Velcro IP Holdings LLC

Velcro Bvba

Jerry G Hodsdon

Christopher M Gallant

David D Cianciolo

James R Barker

Gregory K Kopanski

James L Tardiff

Christopher C Libby

Matthew P Cunningham

Michael J Perkins

Gregory Cole Winters

Francesco Paolo Ruffo

Joseph Mark Buhl

Hanger

A picking container liner sleeve in the form of a sheet or tube of resin is placed inside a produce picking container and held in place by releasably engaging cooperative touch fasteners on the rim of the picking container and the upper end of the liner sleeve. The liner sleeve is sized to line the container in use to inhibit contact between picked produce and an interior surface of the produce picking container with the lower end of the produce picking container in a closed position, but to allow picked produce to fall through the lower end of the produce picking container with the lower end of the produce picking container in an open position.

Lining picking containers

A flexible support sleeve includes a knit fabric sheet with loops of fibers on a fastening face, a strip of resin overlaying a portion of the fastening face along one edge, with a strip of adhesive disposed along the same edge on an opposite side. The strip of resin includes male touch fastener elements configured to engage the loops of the knit fabric sheet. The strip of resin has a selvedge coterminous with the edge of the flexible support sleeve and void of male touch fastener elements, such that the selvedge of the base is not engageable with the loops of the knit fabric sheet. The strip of adhesive is wider than the strip of resin, such that the adhesive strip underlays all of the discrete male touch fastener elements of the strip of resin.

Support sleeve

Hang strap

An elongated fastening strap of touch fastener material has a head with a grommet defining a slot through which the other end of the strap is received. Selective interference at the ends of the slot with the width of the strap alter the resistance to motion within the slot. The grommet provides a smooth surface within the slot.

Flexible fastening strap

Discrete male touch fastener elements are molded of thermoplastic resin extending from a common, flexible base sheet, by introducing molten resin to a molding nip between two counter-rotating rolls consisting of a mold roll and a pressure roll arranged such that their rotation axes are parallel and together define a common plane containing each of the rotation axes. Solidified resin is stripped from molding cavities of the mold roll after the cavities have passed a rotating reaction roll forming a pressure nip with the mold roll. The reaction roll is spaced from the pressure roll by a distance less than an outer diameter of the mold roll, and the mold roll is simultaneously held against both the pressure roll and the reaction roll in a non-planar roll stack.

Roll-molding

A molding apparatus defining a processing direction includes multiple molding modules spaced apart in a lateral direction perpendicular to the processing direction and a common reaction surface. Each molding module includes a frame and a mold roll that defines molding cavities. Each mold roll defines a respective pressure zone in cooperation with the reaction surface and each mold roll is movable with respect to the reaction surface by controlled operation of the frame. Molten resin is introduced into the pressure zones and forced into the molding cavities to form arrays of fastener elements extending from base layers of resin formed on the surfaces of the mold rolls. The fastener elements are withdrawn from the cavities while stripping the base layers from the peripheral surfaces.

Modular molding assembly

A linear actuator leverage assembly including a base with a side surface and a back surface defining between them a corner, a rail member coupled to the base, a lever arm with a bearing surface, and a linear actuator. The lever arm is pivotally connected to the rail member at a first pivot and to the linear actuator at a second pivot. The linear actuator is configured to move the rail member with respect to the base over a linear stroke of the linear actuator that moves the second pivot of the lever arm along a continuous motion path. The motion path includes a first path segment generally parallel to the side surface and a second path segment, over which the lever arm pivots about the bearing surface as a fulcrum, thereby increasing leverage applied by the actuator to the rail.

Linear actuator leverage

A fastener assembly includes a stud, a threaded sleeve, and a compression spring. The stud includes a shaft with a first head at one end and a second head at an opposite end of the shaft, both heads with opposing bearing surfaces. The threaded sleeve is disposed about the shaft. The threaded sleeve includes external threads and a tubular interior with an inwardly projected shoulder. The compression spring is disposed about the shaft inside the threaded sleeve, with a first end bearing against a shoulder of the threaded sleeve and a second end bearing against a bearing surface of the second head. The spring urges the sleeve against the bearing surface of the first head. The assembly can maintain a preload between two components while allowing the components to be separated, and can also be used as a pressure limiter.

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Manchester, NH, United States of America

Jerry G Hodsdon