Curved slide fasteners and related systems
AssigneeThe North Face Apparel Corp.
InventorJohn Ly
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Woven and knit substrates having juxtaposed notches with finished edges are disclosed. Such substrates can be used as opposed fastener tapes and fastener elements can be formed, woven, or otherwise added to the opposed fastener tapes in a known fashion. The notched fastener tapes permit the resulting slide fastener to be curved in-plane without buckling either of the opposed the fastener tapes out-of-plane. The finished edges maintain structural integrity of the woven or knit substrates, in stark context to prior art substrates having cut notches. Also disclosed are panelized substrates having curved apertures and incorporating disclosed slide fasteners.
Claims16
A substrate, comprising:
- opposed first and second panels, wherein a curved aperture extends through the substrate at a position between the first panel and the second panel;
- a curved slide fastener having a pair of opposed, segmented substrates defining respective pluralities of juxtaposed panel segments,
- wherein each of the juxtaposed panel segments corresponding to one of the segmented substrates is affixed to a corresponding one of the first and the second panels,
- wherein each of the juxtaposed panel segments corresponding to the other of the segmented substrates is affixed to the other of the first and the second panels,
- wherein each of the juxtaposed panel segments defines one or more corresponding peripheral edges that are formed and finished during a forming of the opposed, segmented substrates such that each peripheral edge lacks any tails, and
- wherein the slide fastener has a plurality of matingly engageable fastener elements and a slide configured to urge the fastener elements into a mating engagement with each other and to urge matingly engaged fastener elements apart from each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.