Slider For Sliding Clasp Fastener

Abstract

The slider comprises a single slider plate, a side wall at each side of the slide plate, and a separating member between the side walls so as to form a substantially Y-shaped channel for receiving interlocking members of the fastener. The slider plate has three windows, unobstructed from the outside; two of the windows communicate with the arms of the Y-shaped channel, and the third communicates with the stem. Projections are provided on the separating member and on the side walls for guiding the interlocking members through the arms and through the stem, respectively, of the Y-shaped channel.

Description

The invention relates to sliders for sliding clasp fasteners and means for making such sliders. More specifically, a slider of the invention is intended for use with a sliding clasp fastener wherein two webs are jointed in face to face relation by the sliding clasp fastener, the slider of which rides along the edges of the webs.

The invention consists in a slider for a sliding clasp fastener, comprising a single slider plate, a side wall at each side of the slider plate, and a separating member between the side walls so as to form a substantially Y-shaped channel for receiving interlocking members of a sliding clasp fastener, the slider plate having at least one window which is unobstructed from the outside of the slider. Preferably, the slider plate has three windows unobstructed from the outside of the slider, two of the windows being arranged behind the third window in the longitudinal direction of the slider. Said two windows may communicate with the arms of the Y-shaped channel, the third window communicating with the stem of the Y-shaped channel. The separating member may have a projection on each side extending transversely from the separating member for guiding the interlocking members through the arms of the Y-shaped channel. The slider plate may have two recesses inside the slider, one at each side of the separating member, for receiving edges of webs carrying the interlocking members. Each side wall near its end remote from the separating member may have a lateral projection extending towards the other side wall for guiding the interlocking members through the stem of the Y-shaped channel.

Preferably, the slider is provided with a longitudinal, axial groove by which the slider can be placed and guided on a rail adapted to fit into that groove.

Preferably, the slider plate is shaped for enabling automatic sensing of a quality of the slider.

The invention also consists in a mould for making a slider as hereinbefore defined, the mould comprising two mould parts mounted so as to be movable towards and away from each other in a direction parallel to the plate of a slider to be made, one of the mould parts carrying a plurality of cores for each slider, the cores being movable jointly with said one mould part, and being shaped and arranged for forming the windows in the slider plate end for forming, jointly with the other mould part, the projections on the separating member and the lateral projections on the side walls of the slider. For simultaneously making plurality sliders all the cores required for the sliders may be carried by said one mould part. All the mould cavities may communicate with a single main channel for feeding material from which the sliders are to be made from said main channel to the mould cavities.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a slider in accordance with the invention for a sliding clasp fastener of a bag, only part of which is shown;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view along the line II--II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along the line III--III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along the line IV--IV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the slider of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view along the line VI--VI of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view similar to that of FIG. 6 but of a modified slider; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a section through a two-part mould for making sliders of the type shown in FIGS. 1 to 6.

The bag shown in part in FIG. 1 comprises two webs 1 and 2 forming side walls of the bag. The web 1 near its edge 3 (see also FIGS. 2, 3 and 4) has a one piece interlocking member 4 forming a projection 5 for engaging a recess 6 of a one piece interlocking member 7 provided near an adjacent edge 8 of the web 2. Preferably the web 1 and the interlocking member 4 as well as the web 2 and the interlocking member 7 are each made by extrusion from thermoplastic material. The interlocking members 4 and 7 are sufficiently resilient to allow the projection 5 to be forced into the recess 6 on closing the bag and for withdrawing the projection 5 from the recess 6 on opening the bag.

A slider, generally indicated by reference numeral 11, serves in known manner to close and open the bag. The slider 11 comprises a single slider plate 12 and two side walls 13, one at each side of the slider plate 12. A wedge-like separating member 14 is provided between the side walls 13 so as to form with the slider plate 12 and the side walls 13, a substantially Y-shaped channel for receiving the interlocking members 4 and 7. The slider plate 12 has three windows 15, 151 and 16 (see also FIGS. 5 and 6) which are directly accessible from the outside of the slider and of which the windows 15 and 151 are arranged adjacent each other transversely of the slider and the window 16 is spaced from the windows 15 and 151 in the longitudinal direction of the slider 11, that is to say, in the direction in which the slider 11 is moved when opening or closing the fastener. From FIGS. 1 and 5 it will be seen that the windows 15 and 151 communicate with the arms of the Y-shaped channel and the window 16 communicates with the stem of the Y-shaped channel.

As can best be seen from FIGS. 2 and 5, the separating member 14 has projections 17 and 18, one on each side of the separating member 14, the projections 17 and 18 extending transversely from the separating member 14 into the arms of the Y-shaped channel for guiding the interlocking members 4 and 7 through the arms. Each side wall 13 near its end remote from the separating member 14 has a lateral projection 21 (see FIGS. 4 and 5) extending into the stem of the Y-shaped channel in a direction towards the other side wall for guiding the interlocking members 4 and 7 through the stem.

The slider plate 12 inside the slider 11 has two recesses 22 (see FIGS. 2 and 4) one adjacent each side wall 13, for receiving the edges 3 and 8 of the webs 1 and 2.

As shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the slider 11 comprises a groove R which extends longitudinally and axially through the slider, between the side walls 13. This groove is constituted partially by the stem of the Y-shaped channel; the rest of this groove is situated in line with the stem of the Y-shaped channel and is delimited by the separating member 14 and the side walls 13. The purpose of this groove R is to permit the slider to be placed on and guided along a rail, which accordingly is adapted to fit into the groove R.

As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 6, the outer surface of the slider plate 12 is a plane surface. A modified slider, shown in FIG. 7, has a step 125 formed in the outer surface of its slider plate 112, which step 125 extends transversely of the slider and lies between the windows 15, 151 and 16 (of which only the window 16 is partly visible in FIG. 7).

It is believed that the operation of the slider 11 does not need any detailed explanation. It will be recognized from FIG. 1 that when the slider 11 is moved towards the right, the projection 5 of the interlocking member 4 is successively forced into the recess 6 of the interlocking member 7, whereby the fastener is closed. When the slider 11 is moved towards the left of FIG. 1 the separating member 14 successively separates the projection 5 from the recess 6 whereby the fastener is opened. The recessess 22 accomodate the web edges 3 and 8 which are thus prevented from being irregularly bent. Such irregular bending could impede the free movement of the slider if the recesses 22 were not provided.

Sliders of a predetermined overall size may be provided with a plane outer surface of the slider plate 12, whereas sliders of a predetermined different size may be provided with the step 125 in the slider plate 112 (as shown in FIG. 7). This enables sensing of the size of a slider by sensing the presence or absence of the step 125 and this sensing may be carried out by any suitable known means prior to the attachment of the slider to a sliding clasp fastener so that any slider of incorrect size can be rejected.

Modifications and refinements of the above described slider are possible. For example, the outside of the side walls 13 may be knurled or otherwise roughened for facilitating gripping the slider. Again, where sliders of more than two different sizes are used, they may have steps of depths which vary in accordance with their size. Sliders of one of the sizes, for example, the smallest sliders, may have no step at all. Instead of indicating the slider size, any other slider quality, for example, the color of the sliders, may be indicated.

Each window in the slider plate is directly accessible from the outside of the slider, contrary to some lockable sliders which have a window through which a locking finger extends from the outside of the slider and thus direct access from the outside is obstructed by the locking finger.

An important advantage of the provision of the unobstructed windows in the slider illustrated and described resides in the fact that the slider can be cast or moulded by means of a two-part mould without the necessity of providing one or more independently operable cores forming additional independent mould parts which have to be manipulated separately from the mould parts.

The mould of FIG. 8 comprises two mould parts generally indicated by reference numerals 201 and 202. The mould part 201 is fixed to a support 203 by screws 204, and the mould part 202 is fixed to another support 205 by screws 206. The supports 203 and 205 and the mould parts 201 and 202 therewith are movable relatively to each other towards and away from each other. Guide pins 207 are slidable in guide holes 208 (only one guide pin 207 and one guide hole 208 being shown) for ensuring rectilinear relative movement of the two mould parts 201 and 202.

The mould parts 201 and 202 have mould cavities for making a plurality of sliders simultaneously. The mould part 202 carries pairs of cores 211, 212, the cores being shaped and arranged, together with mould cavities 213 in mould part 201 and mould cavities 214 in mould part 202, such that the sliders are cast or moulded, the cores serving to provide the windows 15, 151 and 16 in the slider plate 12 as well as the projections 17, 18 and the lateral projections 21 of the slider.

When the mould is closed liquified material for the slider is fed to all the mould cavities through a mouth 215 merging in a main channel 216 from which the material is distributed in known manner to the various mould cavities 213, 214 by branch channels. When the liquified material has solidified the mould parts 201 and 202 are separated from each other and the slider is ejected from the mould part 201 by ejector pins 217 in known manner.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A molded slider and resilient closure strips having interlocking mating facing rib and groove profiles thereon, said slider comprising:

a top plate member substantially in contact with said strips when mounted thereon;

respective side walls projecting from sides of the plate member;

said plate member and side walls in one end portion of the slider defining a channel between them dimensioned to force the profiles to interlock and wherein the strips are in sliding engagement;

said top plate member and side walls including a separating member at the other end portion of the slider defining first and second channels each in sliding engagement with a respective one of the strips at its profile;

said top member having an unobstructed window opening therein spaced from the extremity of said one end portion and extending from the exterior into said channel so that at least a portion of the slider is not in sliding engagement with the strips at the location of said window opening; and

at least one additional unobstructed window opening in said top wall communicating from the exterior with at least one of said first and second channels spaced from the extremity of said other end portion.

2. A slider according to claim 1, including respective additional unobstructed window openings in said top plate member in and spaced from the extremity of said other end portion and communicating from the exterior with said first and second channels so that portions of the slider are free from engagement with the strips at the location of the additional window openings.

3. A slider according to claim 2, including a respective projection on each side of the separating member and respectively aligned with said additional window openings for guiding the profiles through said channels.

4. A slider according to claim 2, including respective projections on said side walls aligned with said first-mentioned window opening for guiding the strips through said channel.

5. A slider according to claim 2, including respective projections on the opposite sides of said separating member aligned with said additional window openings for guiding the profiles through said channels, and respective projections on each of said side walls aligned with said first-mentioned window opening for guiding the strips through said channel.

6. A slider according to claim 1, wherein the sides of the channels at the sides of the window openings are in engagement with the strips at the location of the window openings.

7. A molded slider and resilient closure strips having interlocking mating facing rib and groove profiles thereon, said slider comprising:

a top plate member substantially in contact with said strips when mounted thereon;

respective side walls projecting from sides of the plate member;

said plate member and side walls in one end portion of the slider defining a channel between them dimensioned to force the profiles to interlock and wherein the strips are in sliding engagement;

said top plate member and side walls including a separating member at the other end portion of the slider defining first and second channels each in sliding engagement with a respective one of the strips at its profile;

said top member having an unobstructed window opening therein spaced from the extremity of said one end portion and extending from the exterior into said channel so that at least a portion of the slider is not in sliding engagement with the strips at the location of said window opening; and

said top plate member having a respective unobstructed rectangular longitudinally elongated window opening therein extending from the exterior into each of said first and second channels spaced from the extremity of said other end portion so that a portion of each of these channels is interrupted and the slider is not in sliding engagement with the strips at the window locations.

8. A slider according to claim 7, wherein the sides of the channels are in engagement with the strips at the window opening locations.

9. A slider according to claim 7, including a projection from each of said side walls aligned with the window opening spaced from the extremity of said one end portion for guiding the strips through said channel.

10. A slider according to claim 7, said separating member having respective projections on its sides aligned with said window openings in said top plate member spaced from the extremity of said other end portion.

11. A slider according to claim 7, said top plate member having respective projections from said side walls aligned with said opening spaced from the extremity of said one end portion for guiding the strips through said channel, and projections on said separating member aligned with said windows communicating with said first and second channels for guiding the profiles through said channels.