Longitudinal bead molding
AssigneeVelcro BVBA
InventorsVictor Horst Kheil, Earl Lorne Cowley, Paul Joseph Voigt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An edge-beaded fastener product such as a cushion cover tie-down has a molded profile bead secured to and extending along a flexible strip adjacent a longitudinal edge of the strip. The profile bead has a shoulder or an inboard sidewall extending away from the strip, such as for retaining a clip or hog ring. The flexible strip may have a reinforced region, inboard of the shoulder, in which resin contiguous with resin forming the profile bead encapsulates surface features of the strip. The product is made by molding resin directly onto the strip. Multiple lanes of resin may be molded on a single substrate, which is severed to form individual strips with severed, exposed strip edges.
Claims18
A method of making a continuous sheet-form product carrying a profiled bead of resin along a length thereof, the method comprising:
- continuously passing a flexible substrate through a nip defined between two counter-rotating rolls;
- introducing a flow of moldable resin into the nip between the flexible substrate and a first of the two rolls, in an area in which an outer surface of the first of the two rolls defines a peripheral molding recess;
- and
- molding the resin in the peripheral molding recess to form a profiled bead bonded to a side of the flexible substrate and extending along the substrate between exposed regions of substrate surface,
- wherein the recess is shaped such that the profiled bead defines a longitudinal slitting channel extending along the flexible substrate, along which channel the profile bead has a lesser tear resistance than on either side of the channel.
A method of making a continuous flexible strip of substrate carrying a bead of resin along an edge thereof, the method comprising:
- continuously passing a flexible substrate sheet through a nip defined between two counter-rotating rolls;
- introducing a flow of moldable resin into the nip between the flexible substrate and a first of the two rolls, in an area in which an outer surface of the first of the two rolls defines a peripheral molding recess;
- and
- molding the resin in the peripheral molding recess to form a profiled bead bonded to a side of the flexible substrate and extending along the substrate between exposed regions of substrate surface, the formed profiled bead having a cross-section that increases in thickness across a tapered region of the profiled bead to a longitudinal shoulder defining an abrupt transition in bead thickness;
- and then
- longitudinally severing the substrate adjacent the tapered region of the profiled bead along a line spaced from the shoulder, thereby forming a strip of the substrate carrying a bead of molded resin adjacent a severed longitudinal edge of the strip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.