Two-Sided Touch Fastener Material with Frangible Tear Lines
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Solution Overview
Problem
The installation of touch fastening strips is a manual process that is time-consuming and inefficient, particularly in agricultural applications where speed and ease of use are desired.
Innovation Solution
A two-sided touch fastener material with a resin base and a backing of non-woven fibers and longitudinally continuous bundles of fibers or monofilaments, which are stitched through the web and create frangible tear lines for easy longitudinal tearing, allowing for quick and controlled strip formation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If touch fastening strips are installed manually, then installation can be performed with simple tools, but installation speed and efficiency are low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates pre-defined tear lines and frangible sections into the fastening strip during manufacturing, allowing the strip to be easily torn to predetermined lengths by the end user. This preliminary preparation of tear zones enables rapid installation without requiring complex cutting tools or time-consuming manual cutting processes, directly addressing the need for faster installation while maintaining simplicity.
2Reliability
If continuous fastening strips are used, then fastening coverage is improved, but difficulty in cutting and sizing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the continuous fastening strip into manageable sections by incorporating frangible tear lines and weakened zones at regular intervals. These segmented features allow users to easily tear the strip at predetermined points without requiring cutting tools, maintaining the benefits of continuous strips while solving the difficulty of sizing and cutting. The segmentation creates natural break points that simplify installation operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality changes by creating frangible sections with reduced thickness or incorporated tear lines at specific locations along the continuous strip. These localized weak points have different physical properties than the rest of the strip, enabling easy tearing at predetermined locations while maintaining the strength and integrity of the fastening portions. This local modification allows reliable fastening where needed and easy separation where required.
Data Source
AI summary
A two-sided touch fastener material includes a resin base having a front surface, an array of loop-engageable fastener elements extending from the front surface of the strip-form base and having stems of resin contiguous with resin of the front surface of the base, and a backing secured to the resin base on a side opposite the front surface, the backing extending across the resin base and including a web of non-woven fibers including fiber segments embedded in resin of the base, and a plurality of longitudinally continuous bundles of fibers extending through the web with fiber portions of the longitudinally continuous bundles exposed as loop elements engageable by the loop-engageable fastener elements, wherein the longitudinally continuous bundles of fibers extend along a length of the base, are spaced apart across a width of the base, are partially embedded in resin of the base such that a thickness of resin of the base at the fibers is less than between the longitudinally continuous bundles of fibers, and wherein the longitudinally continuous bundles of fibers correspond to areas of weakened tear resistance of the touch fastener material.