Velcro Industries B.v.

L Guy Donaruma

Gerald F Rocha

Lawrence E Lacombe

The present invention features an improved hook and loop fastener. The fastener includes a ground sheet and a pile of hook or loop elements extending from the ground sheet, and a solidified binder impregnating the ground sheet. The binder advantageously comprises a thermoset epoxy adhesive, providing the fastener with excellent durability and resistance to laundering and dry-cleaning.

Hook and loop fastener including an epoxy binder

A hook or loop component of a hook and loop fastener having a textile ground sheet and filamentary pile, the ground sheet penetrated by a resinous binder of improved properties. Hydrolytically stable cross-linked bonds are formed in a binder under ambient or laundering conditions. Bonds of urea-, ureido-, or urethane-type result from curing of the hook or loop ground-sheet by exposure to water molecules, polyfunctional amines, or polyfunctional alcohols. The resin is applied as a hot-melt, as a neat liquid, or as a solute in a solvent. In a method for applying the resin as a hot-melt, a continuous strip of hook or loop elements is heated to approximately the same temperature as the melted resin and the melted resin is applied, using a coating head and coating knife, to a section of tape suspended between two support points. Other cross-link systems and thermoplastic systems are disclosed.

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Nashua, NH, United States of America

L Guy Donaruma