Velcro IP Holdings LLC

Stephen R Arata

Gregory K Kopanski

Charles S White

Christopher M Gallant

Luis Parellada Armela

Methods of making a male touch fastener product, by shearing distal portions of loops extending from a side of a flexible fabric, leaving fibers extending from the side of the flexible fabric in place of the sheared loops, the fibers extending to respective free distal ends, while leaving other loops extending from the side of the fabric intact, and then heating the distal ends with energy supplied by a linear energy source, such that resin of the distal ends flows to form enlarged heads on the extending fibers, while leaving at least some of the other loops intact. A male touch fastener product has fibers that form both loops and fiber segments extending from the base to respective distal fiber ends spaced from the base. Each distal fiber end forms an enlarged head of fiber resin for snagging other fibers.

Making soft fabric touch fasteners

A molding apparatus includes a movable molding surface with molding cavities, a pressure shoe with a stationary outer surface that defines in cooperation with the molding surface a pressure zone, and a resin source configured to introduce molten resin into the pressure zone to be forced into the molding cavities by pressure in the pressure zone. The molding surface is movable with respect to the pressure shoe to introduce molding cavities to the pressure zone to be filled with resin while the outer surface of the pressure shoe and the molding surface define in between an entrance gap of decreasing width upstream of the pressure zone. The outer surface of the pressure shoe is spaced from the molding surface in the pressure zone to define a minimum gap at which the outer surface of the pressure shoe has a slope parallel to the molding surface. The pressure shoe is adapted to be held in a flexed condition against resin in the pressure zone while forcing resin into the cavities, with the outer surface of the pressure shoe curved upstream of the pressure zone.

Molding resin to form continuous structures

A touch fastener product having a base sheet with a resin side surface and a male touch fastener element having a head disposed at a distal end of a resin stem and overhanging the base sheet. The head has an overall shape, as projected in a plane parallel to the base sheet, with a perimeter that defines spaced apart extremities corresponding to head sections of different engagement characteristics and disposed at different distances from a centroid of the overall shape. In one example, the head projection has a polygonal perimeter consisting of straight edges of differing lengths connected at radiused corners. In another, the perimeter comprises an unbroken series of at least three arc segments of different curvatures, with centers of the arc segments disposed at different distances from the centroid.

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Kingston, NH, United States of America

Stephen R Arata