Process and apparatus for making coupled slide fasteners

A coupled slide fastener strip is gripped by at least one clamping member adjacent where a cut is to be made in it on one side at the beginning of a leading coupled slide fastener and on the other side at the end of a trailing coupled slide fastener and then the leading coupled slide fastener is separated from the slide fastener strip held by the clamping members by cutting. Then subsequently, the end piece is mounted at the end position the trailing coupling slide fastener with a clamping member and substantially simultaneously, the leading coupled slide fastener separated from the coupled slide fastener strip is moved with that or another clamping member from a cutting position into a slider drawing position. In the slider drawing position the slider is drawn in the opening direction of the coupled slide fastener and optionally the beginning piece is mounted. After that, the slider is drawn in the closing direction. Finally, the separated trailing coupled slide fastener is released for stacking and the clamping members are repositioned in the cutting position.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
My present invention relates to a method or a process for making coupled 
slide fasteners each having an end piece (end-stop member), a slider and, 
optionally, a beginning piece (or starting-end and-stop member) with an 
automatic final assembler. It also relates to an apparatus in the form of 
automatic final assembler required to perform this process. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
A known process for making a series of coupled slide fasteners of a 
predetermined length each provided with an end piece, a slider and 
optionally a beginning piece from a continuous coupled slide fastener 
strip with an automatic final assembler having a tool for application of 
the end piece and/or the beginning piece, a slider-drawing mechanism and a 
separating mechanism with a cutting knife comprises moving the coupled 
slide fastener strip stepwise cyclically and according to the length of 
the coupled zipper, mounting the end piece and/or the beginning piece in a 
cycle pause, drawing the slider on the coupled slide fastener and 
separating the individual coupled slide fasteners by cutting. 
The earlier method, furthermore, specifically comprises gripping the 
coupled slide-fastener strip by at least one clamping member adjacent the 
location at which the cut is to be made in the coupled slide fastener 
strip on one side at the beginning of a leading coupled slide fastener and 
on the other side at the end of a trailing coupled slide fastener and then 
cutting the coupled slide fastener strip. 
The coupled slide fasteners can have continuous rows of coupling elements 
of plastic (synthetic resin) monofilament, metal slide fastener elements 
or other slide fastener elements of plastic. 
The beginning pieces form a stop for the slider and are positioned at the 
open or spreadable end of the manufactured zipper. 
The end piece is mounted at the opposite end. The end piece can, in a 
separable slide fastener be also separated and constructed from suitable 
elements. The apparatus can have tools for mounting metal beginning pieces 
and end pieces. When the beginning and end pieces are made from plastic, 
these slide fastener members can be thermally fused from the coupling 
elements with or without addition of further plastic material. 
In current practice, the separation and thus the cutting operation occurs 
following the end piece mounting operation. That means that the individual 
process steps and measures are performed on a web or strand of assembled 
slide fastener segments. The beginning part and/or end part of these slide 
fastener segments always must be taken and positioned anew in the cutting 
apparatus. Thus inaccuracies result. Moreover the expense, particularly in 
regard to the drive and control mechanisms, is comparatively large. 
Finally disturbingly long cycle times result from the above described 
procedure. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of my invention to provide an improved process and 
apparatus for making coupled slide fasteners each provided with an end 
piece, a slider and optionally a beginning piece, whereby the drawbacks of 
earlier approaches are avoided. 
It is also an object of my invention to provide an improved process and 
apparatus for making coupled slide fasteners each provided with an end 
piece, a slider and optionally a beginning piece in which the end piece 
and the beginning piece are mounted with improved precision and without 
new positioning or alignment of slide fastener segments in the apparatus. 
It is a further object of my invention to provide an improved process and 
apparatus for making coupled slide fasteners each provided with an end 
piece, a slider and optionally a beginning piece in which fabrication and 
capital costs are reduced. 
It is yet another object of my invention to provide an improved process and 
apparatus for making coupled slide fasteners each provided with an end 
piece, a slider and optionally a beginning piece in which a shorter cycle 
time is provided. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
These objects and others, which will become more readily apparent 
hereinafter, are attained in a process for making a plurality of coupled 
slide fasteners of a predetermined length each provided with an end piece, 
a slider and optionally a beginning piece from a continuous coupled slide 
fastener strip comprising moving the coupled slide fastener strip stepwise 
cyclically and according to the length of the coupled zipper, mounting the 
end piece and optionally the beginning piece in an operating cycle pause, 
drawing the slider on the coupled slide fastener and separating the 
individual ones of the coupled slide fasteners by a cut. 
The process further comprises more specifically gripping the coupled slide 
fastener strip by at least one clamping member adjacent where the cut is 
to be made in the coupled slide fastener strip on one side at the 
beginning of a leading one of the coupled slide fasteners and on the other 
side at the end of a trailing one of the coupled slide fasteners and then 
cutting the coupled slide fastener strip. The above process is performed 
with an apparatus comprising an automatic final assembler with a tool or 
tools for application of the end piece and/or the beginning piece, a 
slider drawing mechanism and a separating mechanism with a cutting knife. 
According to my invention, in each operating cycle, during a pause in the 
incremental advance of the continuous strip in units equal to the said 
length, first the cut is made, then subsequently the end piece is mounted 
at a position for the end piece at the end of the trailing coupled slide 
fastener with the help of one clamping member and simultaneously the 
leading coupled slide fastener separated from the coupled slide fastener 
strip is moved with the help of the one or another clamping member from a 
cutting position into a slider drawing position, in the slider drawing 
position the slider is drawn in the opening direction of the coupled slide 
fastener and optionally the beginning piece is mounted, and after that the 
slider is drawn in the closing direction and finally the separated 
trailing coupled slide fastener is released for stacking and the clamping 
members are repositioned in the cutting position, in order to take the 
trailing slide fastener with its end piece in the next cycle as the 
leading slide fastener and so forth. These steps are carried out 
automatically and in succession. 
In the process of my invention the slide fastener strip is clamped only 
once near where the beginning piece and the end piece are applied with a 
clamping member which again releases the clamped slide fastener strip at 
the leading slide fastener when the slide fastener is stacked and at the 
trailing slide fastener in order to bring this into the position of the 
leading one. The process acccording to my invention can, therefore, be 
performed with greater speed. That is particularly true when the separated 
leading slide fastener is moved transversely to the feed direction in the 
vertical direction into a slider drawing position. The separated leading 
slide fastener can, however, with the help of its clamping member, be 
moved transversely in the horizontal direction into a slider drawing 
position. The required separation to allow the slider to be drawn onto the 
leading severed edge, however, can also be made by motion in the feed 
direction. 
Furthermore, the beginning regions and the end regions of the slide 
fastener can be interchanged within the scope of my invention. The drawing 
of the slider is then particularly easy when the slider is pushed with its 
grip suspended below it. Mounting of a beginning piece is not required 
when the slide fastener is made without it as is frequently done in 
packing. 
An automatic final assembler for performing my process comprises an end 
piece mounting unit with a feed mechanism, an end piece securing 
mechanism, a separating mechanism with a cutting knife and a first 
clamping member for a trailing one of the plurality of coupled zippers, a 
beginning mounting unit with a beginning securing mechanism and a second 
clamping member as well as an auxiliary slider drawing mechanism, the end 
piece mounting unit and the beginning mounting unit are positioned 
following each other in a cutting position in the feed direction of the 
coupled slide fastener strip and beside each other with the first and 
second clamping members and the slide fastener drawing mechanism is 
mounted spaced beside or below the end piece mounting unit, and the 
beginning mounting unit is movable between a cutting position and a slide 
fastener drawing position adjacent or in front of the slide fastener 
drawing mechanism.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION 
FIG. 1 shows the process steps and hence the kinematics of the mechanism 
which is essential for the process according to my invention, the machine 
parts being omitted so that the positions of parts of the slide fastener 
can be seen. 
FIG. 1 shows a coupled slide fastener strip 1 entering from the left from 
which a finished coupled slide fastener 5 provided with end piece 2, 
slider 3 and in this case beginning piece 4 can be made. The slide 
fastener strip 1 moves intermittently stepwise and in steps equal to the 
length of the manufactured slide fastener strip 5 in the feed direction. 
During the pause in the feed the end piece 2 and the beginning piece 4 are 
attached and also the slider 3 is drawn up. FIG. 1 shows the action during 
this pause in the feed. The finished separated coupled slide fastener 5 is 
stacked. 
First a separating cut 6 is made in the slide fastener strip 1 and, of 
course, between clamps illustrated later in FIGS. 2 to 4. Then the end 
piece 2 is mounted on the end of the trailing slide fastener 5b held in 
the cutting position I. 
The leading slide fastener 5a separated by the separating cut 6 from the 
slide fastener strip 1, is moved transversely to the feed direction of the 
slide fastener strip 1 into the slider drawing position II. 
In this slider drawing position II the slider 3 is drawn in the opening 
direction 7a. That happens in the example from left to right in FIG. 1. 
After that the beginning piece 4 is mounted. The slider 3 is then drawn 
back in the closing direction 7b up against the beginning piece 4. Now 
that this slide fastener 5 is ready it can be released for stacking. In 
the example the motion occurs transverse to the feed direction of the 
slide fastener strip 1 in the vertical direction. It can also occur in the 
horizontal direction. The slider 3 may be drawn with its grip 7 depending 
from it. 
From a comparison of FIGS. 2 to 4 it can be seen that the automatic final 
assembler, which is equipped to perform the process of my invention, 
comprises an end piece mounting unit 8 with feed mechanism 9, end piece 
securing mechanism 10, separating mechanism 11 with cutting knife 12 and a 
first clamping member 13 for the trailing slide fastener 5b, a beginning 
piece mounting unit 14 with beginning piece securing mechanism 15, a 
second clamping member 16 for the leading slide fastener 5a and a slider 
drawing mechanism 17. 
The end piece mounting unit 8 and the beginning piece mounting unit 14 in 
the cutting position I (FIG. 2 and FIG. 4) are positioned following each 
other in the feed direction and with their first and second clamping 
members 13 and 16 next to each other while the slider drawing mechanism 17 
is positioned next to or below end piece mounting unit 8 and spaced from 
it. The beginning piece mounting unit 14 is movable between its cutting 
position I and the slider drawing position II adjacent or in front of the 
slider drawing mechanism 17. 
The kinematics of the process proceed according to my invention so that the 
slide fastener strip 1 immediately adjacent where the separating cut 6 is 
to be made is gripped on one side on the beginning portion of the leading 
slide fastener 5a and on the other side on the end of the trailing slide 
fastener 5b by first and second clamping members 13 and/or 16 and after 
that the cut is made between the first and second clamping members 13 and 
16. 
Subsequently to the cutter, at the end of the trailing slide fastener 5b 
held fixed with first clamping member 13 in its cutting position I, the 
end piece 2 is mounted. 
More or less simultaneously, the leading slide fastener 5a separated from 
the slide fastener strip 1 with the help of second clamping member 16 is 
moved from the cutting position I transverse to the feed direction of the 
slide fastener strip 1 into a slider drawing position II. 
In the slider drawing position II the slider 3 with the help of the 
projecting slider drawing mechanism 17 is drawn in the opening direction 
7a of the slide fastener 5a at the beginning of the leading slide fastener 
5a and the beginning piece 4 is mounted. 
At that time, or after it, the drawn slider 3 is drawn back in the closing 
direction 7b against the beginning piece 4. Consequently, the leading 
slide fastener 5a can be released as a finished slide fastener for the 
stack 5' and the corresponding second clamping member 16 is moved back 
into the cutting position I in order in the next operating cycle to take 
the trailing slide fastener 5a with its ready end piece 2 as the leading 
one. 
In the embodiment shown in the drawing the beginning securing mechanism 15 
and the end securing mechanism 10 operate using ultrasonics, the beginning 
piece 4 and the end piece 5 are made from slide fastener members 
comprising plastic material by molding them from the coupling elements 
adding material, if desired. 
The first and second clamping members 13 and 16 can also be used as feeders 
for the slide fastener strip 1 if they are feed rollers.