GB2295420A - Zip puller - Google Patents

Abstract

A puller for a zip-fastener comprises an insert 100 which at a lower end thereof is encased in a plastics boss 101 injection moulded thereabout. An upper end of the insert 100 is provided with an eye 102 which is used to attach the puller to a slider of a zip-fastener in conventional fashion. A front face 104 of the puller has a moulded profile typically provided by an interchangeable mould segment which permits a basic injection mould tool to be used for the production of numerous face designs of puller. <IMAGE>

Description

"MPROVED ZIP PLIERS" This invention relates to pullers for zip-fasteners generally and morse particularly, but not exclusively, to a zip puller having a front face thereof moulded with a logo, legend or design having a contoured profile and a method of manufacturing such a zip puller.

Various prior art will now be described with reference to Figures 1 to 5 of the accarpanying drawings on which like parts are denoted by like numbers and in which: Figure 1 illustrates a front elevation of a conventional zip-fastener; Figure 2 illustrates a front elevation of a first design of zip-fastener comprising a stylised pendant zip puller; Figure 3 illustrates a front elevation of a second design of zip-fastener and a rear elevation of a plastics capping sleeve for the puller thereof; Figure 4 illustrates at (a) a front elevation of a third design of zip-fastener to which a stylised plastics puller shown in side section at (b) can be attached, and Figure 5 illustrates at (a) in front elevation and at (b) in side elevation a fourth design of zip-fastener.

A conventional design of zip-fastener is illustrated in Figure 1 and comprises a slider 1 adapted to open and close the interengaging teeth of a zip or zipper in known fashion and an elongate zip puller 2 pivotally connected to the slider. Both the slider 1 and puller 2 are steel die-cast.

Typically, a central portion 3 of a front face of the puller 2 may be provided with a logo such as the Registered Trade Mark PEX shown in Figure 1. It will be understood that the area of portion 3 is small as compared with the overall distensions of the puller 2 and that consequently it is possible only to apply a logo of extremely small size.

The aforedescribed conventional zip-fastener is essentially a functional item. However, particularly when used on fashionable clothing and/or accessories it is often desired that the zip puller is both non-standard and of a design that complements the garments or accessories in question. Tb meet this need the Applicant like many other manufactures produces zip pullers of proprietary steel die-cast design such as that illustrated in Figure 2 and the subject of UK Design Registration No 2 041 241. In this design a proprietary zip puller 4 of novel design is attached by a chain link member 5 to the zip slider 1.

It costs generally in the order of 1000 to produce a die for casting each aforedescribed puller 2,4. Consequently, a production run in the order of 50,000 is necessary to reduce unit cost to comcercially viable levels.

It will be understood that to justify a large production run a stylised zip puller will need to be made available to a large nuntr of product manufacturing customers. In many instances a mamifacturer will want a stylised zip pillar unique to their own or a specific line of their awn garments or other product. There is therefore a need to produce unique stylised zip pullers at low cost with production runs substantially less than 50,000. Tb greet this need designs of zip pullers such as those illustrated in Figures 3 to 5 have been developed.

The e zip-fastener illustrated in Figure 4 comprises a slider 1, an elongate metal puller 6 connected to the slider 1 by a connecting link 7 and an injection moulded plastics capping sleeve 8. The plastics sleeve 8 has an internal elongate passage 9 which can receive the puller 6, and a detent formation 10 extending into passage 9 adapted to engage a hole 11 in puller 6 thereby locking the sleeve 8 in position.This sleeve 8 can be moulded in any suitable coloured thermDplastic and different moulds may be used to provide any desired external profile or shape whilst retaining the sauce dimensions for passage 9 and detent formation 10. Hawe, the sleeve 8 of this design is not permanently attached to the puller 6 and this may in the hands of a child, for example, represent a health and safety hazard.

In Figure 4 (a & b) a zip-fastener is shown comprising a slider 1, a zip puller backing plate 12 having a central throughbore 13 and a connecting link 14. An elongate nculded plastics zip slider 15 (shown in side section in Figure 4b) has a laterally extending peg 16 adapted to be received by bore 13 and having an enlarged split and barbed end-section 17. The zip puller 15 is assembled to the backing plate 12 by inserting the end-section 17 through the bore 13 and thereafter forcing locking washer 18 over end-section 17 enabling barbs thereof to retain plate 12 on inner-portion 19 of peg 16. It will be understood that the zip puller 15 may be of any desired shape and that this design potentially exhibits the same health and safety problems as those associated with the design shown in Figure 3.

In Figure 5 (a & b) another design of zip-fastener is shown in which a metallic clamping connecting marker 20 links a plastics or elastaneric puller 21 to the slider 1 of the zip-fastener. Although this may initially be a good construction, the required clamping action may damage the surface of meter 20. It will be appreciated that the clanping action may relax with time and that puller 21 my be worked loose.

The applicant has appreciated that fran a child safety viewpoint the greatest design challenge is to arrive at a durable zip puller construction which is resistant to the dexterity and motivation of children attempting to deconstruct any article. It is an object of the invention to arrive at a construction which meets the aforementioned challenge.

According to a first aspect of the invention a method of manufacturing a puller for a zip comprises the steps of injection moulding a plastics boss about one end-portion of an elongate metal insert which has at the other end thereof a free end-portion adapted to connect the puller to the slider of a zip-fastener. Typically, the insert is fabricated fran sheet metal and/or may be provided adjacent said one end a throughbore or other formation about which said plastics can engage to prevent retraction of the insert fran the moulded boss.

Desirably, the insert is assembled to a slider of a zip-fastener prior to said injection moulding and the insert and slider may be anodised, painted or otherwise coated or surface treated prior to said injection moulding.

The insert may have a thickness sufficient to prevent 'locking' in a zip teeth engaging side formation of another zip-fastener slider during batch coating or surface treatment.

Preferably,the injection mould is provided with a first interchangeable face segment adapted to provide a front face of the boss with a contoured profile, legend or logo. Additionally, the injection mould is provided with a second interchangeable face segment adapted to provide a rear face of the boss with a contoured profile, legend or logo.

According to a second aspect of the invention a puller for a zip manufactured according to the method of the first aspect of the invention.

According to a third aspect of the invention a puller for a zip comprises an elongate metal insert which has at one end thereof a plastics boss moulded or otherwise formed thereabout and at the other end thereof a free end-portion adapted to connect the puller to the puller of a zip-fastener.

aitodinents and method of manufacture in accordance with the invention will now be described with reference to Figures 6 to 11 of the accarpanying drawings, in which: Figure 6 is front cut away view of a preferred embodiment of zip puller; Figure 7 is a front view of the zip puller shown in Figure 6; Figure 8 is a side sectional view of the zip puller along the line A-A shown in Figure 7; Figure 9 is a side sectional view of a plastics mould used in the manufacture of the zip puller;; Figure 10 is a horizontal section viewed fran below of another plastics mould used in the manufacture of the zip puller, and Figure 11 is a side sectional view of a second embodiment of the invention held in a tool which my be used in association with the plastics moulds of Figures 9 and 10.

The zip puller illustrated in Figures 6 to 7 comprises an elongate stamped sheet metal insert 100 about one end of which a generally discus shaped plastics boss 101 is injection moulded. A free end-portion of the insert 100 is provided with an eye 102 which is used to link the puller to a slider of a zip-fastener. At its other end the insert 100 is provided with a small throughbore 103 which is filled by the plastics of boss 101 to provide a positive engagement. It will be understood that the functionality of throughbore 103 could be provided by other means such as barbs on the outer surface or side faces of the insert 100.

A front face of the boss 101 is provided with a major surface portion 104 generally centrally thereof. This surface portion 104 may take various forms and it my bear a logo, legend, trade mark design, or other contoured profile comprising for example an aesthetically pleasing design. The e back face 105 of the boss 101 may be smooth or more typically will bear the Applicant' s Registered Trade Mark PEX.

During a typical manufacturing process the insert 100 is attached to a slider of a zipfastener and anodised, painted or otherwise coated or surface treated in a batch process with nunerous other such assembled fasteners. The insert is then inserted into a side aperture 110 of an injection moulding tool 111 (shown in Figure 9) and a thermoplastics is injected into the cavity 112 of the tool. The mould tool 111 is made up of two halves 113,114 with the internal mxild profiles thereof respectively 115,116 corresponding as can be seen from Figure 8 respectively to front surface 104 and rear surface 105 of the zip plller.It will be appreciated that although the described a(odiment has a generally discus like profile that other profiles may be provided by using a suitable mould tool.

An injection moulding tool as illustrated in Figure 9 can be provided with a unique profile for the front surface portion 104. However, this will mean that overall tooling cost remains high. To reduce tooling costs the mould tool 111 is provided with an interchangeable mould segment 117 secured to tool half 114 by screw fastening means 118 or other suitable fastening means. Consequently, the tool 111 can be readily custanised to a different design for surface portion 104 by simply inserting an appropriate segment 117. The costs of manufacturing a segment will be in the order of 200, a fraction of the 1000 cost of a metal die required for many prior art designs.It is therefore possible to reduce the cost per order to make a production run of some 1200 units financially viable. Naturally, the mould tool 111 can be kept in near constant use whilst the appropriate customized segment 117 is used as and when desired. The tool 111 could be further adapted to have another interchangeable segment associated with the back half 113.

Another injection moulding tool, as illustrated in Figure 10 wherein like parts as those in Figure 9 are numbered with like numerals, is provided with an insert 117 of stepped cylindrical back profile to enable it to be fitted readily to a complementary formation of the tool half 114.

In Figure 11 a second eltcdinent of the invention is illustrated having an even more elongate insert 200 and sinilarly elongate plastics boss 201 provided according to the aforedescribed method. As mentioned prior to moulding of the boss 201 the insert is attached to a slider 1 of a zipfastener and a forked tool 203 is provided which holds the slider 1 and insert 200 in the mutually perpendicular manner shown. This permits the tool 203 to be aligned with a mould (such as that illustrated in Figure 9 or Figure 10) to thereby correctly align the insert 200. It will be appreciated that a tool such as 203 my be used in conjuction with the first described embodiment.

Tb enhance further the child safety aspects of this invention the plastics material of choice is an Acetal Copolymer supplied by Hoehst under their Registered Trade mrk HOSTAFORM. Typically, a clear base grade C13021 is used in conjunction with one or more suitable cadmium free pigments.

This material is used typically for washing machine pumps and can therefore survive machine washing without degradation. It is a free-flowing therplastics requiring moulding temperatures in the order of 80 degrees Celsius. So long as the melt temperature remains below 200 degrees the plastics is non-fuming and therefore non-toxic to tool operators. The material neets British and FDA safety standards.

Zip pullers manufactured in accordance with the invention using HOSTAFORM have been tested to destruction and it has been found that the sheet metal insert 101 will shear in the region of eye 102 or the fastener puller will itself break without the plastics boss 101 becoming detached fran the insert 101.

Claims (12)

cIAI.

1. A method of manufacturing a puller for a zip comprising the steps of injection moulding a plastics boss about one end-portion of an elongate metal insert which has at the other end thereof a free end-portion adapted to connect the puller to the slider of a zip-fastener.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the insert is fabricated from sheet metal.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the insert is provided adjacent said one end a throughoore or other formation about which said plastics can engage to prevent retraction of the insert fran the moulded boss.

4. A method in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein the insert is assembled to a slider of a zip-fastener prior to said injection moulding.

5. A method in accordance with claim 4, wherein the insert and slider are anodised, painted or otherwise coated or surface treated prior to said injection moulding.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the insert has a thickness sufficient to prevent 'locking' in a zip teeth engaging side formation of another zip-fastener slider during batch coating or surface treatment.

7. A method in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein the injection mould is provided with a first interchangeable face segment adapted to provide a front face of the boss with a contoured profile, legend or logo.

8. A method in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein the injection mould is provided with a second interchangeable face segment adapted to provide a rear face of the boss with a contoured profile, legend or logo.

9. A method of manufacturing a puller for a zip substantially as illustrated in Figures 6 to 8 of the accoeFanying drawings substantially as hereinbefore described.

10. A method of manufacturing a puller for a zip substantially as hereinbefore described using a plastics injection mnild substantially as illustrated in Figure 9 of the accompanying drawings.

11. A puller for a zip manufactured according to the method of any one of the preceding claims.

12. A puller for a zip comprising an elongate metal insert which has at one end thereof a plastics boss moulded or otherwise formed thereabout and at the other end thereof a free end-portion adapted to connect the puller to the puller of a zip-fastener.