Apparatus for assembling sliders with fastener stringers

Apparatus for assembling finished sliders with fastener stringers, wherein each slider includes a slider body and a pull tab, said slider body having a flared front end and a contracted rear end, a top wing, a bottom wing, a web integrally connecting said wings to each other at one end thereof, and side flanges respectively having divergent portions diverging in a direction toward said flared front end and defining together with said web a Y-shaped channel through said slider body, said apparatus comprising, in combination, a slider holder for immovably holding at least one slider in upside-down disposition on a slider rest formed at the top thereof to accommodate assemblage of said fastener stringers and said slider, by passing said fastener stringers in coupled together form into the slider body through said contracted rear end thereof;

• and a stationary stringer separator positioned in close proximity to said slider holder and on the stringer exit side thereof, said stringer separator including a pair of generally vertical stringer separating surfaces and a top surface, said stringer separating surfaces diverging in a direction away from said slider holder at an angle at which said divergent portions of said side flanges diverge, and terminating short of the projected geometrical intersection of such surfaces said projected intersection being substantially at the position of said web of the slider as held on said slider rest, and said top surface being substantially on a level with the internal surface of said top wing of the slider, whereby said stringer separator causes the fastener stringers to be separated away from each other in a streamlined manner as the stringers emerge uncoupled out of said flared front end of said slider.