An Improved Fabric Fastener

Abstract

The fabric fastener comprising two cloths adapted to engage with each other, wherein one of them is provided with the numerous mushroom engaging sections on its surface, while the other one is a two-ply cloth composed of two pieces of cloth combined by connecting strings and one of these two pieces is made to have numerous meshes in its surface.

Description

The present invention relates to an improved fabric fastener and, more particularly, to a fabric fastener wherein synthetic thermoplastic piles made of nylon, for instance, are first woven into a piece of cloth and the tips of said piles are cut separate in order to form spinescent filaments, which can be made also by cutting the connecting filaments or strings of two-ply cloth in their center, and which are then thermally melted to form mushroom engaging sections to be forced into the meshes of the other piece of cloth which is an ordinary two ply cloth, so that these two pieces of cloth can be easily fastened with each other.

In the conventional fastening device of two pieces of cloth, said mushroom engaging sections are forced into the meshes of the one-ply cloth. However, when fixing such a one ply cloth to any ordinary clothing by pasting or sewing it thereto, there must be a gap between said one-ply cloth and the clothing, whereinto said mushroom engaging sections can be forced to enter. But, such a gap cannot be easily formed between them. Hence, it is very difficult to manufacture this kind of fastener according to the conventional method.

In view of the above-mentioned shortcoming of the conventional fastener, the fastener of the present invention uses two-ply cloths having an appropriate gap between them which are held together by means of connecting filaments or strings. One ply of the two-ply cloth is fixed to the clothing, while the other one is applied to the surface of the cloth to which the two-ply cloth is to be fastened.

For a more detailed description of the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate one of the embodying examples of the invention, as follows:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the single side piled fabric.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the fabric when the tips of its piles are cut separate.

FIG. 3 illustrates how the connecting filaments or strings of the two ply cloth are cut separate in their center to form two pieces of cloth.

FIG. 4 illustrates the piece of cloth provided with mushroom engaging sections.

FIG. 5 illustrates the equipment to transform the cloth of FIG. 2 into the one illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the fastened condition of the two fastening fabrics.

FIG. 7 is a section taken along the line I -- I of FIG. 6.

The piled fabric which is shown in FIG. 1, and which is the base for forming the engaging sections on one ply of the two ply cloth, is made of the woof 1 and the warp 2 as well as the pile filament 3. In comparison with a comparatively soft piece of cloth 1.2, said pile filament 3 is made of a very elastic synthetic thermoplastic resin such as nylon. After weaving the piled filament 3 together with said woof 1 and the warp 2, their looped tips are cut separate by an edged tool so as to produce numerous spinescent filaments 3 on one of the surfaces of the piece of cloth 1.2 as shown in FIG. 2. We can also form numerous spinescent filaments 3 on the surface of said piece of cloth 1.2 by cutting separate the connecting filaments or strings of two pieces of cloth 1.2 and 1.2 of the two ply cloth in their center by the use of a knife 10 as shown in FIG. 3. After that, by thermally melting the tips of said spinescent filaments 3 made of synthetic thermoplastic resin, the mush-room engaging sections 4 can be formed at the tips of spinescent filaments 3 as shown in FIG. 4. One of the concrete examples of the apparatus to form said mushroom engaging sections 4 is shown by FIG. 5, wherein the piece of cloth 1.2 is fed at a fixed speed into the machine by a pair of the rollers 11 and 12, while the tips of said spinescent filaments 3 formed on one side of said piece of cloth 1.2 are heated by means of the heater 13 so as to melt them. It is desirous that the said piece of cloth 1.2 is sent through the water or a water soluble starchy material, so that the surface of said piece of cloth 1.2 may be protected by a liquid film from being burnt up by the heat of the heater 13.

On the other hand, the structure of cloth for engaging the afore-said piece of cloth 1.2 is just the same as an ordinary two ply cloth, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. It is composed of two pieces of cloth 8 woven with the woof 6 and the warp 7, and 9 woven with woof 16 and warp 17. The cloths 8 and 9 overlie one over the other, and are held together by means of the connecting filament 15 all over the piled area, so that a two ply cloth having an appropriate gap between the pieces of cloth 8 and 9 is formed. Beside, it is necessary to make said connecting filament 15 elastic enough to prevent both pieces of cloth 8 and 9 from adhering closely with each other and annihilating the necessary gap. It is inevitable therefore that numerous meshes 5 are formed in the piece of cloth 8.

When the surface of the above-mentioned piece of the two ply fabric is piled on that of the piece of cloth 1.2 having the mushroom engaging sections 4 and then pressed together, the spinescent strings 3 on the surface of the said cloth 1.2 will be forced to enter into the respective meshes 5 of one ply 8 of the two ply cloth, so that the mushroom engaging sections 4 will act to engage with said piece of cloth 8, as shown by FIGS. 6 and 7. The engagement of both pieces of cloth is tight enough to prevent them from being easily separated. But, whenever necessary, they can be separated conveniently by hand from each other.

Since the two ply cloth is used as one of the engaging sections in the present invention, the surface of its one piece will be fixed to the clothes and the like, while the other piece can be held up above the surface of the clothes, so that into the meshes of the held up piece of cloth can be pushed the mushroom engaging sections in such a manner that the mushroom sections can be engaged with the meshes far more steadily than the conventional fabric fasteners. Furthermore, such a fabric fastener according to the invention can be readily manufactured without taking much time.

While preferred embodiments have been described above in detail, it will be understood that numerous modifications might be resorted to without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claim:

Claims

What is claimed:

1. Fabric fastener characterized by two cloths adapted to overlie and be attached to each other, a first said cloth having on its surface a plurality of upstanding mushroom-shaped filaments having mushroom heads connected by spinescent strings to said first cloth, and a second said cloth comprising a base fabric and an open mesh fabric having a plurality of meshes overlying and spaced from said base fabric by means of a multiplicity of connecting filaments connected to both said base fabric and said open mesh fabric and extending substantially perpendicularly therebetween to form a gap between said fabrics, the meshes being of such a size so that the mushroom heads of said first cloth are adapted to be forced at an angle through the meshes of said second cloth to be disposed in said gap and resist outward movement through said meshes by reason of the substantially flat underside of said mushroom heads.