Velcro Industries B.v.

Velcro IP Holdings LLC

Velcro Bvba

Velero Industries B.v.

Valero Industries B.v.

Mark A Clarner

Christopher M Gallant

David P Kraus

Howard A Kingsford

George A Provost

William P Clune

Luis Parellada Armela

William L Huber

Michel Labrecque

Melissa Spezzafero

Jefferson Davis

Kristel L Ferry

Clinton Dowd

James L Tardiff

Juan Sánchez

Scott M Filion

Paul R Erickson

Wallace L Kurtz, Jr

Michael Cina

Daniel Lee Janzen

Kevin Keith Line

Derrick Slowikowski

John Demain

Stephane Xavier Girard

Kristel L Hinton

David Pubrat

Vamshideep Devershetty

Ernesto S Tachauer

Paul Joseph Voigt

Peter J Iannazzi

Victor Horst Kheil

Andrew Collins

James T Grady

James W Babineau

David Villeneuve

Josep M Soler Carbonell

Almin Idrizovic

Bob Yusuo Chang

Michael J Carbonneau

Nancy Jane Tolan

William B S Mc Dougall

Normand A Cote

Bryan H Blackmon

Michelle M Ennis

Klaas Jan Stol

Andrew P Collins

Josep Soler Carbonell

Stephanie Xavier Girard

Willliam P Clune

Bryan Blackmon

A method of forming a male touch fastener product with a resin surface and an array of spaced-apart male touch fastener elements carried on the surface. Each touch fastener element has a stem extending from the surface and a head disposed at a distal end of the stem and extending laterally from the stem to a distal edge overhanging the surface. The head, stem and surface form a contiguous mass of resin. The distal edge has multiple toes extending laterally outward and varying in shape and size about the edge, with adjacent toes having facing, free-form resin surfaces defining crevices therebetween. The fastener element is particularly flexible and engages with very fine fibers.

Making male touch fastener elements

Mold-in fastener products are made by forming a longitudinally continuous hook tape having a flexible base and an array of discrete male touch fastener elements extending from an upper surface of the base, forming a layer of flexible barrier material on the upper surface of the base, such that the male touch fastener elements are embedded in the layer of flexible barrier material, severing the flexible barrier material to form a pattern of patches of flexible barrier material spaced apart and surrounded by a continuous lattice of barrier material, stripping the lattice from the upper surface of the base to expose regions of the base between patches, and severing the hook tape along the exposed regions of the base to form individual mold-in fastener products, each having a patch of flexible barrier material surrounded by an exposed base edge region carrying male touch fastener elements.

Mold-in fastener products

A male touch fastener product with a resin surface and an array of spaced-apart male touch fastener elements carried on the surface. Each touch fastener element has a stem extending from the surface and a head disposed at a distal end of the stem and extending laterally from the stem to a distal edge overhanging the surface. The head, stem and surface form a contiguous mass of resin, the head. The distal edge has multiple toes extending laterally outward and varying in shape and size about the edge, with adjacent toes having facing, free-form resin surfaces defining crevices therebetween. The fastener element is particularly flexible and engages with very fine fibers.

Male touch fastener elements

Techniques are disclosed for connecting a printing plate to a print cylinder or surface. The techniques may be implemented, for instance, with respect to a printing plate, a print cylinder, a print sleeve, or some combination thereof. In an embodiment, a field of mechanical fasteners is provisioned on a printing plate, and a complementary field of mechanical fasteners is provisioned on a print sleeve or cylinder. The mechanical fasteners collectively operate to provide a mechanical bond or interface that inhibits lateral and rotational movement of the plate during printing operations, and can also be configured to manage backlash between engaging surfaces of the interface. In some cases, backlash management includes use of cushion effect integral with the mechanical bond itself and/or unidirectional and possibly angled fastener elements to provide a snugging effect. The mechanical bond may be implemented with hook-and-loop, hook-and-hook, hook-to-channel, male/female-type fittings, vacuum, suction, and/or magnetics.

Printing plate connection systems

A touch fastener loop material has a non-woven web of fibers forming both a base and a field of high-tenacity hook-engageable loops extending outward from one broad side of the base. The fibers are distributed such that the field of loops has a particular fiber volume distribution as a function of elevation above the base.

Loop fastening material

A touch fastener loop material has a non-woven web of fibers forming both a base and a field of high-tenacity hook-engageable loops extending outward from one broad side of the base. The fibers are arranged with a particularly low density while maintaining hook-engageability and usefulness as a fastening material.

A touch fastener including an elongated base having multiple segments connected by articulable joints. Each segment has an upper surface, a lower surface, and a plurality of touch fastener elements extending from the lower surface of the base. A flexible barrier extends across at least one articulable joint between adjacent base segments. The fastener may include a magnetically attractable material disposed along a center region of the upper surface of the base. The fastener base may define a pair of first and second notches in opposite longitudinal edges of the base at the articulable joint to allow bending of the base. The base may also define a slit extending through the base from a longitudinal edge thereof at the articulable joint.

Touch fastener products

A touch fastener product has a base strip of resin carrying both mechanical fastener projections and adhesive, in some cases disposed on raised portions of the base strip. The fastener projections are arranged in discrete fields with lanes between the fields, and the adhesive is disposed within the lanes. The adhesive in each lane is shorter, as measured perpendicularly from the base strip, than the projections nearest the lane, by a distance that is less than ten percent of the width of the lane. In some cases molded stems extend through the adhesive in the lanes. The fastening face of the molded base strip is treated to give the fastening face a higher surface energy than the back face, to resist adhesive delamination during unspooling.

Touch fastener configuration and manufacturing

The present disclosure provides embodiments of a releasable fastening arrangement that can include a first fastening strip secured to and extending over a substrate surface and having a first surface carrying first fastening elements extending from the surface. The releasable fastening arrangement can also include a second fastening strip having a second surface carrying second fastening elements that are engageable by the first fastening elements to form a releasable fastening. The first surface can include a flexible flap that is formed therein, and that is surrounded by other portions of the first surface. The flap can carry at least one of the first fastening elements, and can flap have a distal edge that is displaceable from the substrate surface under peel loads applied to the at least one first fastening element carried by the flap.

Releasable fastening arrangement

A molded area fastener product, such as a self-engaging fastener, has a strip-form base of resin with a broad surface from which an array of discrete fastener elements extends. The fastener elements each include a molded stem extending from the broad surface of the base to a curved head that extends toward a front side of the fastener element, forms a crook and ends in a distal tip. In some examples the curved head protrudes beyond the stem on the back side of the fastener element to form an overhang defined by an overhang surface of the head directed toward the base, and the crook is defined in part by an underside head surface that overhangs a lower portion of the stem. In some examples the fastener elements are arranged to provide a high distension overlap when mated with an identical fastener product.

Arrays of fastener elements

An electrical cable includes first and second conductive strips and an electrically insulative base extending between and joining the first and second conductive strips and electrically isolating the first conductive strip from the second conductive strip. The first and second conductive strips each include an electrically conductive thermoplastic resin in contact with a longitudinally continuous electrical conductor, the electrically conductive thermoplastic resin having a lower electrical conductivity than the electrical conductor. The electrically conductive thermoplastic resin forms an exposed surface of the cable and a field of fastener elements extending from the exposed surface. Lighting systems and electrical fastening devices include similar features.

Securing electrical devices

A method for forming a hook-engageable landing zone on a fibrous surface by selecting a region of the surface to form the landing zone, by raising fibers from the surface in the selected region to form fibrous loops extending from the surface, and by anchoring the fibrous loops in the selected region to secure the loops and resist pullout during hook engagement.

Outer cover engagement

Engageability of fibrous surfaces for use with touch fasteners

Growing community of inventors

Concord, NH, United States of America

Mark A Clarner