Method and apparatus for shortening size of slide fastener

Abstract: A novel and improved slide fastener shortening method and its apparatus for reliably removing fastner elements (3) without damaging fastener tapes (2) and for continuously carrying out the following cutting process withiout any trouble. The slide fastener shortening method comprises the steps of, inserting removers (51,52) into interstices between fastener elements (3) at a position approximately corresponding to the length of element required in a product slide fastener (3) of the desired short length, pressing unnecessary fastener elements in one side of the removers (51,52) for the desired length to make the fastener elements thin to permit easy deformation thereof, pulling the slide fastener (1) in the longitudinal direction to strip off the pressed and deformed fastener elements by the removers so as to form space sections, and cutting the pressed and deformed fastener elements (8) within the space sections (6) into the desired short length to obtain the product slide fastener of the desired short length. The slide fastener shortening apparatus is designed and constructed to perform the method.

Description: 1.Field of the Invention This invention relates to a slide fastener shortening method and its apparatus for shortening a length of a slide fastener, particurlarly having rows of fastener elements made of synthetic resin from a predetermined length of the slide fastener into a desired short length thereof. 2.Prior Art In the conventional slide fastener shortening process for shortening the length of the slide fastener in accordace with the stitched garment of the slide fastener, there have heretofore been proposed and used various methods and its apparatuses for removing unnecessary fastener elements from the slide fastener of a predetermined length to form a space section and cutting the slide fastener at the space section into the desired length to provide the product slide fastener of a desired short length. One method for removing the unnecessary fastener elements to form the space section has been known, for example as shown in J P,B no.48-32222 (Japanese Patent Publication), wherein a method comprises the steps of compressing and deforming leg portions of fastener elements to be thin to permit the easy deformation, pulling the neighbouring fastener tape right and left in the direction orthogonal to the fastener tape, and forcibly drawing and removing the fastener tape from the leg portios of the fastener elements to form the space sections free of fastener elements. Another method as shown in J P,B no.57-61407 (Japanese Patent Publication), comprises the steps of; holding leg portions of fastener elements adhered to fastener tapes between a pair of dies provided with protruded blades which are inserted from the back into between the fastener tapes and the leg portions to spread them apart, pressing interengaging head portions of the fastener elements by moving a punch downwardly, and striking the protruded blades of the dies into space between the leg portions of the fastener elements and the fastener tapes to spread the head portions of the fastener elements apart so as to form space sections free of the fastener elements. However, the space section forming method of the former suffers from the drawbacks that when the fastener tapes are pulled left and right in the orthorgonal direction to draw the fastener elements forcibly, thinned fastener elements get broken to leave a part of the broken fastener elements still adhered to the fastener tapes. And since the each fastener tape is drawn and removed in the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of each fastener chain, the fastener tape is moved in the orthogonal direction and it becomes difficult to continue operating the following cutting process. The latter space section forming method suffers also from the drawback that since the protruded blades provided with the dies are set to contact with the fastener tape surfaces, when the interengaging head portions of the fastener elements are pressed by the punch to strike the protruded blades in the fastener tapes, the fastener tapes are damaged to produce probability of quality deterioration. It is also known by the US patent n° 4 325 185 another conventional apparatus for shortening a slide fastener from a predetermined length thereof into a desired short length thereof. The slide fastener has two fastener tapes to which fastener elements are attached, two rows of said fastener elements made of synthetic resin and a slider. This apparatus comprises a fastener element pressing means to press and deform the fastener elements and a pulling gripper to pull said slide fastener in order to strip off said pressed and deformed fastener elements and to remove them from said fastener tapes. Summary of the Invention An object of this invention is therefore to overcome the above-described drawbacks and to provide a slide fastener shortening method and its apparatus whereby fastener elements can be reliably removed without leaving a part thereof and without damaging each fastener tape so that the following cutting process can be continuously carried out without troubles. Another object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for continuously attaching upper ends to the fastener element rows after unnecessary fastener elements are removed from fastener tapes in case the upper ends are required. In order to perform the above-mentioned object, this invention is intended to provide a novel slide fastener shortening method for shortening a slide fastener with rows of fastener elements made of synthetic resin from a predetermined length of the slide fastener into a desired short length thereof. This invention comprises the steps of, inserting removers disposed at the position orthogonal to the fastener tape into the interstice between fastener elements at a position approximately corresponding to the fastener element length required in a product slide fastener of the desired short length, pressing unnecessary fastener elements of the extra length adjacent to the removers along the proper length to thin the fastener elements to permit easy deformation, pulling the slide fastener in the longitudinal direction to strip off the compressed and deformed fastener elements with the removers and to remove them from each fastener tape so as to form space sections free of fastener elements, and cutting them within the space sections into the desired short length to obtain the product slide fastener of the desired short length. This method may also comprise the steps of, stripping the pressed and deformed fastener elements from the fastener tape with the remover so as to form the space sections free of the fastener elements, and cutting the slide fastener within the space sections into the desired short length to obtain the product slide fastener of the desired short length after attaching upper ends to the fastener element rows of the product slide fastener of the desired short length . Moreover, this invention is intended to provide a novel slide fastener shortening apparatus for shortening a slide fastener having rows of fastener elements made of synthetic resin, from a predetermined length of the slide fastener to a desired short length. This invention comprises; a fastener element removing means which is set in the central portion of a frame and is provided with upper and lower removers to be inserted into the interstices between fastener elements at a position approximately corresponding to the element length of a desired short length slide fastener to remove the pressed and deformed fastener elements, a fastener element pressing means which is disposed in one side of the removing means to press and deform the removing fastener elements, a pulling gripper which is disposed in the other side of the removing means to pull the slide fastener in order to strip off the pressed and deformed fastener elements and to remove them from the fastener tapes, and a cutting means which is also disposed in the other side of the removing means to cut the slide fastener within space sections free of fastener elements into the desired short length. This appratus may also comprise; a pulling means for pulling the slide fastener in order to strip off the pressed and deformed fastener elements by the remover, a cutting means for cutting the fastener tapes within the space sections free of fastener elements at the desired short length, and an upper end moulding means which is disposed between the pulling means and the cutting means to attach upper ends to end to the remaining fastener element rows. According to the above composition of this invention, a novel and improved method and apparatus are accomplished. Since fastener elements to be removed are pressed and deformed to be thin to permit easy deformation and are removed from fastener tapes by the removers, they can be reliably removed without damaging the fastener tapes and without leaving a part of the fastener elements on the fastener tapes. And since a slide fastener is pulled in the longitudinal direction to remove the fastener elements, the following cutting process can be easily and continuously carried out. The processing method moreover accomplishes that the upper ends can be continuously and readily attached to the end portions of fastener element rows after unnecessary fastener elements are removed from the fastener tapes if even the upper ends are required. And the processing apparatus for performing its method efficiently may also be accomplished. Brief Description of the Drawings Fig.1 is a perspective view of a preferred apparatus in accordance with this invention; Fig.2 is a side view of the preferred apparatus; Fig.3 is a view for illustrating one step of a fastener element removing method according to this invention, wherein the removers are inserted into the interstices between the fastener elements; Fig.4 is a view for illustrating an other step of the method, wherein the fastener elements are pressed and deformed; Fig.5 is a view for illustrating a further step of the method, wherein the pressed and deformed fastener elements are removed; Fig.6 is a plan view of a processing slide fastener; Fig.7 is a plan view of the slide fastener in one step shown in Fig.3; Fig.8 is a plan view of the slide fastener in the other step shown in Fig.4; Fig.9 is a plan view of the slide fastener in the further step shown in Fig.5 ; Fig.10 is a plan view of a product slide fastener. Detailed Description Referring now to drawings of a slide fastener shortening apparatus according to this invention, this apparatus as shown in Fig. 1 comprises a slide fastener holder 10, a pulling gripper 20, an upper end moulding means 30, a cutting means 40, a fastener element removing means 50, a fastener element pressing means 60, and a slide fastener chain holding means 70. The slide fastener holder 10 as shown in Fig. 2 is disposed in the end part of this apparatus and holds one end of a processing slide fastener as shown in Fig. 7. The slide fastener holder 10 is displaceable in the longitudinal direction of this apparatus to process the slide fastener at various desired short lengths and is designed to be able to adjust the length of the slide fastener corresponding to the scale written on the frame. The one end of the slide fastener in process is held between a pair of upper and lower holding jaws and clamped by a butterfly nut. The slide fastener tape is released when the process is finished. The pulling gripper 20 is designed to pull a slide fastener 1 in the longitudinal direction in order to strip off pressed and deformed fastener elements 8 as shown in Fig. 9 by removers 51, 52 of a fastener element removing means 50 described later to remove them from a fastener tape 2. The pressed and deformed fastener elements are processed in the element pressing means 60 described later. This pulling gripper 20 is composed of upper and lower gripper jaws 21, 22 and a hydraulic cylinder 23 for moving the lower gripper jaw 22 up toward the gripper jaw 21. A slider 24 equipped with the upper and lower gripper jaws 21, 22 and the hydraulic cylinder 23 is guided along two guides 25 disposed in parallel in the longitudinal direction of the shortening apparatus and reciprocates along with the movement of the hydraulic cylinder 26. In gripping the slide fastener 1, instead of displacing the lower gripper jaw 22 toward the upper gripper jaw 21 to grip the slide fastener 1 between them, the both upper and lower grippers 21, 22 may be displaced toward each other, or the upper gripper jaw 21 may be displaced toward the lower gripper jaw 22. The upper end moulding means 30 is designed to attach upper ends 5 to the end portions of the remaining fastener element rows as shown in Fig. 9 after the fastener elements 8 are removed and to injection-mould the synthetic resin ends 5 so as to attach the upper ends. This moulding means 30 is provided with a metal mould composed of an upper mould 31 and a lower mould 32. The lower mould 32 is upwardly moved toward the fixed upper mould 31 along with the movement of the hydraulic cylinder not shown in the drawing to provide the metal mould of the upper and lower moulds 31 and 32. At the predetermined positions of the slide fastener 1 held between the upper and lower moulds, a molten synthetic resin in an injection cylinder 33 is injected through a nozzle 35 and a sprue 36 into the metal mould to mould the upper ends 5 onto the fastener tapes 2 so as to produce the upper ends attached to the fastener tapes. In the opposed surfaces of the upper and lower moulds 31 and 32 as shown in Fig. 1, they are provided with fastener element setting grooves 37 and cavities 38 disposed adjacent to the setting grooves with which the very end fastener elements 3 of the remaining fastener element rows are interengaged to provide firm positioning. A positioning projection 39 is provided on the front side-face of the lower mould 32 and is inserted between right and left fastener stringer cores to position the upper ends on the right and left fastener tapes 2 precisely before the lower mould 32 is moved upwardly to shut the metal mould. In attaching the upper ends, instead of moulding the upper ends by injecting the synthetic resin to attach them to the fastener tapes, premoulded synthetic resin upper ends may be supplied and attached to the fastener tapes by use of supersonic heating means, or metal upper ends may also be clamped and attached to the fastener tapes. Various upper end moulding means may be used to attach different types of upper ends against the fastener tapes instead of the injection-moulded upper end moulding means as shown in Fig. 1. When the upper ends are not required in the slide fastener, the upper end moulding means is not required in this shortening apparatus and even when the upper end moulding means is omitted, it is designed to process the slide fastener of the desired short length . The cutting means 40 is designed to cut the slide fasteners into the desired short length within space sections 6 which are formed by removing the compressed and deformed fastener elements by the removers 51, 52 of the fastener element removing means 50 described later, as shown in Fig. 9. An upper cutting punch 42 is downwardly moved toward a lower cutting die 41 in the operation of the hydraulic cylinder not shown in the drawing to cut the fastener tapes at a cutting line 7. In cutting the fastener tapes weaved or knitted of synthetic resin fibers, since a heater 43 is set in the cutting punch 42, the fastener tapes are heated and cut and cut ends are molten and hardened so as to prevent entanglement of synthetic resin fibers . The fastener tapes may also be molten and cut by use of the supersonic cutting means. The fastener element removing means 50 is designed to remove the fastener elements from the fastener tapes 2 so as to form the space sections 6 in shortening the slide fastener 1 of the predetermined length. And the slide fastener 9 of the desired short length is produced by removing the fastener elements 3 to form the space section 6 with a pair of upper and lower removers 51, 52. This removing means 50 is disposed adjacent to the following fastener element pressing means 60 and is secured to the frame. The upper and lower removers 51, 52 are opened in the front side to allow the fastener tapes 2 to go through therebetween. Then, edges 53, 54 of the removers 51, 52 are oppositely disposed at the interval which is the same as the thickness of the fastener tape 2, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3. The edges 53, 54 are formed thinly to be inserted into the interstices between fastener elements as shown in Fig. 3. The thin portions of the removers are continuously formed from the approximately central position to the right side end as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 7 and position the fastener tape 2 which is inserted into the interstices between fastener elements as desired. The thick portion of the remover 51 is contacted with the base of the fastener element 8 to position the fastener tape 2 as shown in Fig. 7. The slide fastener 1 is inserted and set between the removers 51, 52, so that fastener elements located in one side of the removers 51, 52 are pressed and deformed for a desired length to form space sections 6 as shown in Fig. 4 by the fastener element pressing means 60 described later. Then, the pressed and deformed fastener elements are pulled by the pulling gripper 20 disposed in the other side of the removers 51, 52 and are stripped off by the removers 51, 52 to be removed from the fastener tapes 2 to form the space sections 6 free of fastener elements of the desired length. The fastener element pressing means 60 is disposed adjacent to one side of removers 51, 52 of the fastener element removing means 50 and is composed of a fastener element pressing die 61 and a fastener element pressing punch 62 to press and deform fastener elements adjacent to the removers 51, 52 for the length corresponding to the length of space sections 6. The each fastener elements 3 of the desired length is pressed and deformed to be deformable and thin to provide easy removal from the fastener tape 2 by applying the press die 61 and the press punch 62 up and down to the each fastener element in the operation of the hydraulic cylinder not shown in the drawing, as shown in Fig. 4. The opposed surfaces of the element pressing die 61 and the element pressing punch 62 are formed as approximately flat surfaces. If a heater 63 is set in the element pressing die 61 and the element pressing punch 62, the fastener elements made of synthetic resin are softened to produce easy deformation thereof and to weaken the adhesion of the leg portions thereof to the fastener tape 2, so that the pressed and deformed fastener elements 8 can be more easily removed. The slide fastener chain holding means 70 is composed of upper and lower holding portions 71 and 72 to hold the end portion of the slide fastener 1 opposite to the end portion of the slide fastener held by the above-mentioned slide fastener holder 10. The upper holding portion 71 is always urged to press against the lower holding portion 72 with compression springs 73, and the lower holding portion 72 is moved up and down by the hydraulic cylinder not shown in the drawings. The opposed surfaces of the upper and lower holding portions 71 and 72 are respectively provided with recess 74 having the depth corresponding to the half of the thickness of the fastener elements to put the fastener elements in the recess so as to provide precise positioning. The slide fastener shortening apparatus illustrated in the enbodiment of this invention has been composed to shorten the right and left fastener stringer cores simultaneously, however this apparatus may also be composed to process one by one fastener stringer core. If the upper ends are not required in the slide fastener, the upper end moulding means may be omitted. Now, the processing steps of the slide fastener shortening method according to this invention are illustrated in Fig. 6 to Fig. 10 wherein the process to shorten the slide fastener 1 with a pin-and-box to produce the shortened fastener tapes 9 is described. The apparatus of this invention processes not only the slide fastener tape 1 with the pin-and-box but also the fastener tape 1 with the upper end or without the upper end and also the fastener tape 1 of which the pair of the fastener stringers are not engaged. Firstly, the slider 4 of the processing slide fastener 1 shown in Fig. 6 is moved toward the backward position of the pulling gripper 20 having a length shorter than a desired processing length as shown in Fig. 7 to separate the right and left fastener stringer cores provided with the upper stoppers 5 from each other. The one end of the processing slide fastener 1 shown in Fig. 7 is held between a pair of holding jaws 11 and 12 of the slide fastener holder 10 which is fixed at the adjusted position to be processed to have the desired length. Next, the upper and lower removers 51, 52 of the element removing means 50 are engaged with the fastener elements disposed approximately corresponding to the element length required in the product slide fastener of the desired short length and the adjacent fastener elements. The end portions of one side of the fastener stringer cores are inserted into the interstice between the upper and lower removers 51, 52 and are contacted with the positioning stepped portions of the removers 51, 52. The end portions of the separated fastener stringer cores are pressed and held by the slide fastener chain holding means 70. The element pressing means 60 is operated to press the fastener elements 3 from the upside and downside for the desired length for forming the space sections 6 as shown in Fig. 4 and to deform the fastener elements to make the fastener elements thin and easily deformable. At the same time, the pulling gripper 20 is displaced toward the upper end moulding means 30 to grip the slide fastener. When the fastener element pressing and deforming process is finished, the pulling gripper 20 is displaced toward the slide fastener holder 10 to move the ends of the fastener stringer cores against the compression spring force while holding it between upper and lower holding portions 71, 72 of the slide fastener chain holding means 70, and to pull the fastener string cores. As shown in Fig. 9, the pressed and deformed fastener elements 8 are stripped off by the uppper and lower removers 51, 52 of the element removing means 50 to be removed from the fastener tapes 2 so as to form the space sections 6 free of the fastener elements. The pulling gripper 20 is displaced to the predetermined position and the upper ends 5 are attached to the space sections 6 adjacent to the fastener elements of the remaining element rows as shown in Fig. 9 in simultaneous or continuous operation of the upper end moulding means 30 and the cutting means 40. The slide fastener is cut at the desired length to finish up the shortening process. The slide fastener 9 shortened to the desired length and finished up is released from gripping of the pulling gripper 20 and the slide fastener holder 10 as shown in Fig. 10. Finally, the product slide fastener is taken out, and the left slide fastener portion held between the removers 51, 52 of the element removing means 50 are removed. Thereafter, the following slide fastener is set to carry out the following shortening process. As described, the slide fastener shortening process may be carried out in the manual operations that one end portion of the processing slide fastener is gripped in the position-adjusted slide fastener holder 10 and the removers 51, 52 of the element removing means 50 are inserted into the interstices between the fastener elements at the desired positions, and the other end of the processing slide fastener is held in the slide fastener chain holding means 70, and thereafter the processing is done in the automatic operation. If the upper ends are not required in the slide fastener, the slide fastener is cut at the desired position without the upper ends and taken out as the product.

Claims: A method of shortening a slide fastener (1) from a predetermined length thereof into a desired short length thereof, said slide fastener having two rows of fastener elements (3) made of synthetic resin, two fastener tapes (2) to which said fastener elements (3) are attached, and a slider (4); said method being characterized by: inserting removers (51, 52) into interstices between fastener elements (3) at a position approximately corresponding to the element length required in a product slide fastener (9) of the desired short length, pressing unnecessary fastener elements in one hand side of said removers (51, 52) for the desired length to make said fastener elements thin to permit easy deformation thereof, pulling said slide fastener (1) in the longitudinal direction to strip off said pressed and deformed fastener elements (8) by said removers (51, 52) so as to form space sections (6), and cutting said fastener tapes (2) within said space sections (6) into the desired short length to obtain said product slide fastener of the desired short length. A method of shortening a slide fastener (1) according to claim 1, wherein said pressed and deformed fastener elements (8) are stripped by said removers (51, 52) and removed from said fastener tape (2) to form said space sections (6) free of said fastener elements (3) and, said slide fastener is cut within said space sections (6) into the desired short length to be said product slide fastener (9) of the desired short length after upper ends (5) are attached to end portions of remaining fastener element rows formed to be said product slide fastener (9) of the desired short length. An apparatus for shortening a slide fastener (1) from a predetermined length thereof into a desired short length thereof, said slide fastener having two fastener tapes (2) to which fastener elements (3) are attached, two rows of said fastener elements made of synthetic resin, and a slider (4), said apparatus comprising a fastener element pressing means (60) to press and deform the fastener elements, and a pulling gripper (20) to pull said slide fastener (1) in order to strip off said pressed and deformed fastener elements (8) and to remove them from said fastener tapes (2), characterized in that said apparatus further comprises : a fastener element removing means (50) which is set in the central portion of a frame and is provided with upper and lower removers (51, 52) to remove the pressed and deformed fastener elements (8) by inserting said upper and lower removers into interstices between fastener elements (3) at a position approximately corresponding to the length of elements required in a product slide fastener of the desired short length, and a cutting means (40) to cut said slide fastener (1) within space section (6) free of fastener elements formed by removal of said fastener elements into the desired short length, said fastener element pressing means (60) being disposed in one hand side of said removing means (50), said pulling gripper (20) and said cutting means (40) both being disposed in the other hand side of said removing means. A slide fastener shortening apparatus according to claim 3; wherein an upper end moulding means (30) for attaching upper ends (5) to end portions of fastener element rows is disposed between said pulling grippers (20) and said cutting means (40), said pulling gripper (20) being to pull said slide fastener (1) in order to strip off said pressed and deformed fastener elements (8) by said removers and to remove them from said fastener tapes (2), and said cutting means (40) being to cut said fastener tapes (2) within said space sections free of fastener elements formed by removal of said fastener elements (3) into the desired short length.

Inventors: SAWADA TOSHIAKI, TANAKA SIGERU, SAWADA, TOSHIAKI, TANAKA, SIGERU
Applicants: YKK CORP, YKK CORPORATION
Application year: 1992
Main classification: A44B19
IPC codes: A44B19