Patent Publication Number: US-6701585-B2

Title: Stop device for upper stops and a pull of a nylon zipper

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to zipper elements, and particularly to stop device for upper stops and a pull of a Nylon zipper. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A zipper with an upper stop is disclosed. In that, the upper stop is formed by a left stop and a right stop which are formed at an upper end and interior of the zipper teeth. The stops are rectangular and has a U-like cross sections. The left stop and right stop can enter into the two upper teeth channels of a pull of the zipper and are engaged with the engaged zipper teeth to be arranged as a Y shape. The defect of this prior art is that the pull is easily separated from the left stop and right stop automatically. 
     Thereby, the inventor of the present invention discloses a zipper in which stop blocks are protruded from tops or bottoms of the upper stops for resisting the pull so that the pull can not separate from the left stop and right stop. But in this prior art, the stops are placed out of the pull (i.e., can not enter into the upper teeth channels of the pull) and the stops are too sharp so that it is possible to hurt people. Moreover, the stop is used in steel zippers instead of Nylon zippers. 
     No positioning pin is used in mold-injecting the bottoms of the stops, the thickness of the stops are not uniform, because no positioning pin is used to support the zipper strips, the melt plastic can not flow into the bottom of the stops. Thereby, the effect of the product is bad. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a stop device for upper stops and a pull of a Nylon zipper has an upper stop formed by a left stop and a right stop; a pull being installed on one end of a zipper strip. The upper end surfaces and the bottom of the left stop and right stop are formed with protruded stop blocks, and the pull as a left and a right teeth channels tops or bottoms of which are formed with stop grooves. When the left stop and right stop enter into the two upper teeth channels of the pull, the left stop and right stop enter into the stop grooves. Since the stop blocks are resisted by the stop grooves, the left stop and right stop are buckled in the pull. Moreover, the left stop and right stop have the function of preventing the pull from separating from the zipper strips. 
    
    
     The various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawing. 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is an exploded schematic view showing the upper stops and pull of the zipper according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view showing the assembled upper stop and pull in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded schematic view showing the upper stop and the pull in another embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing that the upper stop is used with pull of FIG.  3 . 
     FIG. 5 is an elevational view showing that the upper stop is coupled to the pull of FIG.  3 . 
     FIG. 6 is an exploded schematic view showing the zipper and the pull in another embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view showing the upper stop and the pull in a further embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIGS. 8A to  8 C is a schematic view showing the embodiment of the upper stop of the zipper of the invention. 
     FIG. 9 is a bottom view about the upper stop and lower stop of the present invention. 
     FIG. 10 is a cross sectional view showing that the upper stop, lower stop of the zipper are combined. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIG. 1, an exploded perspective view of the upper stop and pull of the present invention is illustrated. FIG. 2 shows the assembled view of the upper stop and the pull. It is illustrated that the upper stop is formed by a left stop  11  and a right stop  12 . Each of the left stop  11  and right stop  12  is formed by a long stop and a short stop and is positioned at upper ends of the two banks of the zipper teeth  18  and an inner lateral side of the two zipper strips  10 . Each of the left stop  11  and right stop  12  has a slit  13  and a through hole  15  for receiving seamed lines  14  (referring to FIGS.  2  and  4 ). The slit  13  and through hole  15  are formed after the upper stop is formed by injection. 
     The feature of the present invention is that the upper end surfaces and the bottom of the left stop  11  and right stop  12  are formed with protruded stop blocks  16 . Respectively, the pull  20  has a left and a right teeth channel  21  the top or bottom of a respective teeth channel are installed with stop grooves  22 . The stop blocks  16  and the stop grooves  22  are engageable. An opening of each stop grooves  22  extends into an interior of the teeth channels. 
     Another feature of the present invention is that the upper edges of lower elements of the left stop  11  and right stop  12  are chamfered to have tilt guide surfaces  51 , preferable, they are chamfered with a 45 degree angles. When the left stop  11  and right stop  12  are guided into the pull  20 , they will not be buckled with the middle isolating blocks, teeth channels  21  and stop grooves  22 , etc. Thereby, the left stop  11  and right stop  12  are easily guided into the pull  20 . Since the tilt guide surface is not found in the prior art upper stop (including steel zippers or nylon zippers). Thereby, when the two stops are guided into the pull  20  obliquely, they are buckled and resisted by the pull. This will make the user&#39;s feel uneasy. If the zipper is used for a longer time, it easily damages. 
     Referring to FIG. 3, the left stop  11  and right stop  12  are formed with buckles  17 . The buckles  17  and the stop blocks  16  have dual effects of stopping. The buckles  17  resist against the two lateral walls of the upper teeth channels  21  (referring to FIG.  5  and the stop blocks  16  resist against the stop grooves  22 ). 
     Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the buckle  17  has been used in the prior art and thus the details thereof will not be further described herein. After the left stop  11  and right stop  12  enter into the two upper teeth channels  21  of the pull  20 , the stop blocks  16  enter into the stop grooves  22 . Since the stop blocks  16  are resisted by the stop grooves  22 , the left stop  11  and right stop  12  are positioned and buckled to the upper teeth channels  21  and thus can not further enter into the pull  20 . Moreover, the pull  20  resists by the stop blocks  16  of the left stop  11  and right stop  12  and can not separate from the upper stop. 
     Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, two further embodiments of the present invention are illustrated. In FIG. 6, other than the buckles  17 , the tops of the left stop  11  and right stop  12  have stop blocks  16  which have rectangular shapes. The tops of the upper teeth channels  21  have stop grooves  22 . In FIG. 7, the left stop  11  and right stop  12  have stopping elements and bottoms thereof have stop blocks  16 . The bottoms of the upper teeth channels  21  have stop grooves  22  for matching the stop blocks  16 . 
     In above example, the sizes of the stop blocks  16  and stop grooves  22  are approximately identical. But two features must be taken care in design. With reference to FIGS. 8A to  8 C, an inner lateral sides  16   b  of stop blocks  16  are straight or tilt. If they are straight, see FIG. 8A, a gap  31  is formed with the inner lateral side of the stop. If it is tilt, see FIG. 8C, the stop blocks  16  have an angle θ°  32  with the inner side of the stops. The gap  31  and tilt angle  32  casue the upper stop to displace into the stop grooves  22  when the upper stop is guided into the pull  20 . If no gap or tilt angle is formed, the stop blocks  16  easily touch the front edge of the pull  20  and the middle isolating block. Moreover, the lengths  33  of the stop blocks  16  and buckles  17  are preferably identical. That is, the lower edge  16   a  of the stop block  16   a  is flushed with the lower edge  17   a  of the buckle  17 . Thereby, they can be resisted by the outer wall and stop groove of the pull  20 . Thereby, the upper stop suffers from a uniform force. In FIG. 8C, the stop blocks  16  are flushed with the buckles  17  so that the stop blocks  16  have larger area. 
     Referring to FIG. 9, the bottom views of the upper and lower stops are illustrated. It is illustrated that the left stop  11  and right stop  12  of the upper stops have a U-like shape. The lower stop  40  has an H-like shape. The left and right sides of the lower stop  40  have slits  42  for clamping the zipper strips. The bottoms of the left stop  11 , right stop  12  and lower stop  40  have at least one positioning holes  19 ,  41 . When the left stop  11 , right stop  12  and lower stop  40  are formed by mold-injection, the zipper strips are installed with positioning pins (not shown) for forming the positioning holes. The positioning holes are used to support the zipper strips  10 . Thereby, the plastic material can flow into the bottoms of the zipper strip so as to form the bottoms of the stops. Otherwise, the bottom with a width of 0.5 mm will have non-uniform thickness since the width of the bottom is approximately 0.5 mm. The positioning pins are not used in the prior art molding injection technology. Thereby, the bottoms of the upper stop and lower upper stop are not uniform so that they easily crack. 
     Referring to FIG. 10, the cross sectional views showing that the left stop  11 , right stop  12  and lower stop  40  are combined with the zipper strip  10 . The positioning holes  19 ,  41  are formed from the bottoms to the zipper strips. After the positioning holes are formed, the strain can be removed when the thermal setting plastics is formed. Thereby, the strains due to the material and temperature differences of the zipper strip are released and the plastic stops can be released. The design of the positioning holes is not used in the prior art. 
     The present invention is thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.