Patent GB-1494412-A (GB)
Title: Fasteners
IPC: A44B19/10
Filed: 1975-05-22
Abstract: 1494412 Strip fastenings V KOBELT 22 May 1975 [5 June 1974] 22033/75 Heading E2S A fastener arrangement for joining, or separating, material edges, or surfaces, along a distance of indeterminate length comprises two co-operable fastener halves secured to the one and the other material component to be joined, or separated, each fastener half being formed by a series of elemental length portions and each elemental length portion of the one fastener half being cooperable with a separate elemental length portion -of the other fastener half to form an element pair therewith. According to the invention also each element pairhas a first stable position in which the elemental length portions of the element pair are in full, mechanical interengagement with one another, a second stable position in which the elemental length portions of the element pair are mechanically fully disengaged from one another, and an unstable position in which the elemental length portions of the element pair are in partial mechanical interengagement with one another, the fastener halves assuming a joined state when the element pairs are in said first stable position and a separated state when the element pairs are in said second stable position. The invention also includes the features that at least one element length portion of each element pair incorporates means for exerting a force on the element pair when it is in its -unstable position, said force urging the element pair into one of its stable positions, and effecting propagation, from element pair to element pair, of a transition from one stable position of the element pair through said unstable position into the other stable position. As shown in Figs. 1a, 1c, connection, initially started by an outside force, propogates itself, there being a series of element pairs 10, 11, and 13 secured to the relatively rigid longitudinal edges of two members which are to be fastened together, the female members each comprising first and second pairs of leaf springs 10, 11 carried by a substantially non-elastic plate 12 and arranged at right angles toeach other, and the male member 13 comprising a head made of non-elastic material. In another arrangement, a flexible rod 19 on one edge of a ribbon 15 is progressively introduced into coinciding longitudinal openings 18 of outer and inner, rigid and resilient, tubes 16, 17 respectively to release the inner tube 17 from its stressed position, Fig. 2a, where it is maintained circumferentially spread apart by hooked ends 18 on the tube 16, to its unstressed engagement, position, Fig. 2b. Other similar embodiments, Figs. 4a-7b not shown, differ in that the means for maintaining the elastic tube in its stressed state are located within the said tube. As shown in Figs. 8a, 8b an arrangement for propagating an automatic separation of the fastener elements comprises an elastic tube 31 which is spread apart by a flexible rod 32, the rod 34 and flexible tube 32 being connected respectively to carrier ribbons. Figs. 9a, 9b show an arrangement for propagating the automatic connection of the fastener elements. Other arrangements, Figs. 13a-13b, not shown, are similar to the embodiment described in Fig. 3 except that the surrounding member is the more active of the two tubes. Instead of, or in combination with, elastic energy gas, or liquid pressure, optionally remotely controlled, may be supplied to hollow element parts.