Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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S P ~ C I F I C A 1`1 O N
TITLE OF TE~ INVENTION
METE~OD FOR FOE~MING ELEMENT-FREE SPACES IN SLIDE FASTENER CHAIN
BACKGEUAND OF TEIE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a synthetic resin of partically removing
coupling elements to form element-free space sections in a slide faslener
chain including a pair of rows of interengaged discrete coupling elemenls
mounted on confronting edges of a pair of fastener tapes.
2. Prior Art:
The conventional one method of forming element-free space sections in a
slide fastener chain provided with synthetic resin coupling elements is
disclosed for example, in JP, U no.55-109410 (Japanese unexamined utility
Model Publication). With this citation, there is known the method of forming
space sections free of coupling elements in a slide fastener chain comprising
the step of, putting the slide fastener chain on a die provided with a through
hole of the element width at the center posilion, descending a punch provided
with two steps on side faces from an upward position toward heads of coupling
elements to punch the heads, and still more descending the punch to catch and
remove legs remained in the fastener tape by the punch step.
However, the above-mention~d element-free space section forming method
have suffered from the drawbacks that since the punch is descended to punch the
heads of the coupling elements by the punch and still more descended to catch
and remove the remaining cut legs by the punching process, the stringer cores ofthe fastener tape were readily damaged and the chain crack was sometimes caused,and that a large force was required in order to punch and remove legs at one
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time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to overcome the aforementioned
disadvantages and to provide a method of forming element-free space seclions in
a slide fastener chain, whereby coupling elements can be efficiently removed by
a small force without damaging fastener tapes.
According to a first aspect of this invention, there is provided a method
for forming element-free space sections in a slide fastener chain comprising
the steps of, cutting heads of interengaged discrete coupling elements at space
sections of the slide fastener chain provided with coupling elements by use of apunch and cutters to separate each head from one leg of forked legs of the
individual coupling element, pushing up the heads of the coupling elements from
the cutting side in the direction orthogonal to fastener tape faces by a knock-
out rod to remove the other leg and the heads of the coupling elements from the
fastener tapes, and gripping the cut legs remaining on the fastener tapes by
grippers to draw-out and remove the cut legs in the direction orthogonal to the
fastener tape faces.
According to a second aspect of this invention, in removing cut legs
remaining on fastener tapes, there is provided an other method for forming
element-free space sections of a slide fastener chain comprising the steps of,
gripping only the cut legs at both side ends of space sections by grippers to
draw-out and remove the cut of both side ends in the direction orthogonal to thefastener tape faces, and scraping off the remaining cut legs by means of a
rotary cutter and a rotary tumbler for leading the space sections toward the
rotary cutter to remove the cut legs from the fastener tapes.
According to this invention, the heads and the cul legs of the coupling
elements are respectively removed in the different processes. Then, the heads
and the cut legs of the coupling elements are respectively drawn-out in the
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direction reverse to the direction of permeating a molten coupling element into
the fastener tapes. Therefore, in this melhod, the heads and the cut legs of
the coupling elements can be easily removed by the small force without damaging
the fastener tapes and without causing the chain crack to form the element-free
space sections efficiently.
In removing the cut legs, since the cut legs being one of principal parts
are removed by means of a rotary cutter and a ratary tumbler after the cut legs
are removed in the both side ends of the space sections, the cut legs can be
efficiently removed without requirement of fine adjustment of the rotary culter
and the rotary tumbler and without damaging the remaining coupling elements.
This and other objects and advantages of this invention will be more
apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment
taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference
numbers refer to like or corresponding parts throughout the several views.
BRIEF n~ R~PTION OF T~ DRAWTNGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an apparatus for carrying out a method of
this invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view at the state that a slide fastener chain is set
in the apparatus, in orders for punching heads of coupling elements;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view at the state that legs of coupling elements are
cut;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view at the state that cut heads of coupling elements
are removed;
FIG. 5 is a schematic and perspective view of a first coupling element leg
removing means;
FIG. 6 is a sectional view of principal parts of the first coupling element
leg removing means;
FIG. 7 is a side view of principal parts of a second coupling element leg
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removing means;
FIG. 8 is a plan view of a slide faslener chain in which heads of coupling
elements are removed;
FIG. 9 is a plan view of a slide fastener chain in which cul legs are
removed in both side ends of space-forming seclions;
FIG. 10 is a plan view of a slide faslener chain in which space seclions
are formed and completed.
DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE P~ KREU EMBODIMENT
An embodiment of this invention will be described with reference lo the
drawing figures.
Referring now to FIG. 1 ,there is shown an apparatus for carrying out a
space section forming method of this invenlion comprising a coupling element
punching means 10 ,a first coupling element leg removing means 20 ,and a second
coupling element leg removing means 30.
Right and left fastener stringers are supplied at the interengaged state
to remove heads 3 of interengaged coupling elements 2 in the coupling element
punching means 10 as shown in FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 showing the orders for removing heads 3 of
coupling elements 2 from fastener tapes 8 ,a slide fastener chain 1 is guided bya pair of right and left chain guides 14. When space sections of the slide
fastener chain 1 reaches to the coupling element punching means 10, the transferof the fastener chain is stopped and pressure pads 15, 1~ are ascended from
apertures of the chain guides 14. Then, space sections 9 of fastener tapes 8
are held between the chain guides 14. The heads 3 of the coupling elements 2
are pressed by means of a descending punch 11 and a pair of ascending cutters
12, 12 to cut lower forked legs 7 of the coupling elemenls 2 as shown in FIG. 3.Nextly, the cut head 6 of the individual coupling element 2 is held between the
punch 11 and a knock-out rod 13 and ascended lo remove the heads 3 and lhe upper
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legs of the coupling elements. 1'he knock-out rod 13 has thesame lenglh as
a space section 9 and disposed belween the cutters 12. 1`he knock-oul rod 13
together with the cutters 12 is ascended to remove and discharge the heads 6
toward the outside as shown in FIG. 4. The slide fastenerchain 1 is transferredinto the first coupling element leg removing means 20 of the following process
at the state that the cut legs are remained in stringer cores 8 as shown in
FIG. 8.
FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show the state for removing the cut legs 5 disposed in
the both side ends of the space section 9 in the first coupling element leg
removing means 20. When the slide fastener chain 1 transferred from the
coupling element punching means 10 being guided by a chain guide 16 reaches to
the first coupling element leg removing means 20, it is stopped and a space
section determining member 21 descends from the upward position to carry out thepositioning of the slide fastener chain 1, as shown in FIG. 5. The chain guide
16 is disposed contacting the back face of the slide fastener chain 1 and is
provided with a pair of apertures 24, 24 al the position corresponding to the
both ends of the space section. A center guide 22 is set under lhe chain guide
16 and is ascended through working apertures 24 as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6.
The projected both ends of the center guide 22 are passed through the punched
gaps of the heads 3 of the coupling elements in a slide fastener chain 1 and
engaged in a positioning groove 25 which is formed in the back face of the spacesection determining member 21, so as to carry out the positioning. Right and
left grippers 23, 23 are disposed on the both sides of the center guide 22 and
ascended as shown by arrows in FIG. 6. After the grippers are contacted to the
back faces of the fastener tape 8, they are moved toward each other to hold cut
legs 5 at both side ends of space section 9 between the sides of the center
guide 22 and the grippers 23, 23. The cut legs 5 are drawn-out downwardly in
the direction orthogonal to the surfaces of the slide fastener tapes 8 as shown
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in FIG. 9, while holding the cul legs 5 between lhe center guide 22 and the
grippers 23. In the first coupling leg element removing means 20, all cul legs
4, 5 adhered to the fastener tapes 8 are removed at one time to form the space
section 9. Then, the all cut legs 4, 5 are held between a flat plate of center
guide 22 and grippers having the approximate same length as the space section 9
and thereby are drawn-out downwardly. The working aperatures 24 of the chain
guides 16 are required to be punched al the approximate same length as the spacesection 9.
The slide fastener chain 1 in which the cul legs 5 are removed at the both
side ends of the space sections 9, is transferred to the second coupling leg
element removing means 30 by guide rollers. The second removing means 30 servesto scrape off and remove all of remaining cut legs 4 by means of a rotary cutler31 and a rotary tumbler 33 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 7.
The rotary tumbler 33 has the same elliptic shape as the conventional
construction and are provided with a circular deteclor 36 for space section
terminal which is always urged outwardly by a spring 34. The slide fastener
chain 1 which is processed in the first coupling element removing means 20, is
always moved and guided along the space section terminal detector 36. ~len the
head-removed portion of the space section 9 reaches to the detector, lhe space
section terminal detector 36 is projected to the space section by the spring 34
as shown in FIG. 7, so that a tip stopper 35 is contacted with the heads of the
coupling elements. Then, a notch (not shown) for preventing the rotation of therotary tumbler 33 by a pulling force of the slide fastener chain 1 is released
to rotate the rotary tumbler 34, so that the slide fastener chain 1 approaches
to the rotary cutter 31. The remaining cut legs 4 are scraped off and removed
by the blades 32 of the rotary cutter 31 as shown in FIG. 10. Since the cut
legs 5 at the both side ends of the space section 9 are pre-removed from lhe
slide fastener chain 1, the cut legs 4 are easily removed without requirement of
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fine adjustment and without damaging the coupling elements 2 arranged adjacent
to the space section.
As described, according to this invention, the heads and the cut legs of
the coupling elements are respectively removed in the different processes, so
that the coupling elements can be efficiently and naturally removed from the
fastener tapes without damaging the fastener tapes.
