Opti Patent-, Forschungs- Und Fabrikations-ag

Opti Patent- Forschung-und Fabrikations Ag

Franz Hochlehnert

Werner Rademacher

Jorg Geiger

Alfons Frohlich

Frank Kuhnke

Kurt Scheid

Reinhard Damaschke

Klaus Buschmann

Lothar Grosskreuz

Werner Schulz

A slide-fastener stringer is pulled through a gapping station by a motor operatively engaging the stringer without slip and at least one feed roller engaging the stringer upstream of the gapping station. A storage unit downstream of the feed roller and upstream of the gapping station loops the stringer upstream of the station in a variable-size loop and has a rotatable and movable buffer roller over which the stringer passes and a pair of rotatable but nonmoving buffer rollers flanking the movable buffer roller. The movable roller is urged away from the flanking rollers with a force sufficient to tension the stringer. The drive of the feed roller is operated in accordance with the position of the movable buffer roller for stretching the stringer between the buffer rollers by at most 1%. A gapper at the station periodically clamps and longitudinally arrests the stringer and then cuts the coupling elements therefrom at the station. A sensor roller physically engaging the stringer between the station and the loop detects and measures the displacement of the stringer after each clamping and cutting of the stringer at the station and generates an actual-value output corresponding thereto that is compared with a set point corresponding to a desired slide-fastener length after each clamping and the stringer is longitudinally advanced after each clamping and cutting of the stringer only until the actual-value output matches the set point.

Gapping system for slide-fastener manufacture

An apparatus for packing slide fasteners as they arrive in a longitudinal transport direction one after the other at a predetermined travel speed from a production facility has a speedup conveyor receiving the arriving slide fasteners and operating at a speed substantially higher than the travel speed thereof and a separating conveyor running transversely of the speedup conveyor and having an upstream end receiving the fasteners from the speedup conveyor and a downstream end transversely offset therefrom. A collection trough having a floor inclined to the horizontal, upper and lower ends, and a plate blocking the lower end is positioned underneath the separating conveyor to receive the fasteners therefrom and a downstream trough is aligned longitudinally with and has an upstream end separated by a space from the collection trough, a floor formed with a throughgoing aperture, and a downstream end. A collection vessel is provided underneath the downstream end of the downstream trough. A transport device has an upstream arm engageable in the collection trough at the lower end thereof and a downstream arm engageable in the space and downstream trough for displacing both of these arms between upstream and downstream positions for pushing respective bundles of the fasteners downstream. A packing unit in the space between the troughs applies a wrapping to the bundles thereat and a labeling unit underneath the aperture prints indicia on the wrappings as same pass the aperture.

Packaging machine for slide-fastener manufacture

A slide-fastener assembly comprising a pair of longitudinally extending and parallel tapes having adjacent edges carrying respective coupling coils that form coupling heads and that are interleaved with one another is gapped by advancing the assembly in steps through a punching location, engaging the coils upstream and downstream of the location by respective upstream and downstream grippers and holding the assembly stationary in the station between steps, and punching the heads off the coils between the grippers while the assembly is held stationary in the station. The grippers are displaced apart to longitudinally tension the coils after engaging the grippers with the coils and before punching the heads off the coils. Thus the upstream gripper is displaced upstream and the downstream gripper downstream, slightly stretching and tensioning the tape assembly.

Method of and apparatus for gapping a slide-fastener tape

A slide fastener comprises a pair of coiled coupling rows of synthetic-resin monofilament with each coupling element having a coupling loop or eye formed with a coupling head, a pair of monofilament segments extending away from the head, and connecting shanks joining adjacent coupling elements together. The shanks are received in pockets formed by longitudinal threads which pass alternately over and under the shanks so that the longitudinal threads and the shanks form a tape-like unit or support structure. Preferably the longitudinal threads constitute a warp with the shanks acting as a weft for the tape-like unit. The coupling elements have a generally elliptical or flattened cross section whereby the coupling eye has its axis generally parallel to the major axis of the cross section of the monofilament.

Slide fastener

Growing community of inventors

Essen, Germany

Franz Hochlehnert