed roller 4 being held onto the shaft 6 by an end plate 7 and a screw .8. Feed roller 5 is mounted on a stud 9 on an arm 10 which is pivotally mounted on the main block 1 by a stud 11. As shown in FIG. 4, the tape 104 is threaded under feed roller 4, then between feed rollers 4 and 5, and leaves the machine from the top of roller 5. Roller 5 is urged towards roller 4 by a spring 12 which extends between the arm and a post 13 on the main block 1. Roller 4 is driven in a step-by-step manner by a ratchet wheel 14 mounted at the other end of the shaft 6 by an end plate 15 and screw 16. The ratchet wheel 14 is moved in a step-by-step manner by a pawl 17 mounted on an oscillatable yoke 18. After each stepping movement, the ratchet wheel 14 is held by a locking pawl 19, which is mounted on the main block 1. The yoke 18 is reciprocatable by link 20. One end of the link 20 is pivotally mounted to said yoke, and the other end of the link 20 is pivotally mounted to a lever arm 21, secured by locking screws 22 to an existing os cillatable shaft 23 of the sewing machine. Such an oscillatable shaft 23 is provided in most sewing machines for operating reciprocating teeth which in co-operation with a pressure foot feed material to be sewn through the machine. In the sewing machine 131 the feed teeth are not required and have been removed from the oscillatable shaft 23 which instead has been connected to the lever 21. By means of the lever 21 and the line 20, the oscillatable shaft 23 oscillates the yoke 18 and therewith the ratchet wheel 14, which rotates the tape feeding roller 4 in a step-by-step manner.

When the tape 104 is thus fed through the machine, the meander string 101 of fastener members is fed to the edge of the tape 104 in such a manner that the string straddles an edge of the tape 104. The string 101 is fed by a toothed wheel 24 (see also FIGS. 11 and 12) the teeth of which are shaped to accommodate parts of fastener members 102 between the teeth. The wheel 24 has a peripheral slot 241 dividing each tooth of the wheel 24 into two partial teeth. The toothed wheel 24 is mounted at the side of the main block 1 facing the bed 2 by means of a shaft 25 which extends through the main block 1 perpendicularly to the bed 2, the toothed wheel 24 being fixed to one end of the shaft 25 by means of an end plate 26 and a screw 27. To the other end of the shaft 25, a ratchet wheel 28 is fixed by an end plate 29 and a screw 30. Rotatably oscillatable below the end plate 29 there is provided a yoke 31 which carries a ratchet pawl 32 urged towards the ratchet wheel 28 by means of a tension spring 33 which extends between a pin 34 on the main block 1 and a pin 35 on the ratchet pawl 32. The yoke 31 is rotatably oscillatable by means of a connecting link 36 which is pivotally mounted by one end thereof to the yoke 31 and by the other end thereof to the yoke 18. A retaining pawl for the ratchet wheel 28 is not provided since, if the ratchet wheel 28 operated with a retaining pawl, a certain extent of over travel would be needed for the yoke 31 and thus a precise feeding of the string 101 would not be possible or not be easily possible. In order, however, to provide a precise feeding of the string 101 by the ratchet Wheel 31 at each step, when the yoke 31 has moved to the extreme of its rotational movement and the ratchet wheel 28 has been advanced correspondingly by the pawl 32, the ratchet wheel 28 is held in this position without backward movement by a permanently acting friction brake formed by a fibre block 37 which is held by a compression spring 38 against a cylindrical surface 39 of the shaft 25. Thus it will be seen that the braking action of the fibre block 37 causes the ratchet wheel 28 to be held at any position reached by it in its rotational movement when the yoke 31 begins to return.

The string 101 is fed into the sewing machine 131 from the rotatable storage coil and reaches a guide plate 40 which has a thinned marginal portion 41 which is straddled by members 102 of the string 101. The guide plate 40 is shaped so as to guide the string 101 into engagement with teeth of the toothed wheel 24 for feeding the string 101, as can best be see from FIG. 12. Since the tape feed rollers 4 and 5 are moved in a step-by-step manner, and since also the toothed wheel 24 for feeding the string is moved in a step-by-step manner, the string 101 on leaving the thinned marginal portion 41 of the guide plate 40 is brought into straddling engagement with an edge of the tape 104, peripheral recesses 42 and 43 being provided respectively in the tape feed rollers 4 and 5 respectively for accommodating the string 101 on the edge of the tape 104. The sewing machine 131 is otherwise operating as usual during the feed of the tape 104- and the string 101. The stitch pitch of the sewing ma chine 131 is correct once the position of the toothed wheel 24 has been suitably adjusted in relation to the sewing needle, since the pitch is controlled by the toothed wheel 24 and the ratchet wheel 281 the string 101 being sewn onto the edge of the tape 104 as the sewing machine operates. The edge of the tape 104 remote from the edge to which the string 101 is being sewn is guided in a channel like groove 441 between the bed 2 and a guide plate 44 which is mounted on a plate 45 secured to the base plate 2 of the machine, the guide plate 44 being urged away from the plate 45 against abutments (not shown) by means of compression springs 46 and being held in its general position in relation thereto by pins 47. A flat spring 58, which is visible in FIG. 4, but has been for claritys sake omitted from other figures, serves to hold the tape 104 under tension when passing between the spring 58 and the bed 2 and being drawn by the rollers 4 and 5 from the coil 133.

From FIG. 6 it will be seen that there is sufi'icient space between the free edge of the tape guide plate 44 and the toothed wheel 24 for members 102 of the string 101 to be I fully accommodated on the free edge of the tape 104. A

further tape guide plate 48 is provided immediately adjacent to the tape guide plate 44. The further tape guide plate 48 is mounted on pins 49 extending from the mount ing plate 45, a compression spring 50 being provided for normally urging the tape guide member 48 away from the plate 45 and against an abutment not shown. Between the bed 2 and the further tape guide plate 48 a deep channel extends along the free edge of the further tape guide plate 48, the channel being deeper than the corresponding channel 441 between the bed 2 and the tape guide plate 44. The free edge of the further tape guide plate 48 is provided with a bevel 51, the bevel ending in a ramp 52.

In operation of the attachment 132 as so far described, the tape 104 is fed in a step-by-step manner by feed rollers 4 and 5, and as the string 101 is also fed in a step-by-step manner by the toothed wheel 24, and the members 102 of the string 101 are stitched onto an edge of the tape 104 by the reciprocating sewing needle 136 of the machine 131, then, as the tape 104 with the string 101 passes the stitching-on position, the bridge portions 112 of the string 101, are engaged by the bevel 5 1 and the ramp 52 of the further tape guide plate 48 and are thereby pushed outwards from the fully straddling position as they pass the ramp 52 so that the members 102 of the string 101 stand out from the edge of the tape 104.

In order to provide a raised-up more or less bulky line of stitching at the side of the fastener which is visible in FIG. 1 and which is roughly equivalent in bulk to the double chain stitch at the other side of the fastener, an arrangement is provided with reciprocatable slides (see FIGS. 6 and 7) for introducing the two additional threads 123 and 124 (FIG. 3). These slides are indicated by reference numerals 53 and 54, slides 53 being located immediately at that side of slide 54 which is remote from the bed 2. The slides 53 and 54 extend through a channel provided in the side of the block 1 adjacent the bed 2 in a direction parallel with the bed 2 but inclined to the longitudinal direction of the bed 2. The slides 53 and 54, at their ends nearest to the sewing region of the machine, respectively carry thread holders in the form of tubular thread guides 55 and 56. At their other ends after passing through the channel in the block 1, the slides 53 and 54 are connected by double pivot joints to operating rods 59 and 60 respectively (see also FIGS. 8, 9 and 10). The operating rods 59 and 60 are connected by means of end bearings 61 and 62 respectively, to pivotally mounted follower levers 63 and 64 respectively, the follower levers 63 and 64 being mounted on a stud 65 extending from a plate 66 mounted on the bed 2 of the machine. On a rotatable main shaft 57 of the machine there is provided a helically toothed pinion 67 of the block 1, said pinion being keyed to said main shaft 57. A helically toothed gear wheel 68 is provided, which meshes with the pinion 67 and drives a shaft 69 which extends through a bearing 70 in the plate 6.6.. At the side of the plate 66 remote from the gear wheel 68, two eccentrically positioned circular cam discs 71 and 72 are keyed to the shaft 69 so that said cam discs 71 and 72 are 180 out of phase with each other. The cam discs 71 and 72 respectively operate follower rollers 73 and 74 mounted on the follower levers 63 and 64. The follower levers 63 and 64 are held in such positions that the follower rollers 73 and 74 permanently bear against the cam discs 71 and 72 under the action of tension springs 75 and 76 which respectively extend between the free ends of the follower levers 63 and 64 and posts 77 and 78 provided on the plate 66. The ratio between the pinion 67 and the gear wheel 68 is so chosen that the slides 53 and 54 are caused to change their extreme end positions between each stitching cycle of the machine, so that as the string 101 is sewn to the edge of the tape 104, the two additional threads 124 and 123 which pass through the tubular thread guides 55 and 56, are periodically crossed in the manner shown in FIG. 3.

The crossing operation can best be seen from FIGS. 13, 14 and 15. In the position shown in FIG. 13, the sewing needle 136 with the sewing thread 121 is in its uppermost position. The thread guide 55 with its additional thread 124 is in one extreme end position and the thread guide 56 with its additional thread 123 is in the opposite'extreme position. The needle 136 now moves downwards into its lowermost position shown in FIG. 14, while the thread guides 55 and 56 both assume an intermediate position, and the additional threads 123 and 124 begin to surround the sewing thread 121. In the position shown in FIG. 15, the needle 136 has assumed its uppermost position and the thread guides 55 and 56 are in their other extreme positions which are opposite to their respective positions shown in FIG. 13. The additional threads 124 and 123 have crossed each other with the sewing thread 121 between them. It will be noted that while the sewing needle performs a full cycle of operations moving from the position of FIG. 13 through the position of FIG. 14 to the position of FIG. 15, the thread guides 55, 56 perform a half cycle of operations crossing the additional threads 123 and 124 once with the sewing thread 121 between them. During the next full cycle of the sewing needle 136, during which the needle 136 moves from the position of FIG. through the position of FIG. 14 to the position of FIG. 13, the thread guides 55 and 56 perform a next half cycle of operations analogous to the first half cycle just described.

It will be seen that apart from the coils 133 and 134 for storing the tape 104 and the string 101, and apart from the bobbins 137 for the threads 121, 122, 123 and 124, the entire arrangement for sewing the string 101 to the tape 104 and interlacing the additional threads 123 and 124 with the sewing thread. 121 are arranged on a single block 1 and thus form a single unit which is bodily attachable to a sewing machine. Prior to attaching the block 1 to the machine, feed teeth usually provided in a sewing machine have to be removed from the oscillatable shaft 23, and, instead, the lever arm 21 of the block 1 has to be fixed to the oscillatable shaft 23. Furthermore, the pinion 67 has to be fixed to the rotatable main shaft 57 of the machine, the block 1 itself being fixed to the bed 2 of the machine in any suitable manner. It will, thus, be seen that by means of the block 1, the sewing machine is convertible into a sewing machine for attaching the string 101 to the tape 104 in the manner described.

Many modifications are possible. For example, it is not necessary that one of the additional threads is at one side of the sewing needle and the other thread is at the other side of the needle while the needle makes a stitch. Instead, it is possible as shown in FIG. 16, that all the additional threads 1123, 1124 are placed at the same side of the sewing needle 1136 while making a stitch 1103 by means of a sewing thread 1121, and are moved to the other side of the sewing while the needle makes another stitch.

Further modifications are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A method of attaching a string of connected fastener members, each having two limbs, to an edge of a flexible carrier by sewing, comprising the steps of applying the string to the carrier with the limbs straddling the edge of the carrier, placing a thread additional to a sewing thread onto the string at one side of a sewing needle when making a stitch in the process of sewing the limbs of the fastener members to the carrier, moving the additional thread to the other side of the sewing needle while making another stitch, returning the additional thread to the first side of the sewing needle, and repeating the recited steps, whereby the additional thread repeatedly crosses the line of stitches and is sewn onto the string by the sewing thread to form therewith a beading while the sewing proceeds.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least another additional thread is placed and sewn onto the string by the sewing thread, each of the additional threads repeatedly crossing the line of stitches.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein all the additional threads are placed at the same side of the sewing needle and are moved to the other side of the sewing needle while the needle makes another stitch.

4. A method of attaching a string of connected fastener members, each having two limbs, to an edge of a flexible carrier by sewing, comprising the steps of applying the string to the carrier with the limbs straddling the edge of the carrier, placing at least two additional threads onto the string adjacent a sewing needle while making a stitch in the process of sewing the limbs of the fastener members to the carrier, so that one of the additional threads is at one side of the needle and the other thread is at the other side of the needle, crossing the threads after the stitching has been made so that the positions of the additional threads at each of their crossing points are oversewn by the stitching thread and thus together with the stitching thread form a heading while the sewing proceeds.

5. A method of attaching a string of connected fastene members, each having two limbs, to an edge of a flexible carrier by sewing, comprising the steps of applying the string to the carrier with the limbs straddling the edge of the carrier, placing at least two additional threads onto the string adjacent a sewing needle while making a stitch in the process of sewing the limbs of the fastener members to the carrier, so that one of the additional threads is at one side of the needle and the other thread is at the other side of the needle, crossing the threads, placing the crossed threads adjacent the sewing needle while immediately thereafter making another stitch so that said one thread is now at said other side of the needle and said other thread is at said one side of the needle, crossing the threads again, placing the re-crossed threads adjacent the sewing needle while immediately thereafter making a further stitch so that said one thread is at said one side of the needle and said other thread is at said other side of the needle, and repeating the recited steps, whereby a beading is formed by the additional threads while the stitching proceeds.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the additional threads are crossed so that the same thread always lies on top of the other thread.

7. A method of attaching a string of connected fastener members to a flexible carrier, comprising the steps of applying the string to the carrier, and thereafter forming a bead by placing at least one thread additional to a sewing thread on an exterior portion of the string in serpentine configuration, while simultaneously sewing said additional thread and said string to said carrier.

8. A method of attaching a string of connected fastener members to a flexible carrier, comprising the steps of applying the string to the carrier, and thereafter forming a bead by repeatedly crossing a plurality of threads With one another on an exterior portion of said string, while sewing the plurality of crossed threads simultaneously with the string to the carrier by means of a sewing thread.

9. A method of attaching a meander string of connected U-shaped fastener members to a flexible carrier by applying a stitching thread and two additional threads, comprising the steps of applying the string to the carrier, placing the two additional threads onto the string in spaced-apart relationship while making a stitching with said stitching thread adjacent a fastener member between said additional threads through flexible carrier, so that one of the additional threads is at one side of the stitch and the other thread is at the other side of the stitch,

8 crossing the additional threads, placing the crossed additional threads onto the string in spaced-apart relationship, stitching into the stitching thread therebetween, and repeating the recited steps, whereby a heading is formed by the additional threads while the stitching proceeds.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

Claims (1)

1. 7. A METHOD OF ATTACHING A STRING OF CONNECTED FASTENER MEMBERS TO A FLEXIBLE CARRIER, COMPRISING THE STEPS OF APPLYING THE STRING TO THE CARRIER, AND THEREAFTER FORMING A BEAD BY PLACING AT LEAST ONE THREAD ADDITIONAL TO A SEWING THREAD ON AN EXTERIOR PORTION OF THE STRING IN SERPENTINE CONFIGURATION, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY SEWING SAID ADDITIONAL THREAD AND SAID STRING TO SAID CARRIER.

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