Snap Button With Flexible Plastic Bars for Low Effort Fastening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional snap buttons with metal wire retention systems suffer from wear and require high effort for closing and opening, which is undesirable in the leather goods sector, where a soft action is preferred, and magnetic buttons lack reliability and resistance to transverse traction.
Innovation Solution
A snap button design featuring a female component with flexible plastic bars, such as acetal resin, that allow axial movement and resilient deformation, reducing friction and wear, and enabling secure coupling and uncoupling with lower effort, while preventing accidental opening under transverse traction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If metal wire retention systems are used in snap buttons, then the structural strength is improved, but wear occurs and high effort is required for closing and opening
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the metal wire retention system with a resilient member made of elastomeric material. This substitution eliminates the metal-on-metal friction that causes wear and high effort, while the elastomeric material provides sufficient retention strength through its elastic deformation capabilities. The resilient member flexes elastically to engage and disengage the male component, reducing wear and operational effort.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite construction by combining the elastomeric resilient member with the housing and male component structures. This composite approach allows the resilient member to provide both structural support and flexible retention, achieving a balance between strength and wear resistance that metal wires alone cannot accomplish.
2Strength
If metal wire retention systems are used in snap buttons, then the retention capability is improved, but high effort is required for closing and opening operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from rigid metal wire to flexible elastomeric material. This parameter change allows the resilient member to deform elastically during engagement and disengagement, reducing the effort required by the user. The elastomeric material's inherent flexibility enables smooth, low-effort operation while maintaining adequate retention capability through controlled elastic deformation.
3Ease of operation
If magnetic buttons are used instead of snap buttons, then the softness of opening and closing action is improved, but reliability during closing and resistance to transverse traction are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the magnetic retention mechanism with a mechanical resilient member system. This substitution provides the softness of operation through elastic deformation of the elastomeric material, while simultaneously achieving reliable closing and transverse traction resistance through the physical engagement geometry and material properties of the resilient member, overcoming the limitations of magnetic buttons.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The snap button provides reliable, low-wear, and easy-to-use fastening with reduced friction, suitable for leather goods, ensuring a soft catch action and improved durability through the use of flexible plastic bars that withstand deformation and require less effort for engagement and disengagement.
Implementation Method 1
Two flexible bars (34) are arranged in the hollow body (128). The flexible bars may have a circular cross-section or a cross-section which is shaped differently, an asymmetric shape. The flexible bars are of a plastics material.
Implementation Method 2
The flexible bars are mounted in the hollow body, with the ends thereof blocked in housings formed in the hollow body so as to be able to bend in a central zone thereof. After the head of the male component has passed the flexible bars, therefore, they can move back towards each other resiliently.
Data Source
AI summary
A snap button includes a male component and a female component which couple and uncouple as a result of effort in a main axial direction. The male component has a base from which there protrudes a rounded head, which is provided with a neck which is narrower than the head. The female component has a hollow body with an opening within which the head of the male component is introduced. Two flexible bars of a plastics material are mounted in the hollow body, the flexible bars having the ends thereof blocked. The distance between the central zones of the two flexible bars is lower than the dimension of the head of the male component so that they can be flexibly forced away from each other by a force exerted by the head of the male component and to resiliently move back towards each other when the force stops.