The present invention relates to a stopper for a slide fastener and a method to produce a stopper a slide fastener, and more particularly to a stopper such as an upper stopper for limiting a sliding range of a slider in a slide fastener and to a method for manufacturing the stopper.
A slide fastener comprises a pair of left and right fastener stringers, a slider for a user to slide to open and close between element rows provided on the opposite edges of fastener tapes of the left and right fastener stringers, and upper stoppers, etc. to limit a sliding range of the slider.
Utility Model Publication No. S58-98810 (Patent Document 1) and Utility Model Registration No. 3164407 (Patent Document 2) disclose a stopper in a state before being attached to a slide fastener. Such a stopper includes a head and a pair of legs protruding from the head in a bifurcated manner. When a stopper is applied to a fastener tape, an opposite edge of the fastener tape is placed between the two legs of the stopper, and then the stopper is crimped so as to close both legs. Thereby, the stopper is fixed to the fastener tape.
A metallic stopper is generally coated before being attached to the fastener tape the fastener. In this coating process, a large number of stoppers are housed in a barrel container, and a coating is sprayed onto the stoppers from outside the barrel container while the barrel container is rotated.
In the above painting process, two of the many stoppers that are moving randomly within the barrel container may overlap each other. Referring to
An object of the present invention made in view of the problems as mentioned above is to provide a stopper for a slide fastener and a method for manufacturing a stopper for a slide fastener, which can reduce mutual adhesion and defective rates during the painting process.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, one aspect of the present invention provides a coated metal stopper for a slide fastener, comprising: a head and a pair of legs extending from the head in a bifurcated manner, wherein each of the legs has a recess in the center on its inner surface; and wherein the ratio of the depth of the recess to the thickness of each leg of the stopper is 3.8% or more and 18.9% or less.
In the present invention, the recess of the stopper is formed before the painting process, and the stopper is attached to a fastener tape after the recess is formed. In the present invention, by providing the recess on the inner surface of each leg of the stopper, even if two stoppers overlap during the painting process, it is possible to reduce an adhesion area between the two stoppers. Thereby, it is possible to reduce a rate of the stoppers becoming defective because both stoppers adhere to each other or uncoated portions occur because the adhesion peels off. In particular, when the ratio of the depth of the recess to the thickness of the leg of the stopper is set to 3.8% or more and 18.9% or less, it is possible to reduce an adhesion area between two stoppers during the painting process. When the above ratio is less than 3.8%, it would not significantly contribute to reducing the adhesion between two stoppers during the coating process. When a recess with the ratio exceeding 18.8% is molded using a concave mold, a convex dent would be noticeable, which is generated at a portion corresponding to the recess, on the outer surface of each leg in the stopper, spoiling the appearance of the stopper.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the ratio of the length of the recess in a longitudinal direction of the stopper to the length of the stopper in the longitudinal direction is 13.5% or more and 23.5% or less. Thereby, it is possible to reduce an adhesion area between both stoppers when they overlap during the painting process. Thus, it is thought to prevent adhering between the two stoppers and therefore to effectively reduce uncolored portions due to the adhesion.
The stopper of the present invention is made of aluminum, aluminum alloy, copper, copper alloy, titanium, titanium alloy, nickel, nickel alloy, magnesium, magnesium alloy, etc., but not limited thereto.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the recess includes, in a cross-section along the longitudinal direction of the stopper, a bottom portion, which is deepest from the inner surface and two corner portions, each of which is concave, curved surface becoming shallower from the bottom portion to the inner surface, wherein a radius of curvature of each corner portion is 0.6 mm or more. Further, in one embodiment of the present invention, the recess includes, in a cross-section along a transverse direction of the stopper, the bottom portion, which is deepest from the inner surface and the two corner portions, each of which is concave, curved surface becoming shallower from the bottom portion to the inner surface, wherein a radius of curvature of each corner portion (22) is 0.6 mm or more. Even when the corner portion is molded so that its radius of curvature is less than 0.6 mm, a convex dent generated on the outer surface of each leg of the stopper would be noticeable and might impair the appearance of the stopper.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the depth of the recess is 0.02 mm or more and 0.1 mm or less. Further, in one embodiment of the present invention, the length of the recess in the longitudinal direction is 0.512 mm or more and 1.294 mm or less.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for manufacturing a stopper for a slide fastener; comprising the steps of A: in a metal stopper comprising a head and a pair of legs extending from the head in a bifurcated manner, forming a recess in the center on an inner surface of each of the legs; and B: after the step A, putting a number of the stoppers in a container and then coating the stoppers while moving the container. In one embodiment of the present invention, the ratio of the depth of the recess to the thickness of each leg of the stopper is 3.8% or more and 18.9% or less.
In the present invention, by providing a recess in the center on the inner surface of each leg of the stopper, and setting the ratio of the depth of the recess to the thickness of the leg of the stopper to 3.8% or more and 18.9% or less, even if two stoppers overlap during the coating process of stoppers, it is possible to reduce an adhesive area between the two stoppers. Thereby, it is possible to reduce the rate of stoppers becoming defective because both stoppers adhere to each other or uncoated portions occur with contacting portions peeling off.
Hereinafter, embodiments of a stopper for a slide fastener according to the present invention will be described based on the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to such embodiments.
The slide fastener 1 comprises a pair of left and right fastener stringers 2, 2, and a slider 3 that a user slides to open and close between the left and right fastener stringers 2, 2. The slider 3 has a pull 3a that is held by a user. Each fastener stringer 2 includes a band-shaped fastener tape 4 and an element row 5 comprising a large number of metal elements 5a provided along an opposite edge (an edge on the side facing the other fastener tape 4) in the width direction of the fastener tape 4. Each of the left and right upper stoppers 10, 10 is attached to the opposite edge of each fastener tape 4 so as to be adjacent to the upper end of each element row 5. A core string 6 is incorporated into the opposite edge of each fastener tape 4, thereby making the opposite edge thick.
Referring to
To manufacture the upper stopper 10, first, a long wire made of aluminum alloy and having a circular cross-section, which is a raw material for the upper stopper 10, is rolled into a V-shaped cross-sectional wire. This cross-section is substantially the cross-section of the upper stopper 10. Next, the recess 20 is formed on the inner surface of the V-shaped cross-section wire at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction using a concave mold (step A). Next, the wire is cut in the longitudinal direction to obtain a large number of upper stoppers 10 before painting. The end surfaces 10a of the upper stopper 10 are a cut surface of the wire. Next, a large number of upper stoppers 10 are coated (Step B). In this coating process, a large number of upper stoppers 10 are housed in a barrel container, and a coating is sprayed onto the upper stoppers 10 from outside the barrel container while the barrel container is rotated. After that the upper stoppers 10 are dried. These painting and drying processes are repeated several times. Thereafter, the upper stoppers 10 are attached to the fastener tape 4. When the upper stopper 10 is attached to the fastener tape 4, the opposite edge (core string 6) of the fastener tape 4 is placed between the two legs 12 of the upper stopper 10, and then the upper stopper 1 are crimped so as to close both legs 12 using a mold. Thereby, the upper stopper 10 is fixed to the fastener tape 4 as shown in
In the above painting process, there is a case where two of the many upper stoppers 10 that are moving randomly within the barrel container overlap each other.
Referring to
Furthermore, in the upper stopper 10, the radius of curvature R1 of the corner portion 22 of the recess 20 in the cross-section along the longitudinal direction is set to 0.6 mm or more. Even when the corner portion 22 was molded so that the radius of curvature R1 was less than 0.6 mm, a convex dent generated in a portion corresponding to the recess 20 on the outer surface 12a of the leg 12 was noticeable, and the appearance of the upper stopper 10 was deteriorated. Similarly, it is desirable that the radius of curvature R2 of the corner portion 22 in the cross-section along the transverse direction of the recess 20 is also set to 0.6 mm or more.
Table 1 shows, with regard to Examples 1 to 6, which are the upper stopper 10 according to the present invention, and a comparative example, which is a stopper with the same dimensions as the upper stopper 10 but without a recess, the results of measuring the following rates. That is, the rate at which two stoppers adhere to each other during the painting process (adhesion defective rate), and after that the rate at which the adhesion peels off and becomes defective (adhesion peel defective rate), respectively, in stoppers of 500 grams for one lot (about 125,000 stoppers). In this case, the dimensions of the upper stopper 10 are as follows. The length L1 (see
Table 2 shows Examples 7 to 12 of the upper stopper 10 according to the present invention, in which the radii of curvature R1 and R2 of the corner portion 22 of the recess 20, the longitudinal length L2 of the recess 20 and the volume of the recess 20 are changed. Then, the appearance of the outer surface 12a side of the leg 12 of the upper stopper 10, the press moldability of forming the recess 20 in the upper stopper 10, and whether or not two upper stoppers 10 are hard to adhere to each other during the painting process were observed. In Examples 7 to 9 in which R1 is 0.0 mm, a convex dent generated on the outer surface 12a of the leg 12 of the upper stopper 10 was noticeable, spoiling the appearance of the upper stopper 10. In Examples 10 to 12 in which R1 and R2 are both 0.6 mm, such a convex dent was not noticeable. Further, in Examples 7 to 12, the press moldability was good, and almost no adhesion failure occurred.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2021/027208 | 7/20/2021 | WO |