Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

Multiple hook-fastener media in which many protruding hooks are formed at relatively high speed from suitable bendable and settable plastic material which may be different from the substrate to which these pre-formed hooks are subsequently bonded. Many rows of hooks are formed simultaneously, each row from a strand, for example, a monofilament of longitudinally oriented polymeric material. The formed strands are 'set' into their multiple hook row configuration, and then these pre-formed rows of hooks are simultaneously bonded to the substrate. Thus, an attractive substrate of any reasonable width, for example, of three inches, six inches, a foot or a yard, may be used. The production method and system enable the number of hooks per square inch, either longitudinally or laterally or both, to be adjusted while running. The shank of each hook includes two legs, and the production method and machine can be adjusted while running for making hooks with crossed legs, uncrossed legs or divergent legs for achieving varieties of configurations and characteristics, as desired for various applications. Advantageously, the production can be changed for making taller or shorter hooks and for making hooks with differently shaped arcuate ends by exchanging one pair of meshing (interdigitating) shaping belts for another. The substrate material may be woven or unwoven and may comprise multiple layers including metal or plastic layers or both. The substrate with mounted hooks can be slit longitudinally for producing many hook-fastener tapes at relatively fast overall lineal speed. Consequently, the hook-fastener media of this invention with their various sizes, shapes, widths and characteristics, fabricated by relatively low-cost, high-speed production hold promise of becoming widely available, widely used, commodity-type products which will find their way into myriads of applications of benefit to human beings in years to come.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim