Abstract: A reusable closure system is disclosed for packaging applications. The closure system generally includes a base and hinged lid. The base is bondable to a package and includes a field of touch fasteners having one or more cut-lines therein defining a hinged pull-tab assembly. The lid comprises a complementary touch fastener field and can be placed in the open position to expose the pull-tab assembly, which can then be peeled back to open the package by virtue of the bond between the pull-tab assembly and a frangible region in the package. After opening, the pull-tab assembly can be stowed to the lid, so as to provide a lid-based plug corresponding to the package hole. Optional tamper-evident elements allow a consumer to see the package has not yet been opened. Stay-open lid and anti-peel mechanisms may also be provided. A dispensable roll/fanfold of the closures can feed a flow-wrap packaging process.

Abstract: A method of forming a circular knit fabric includes feeding a multi-filament non-elastomeric yarn from a first spool into an aperture defined in a yarn carrier plate that guides the non-elastomeric yarn sequentially to a series of knitting needles spaced about a circular needle array; while feeding an elastomeric yarn from a second spool to the yarn carrier plate, such that a fabric is knit to have a ground comprising both the non-elastomeric yarn and the elastomeric yarn. The non-elastomeric yarn and the elastomeric yarn are fed together into the carrier plate aperture in an untwisted, unwrapped relation, such that the fabric ground is knit to have a technical face in which portions of the non-elastomeric yarn are exposed in some areas and portions of the elastomeric yarn are exposed in some areas.

Abstract: A method of forming a touch fastener product having a sheet-form base and an array of discrete fastener elements each extending from the base includes providing a molded sheet-form base and an array of discrete fastener element preforms, each preform extending from the base and including both a stem portion rising from the base and a head portion both contiguous with a distal end of the stem portion and having an upper surface directed away from the base, the head portion including at least one laterally directed extension overhanging the base in a primary lateral direction between exposed sides of the fastener element preform and ending at a distal, free tip; and then forming respective caps, of a cap material of a higher flex modulus than the resin of the preforms, on the upper surfaces of at least some of the molded fastener element preforms to form the discrete fastener elements.

Abstract: A fabric, such as a loop fastener material, is finished by applying a foam to a surface of the fabric, the foam containing both a liquid binder and a powder. The binder is allowed to flow into pores of the fabric and coat fiber interstices of the fabric as the foam collapses, and is dried to stabilize the fabric. The powder is of a particle size selected to cause most of the powder to remain on the surface of the fabric while the binder is dried to bond the powder to the fabric surface. The powder, as bonded to the fabric surface, is activatable, such as by heat or RF or UV energy, to adhere the stabilized fabric to another surface or to provide a desired surface property.

Abstract: A touch fastener strip includes a pair of longitudinal barrier walls each extending upward from a base, a plurality of lateral barrier walls each extending upward from the base and between facing surfaces of the barrier walls, thereby defining one or more fastening cells, and a pair of wave walls each extending upward from the base and outboard the barrier walls thereby defining a relief space. Each wave wall has a wave shape having rising and falling edges, at least one of the edges having a slope in the range of 3° to 65°. In some cases, the wave shape has a duty cycle of 40% to 60%, and may include a sine wave, a triangle wave, a ramp wave, and/or a bi-modal wave having two different peak points in a given cycle of the shape. In one example application, the strip may be anchored in a foam cushion product.

Abstract: A method of making a sheet-form loop-engageable fastener product includes placing a layer of staple fibers on a first side of a substrate, needling fibers of the layer through the substrate to form loops extending from a second side of the substrate, removing end regions from at least some of the loops to form stems, and forming loop-engageable heads at free ends of at least some of the stems.

Abstract: A method for forming a film of plastic material includes urging molten resin through a die head opening to form a stalk having an extrusion profiled rail of resin material extending radially outward from a tubular wall, the die head opening including an annular orifice that defines a thickness of the tubular wall and a cross-sectional shape of the rail; cutting the rail to form discrete elements while leaving the tubular wall un-punctured; and inflating the stalk with a gas bubble maintained within an interior space of the tubular wall to form a thin film tube.

Abstract: A method of making a sheet-form loop product can include placing a layer of staple fibers on a first side of a substrate, the layer of staple fibers including first staple fibers and second staple fibers that are intermingled with one another, where a diameter of the smallest circle capable of circumscribing one of the second staple fibers is greater than a diameter of the smallest circle capable of circumscribing one of the first staple fibers; needling substantially only the first fibers of the layer through the substrate by penetrating the substrate with needles that drag portions of the first fibers through the substrate during needling, leaving exposed loops of the first fibers extending from a second side of the substrate; and anchoring the loops of the first fibers by fusing the second fibers to each other on the first side of the substrate.

Abstract: A male touch fastener strip includes an elongated base and a field of male fastener elements. The male touch fastener strip also includes longitudinal barrier walls rising from the broad face of the base on either side of the field of male fastener elements, and a pair of segmented walls. Each segmented wall and its nearest longitudinal barrier wall define therebetween a foam relief space. Each segmented wall defines a flow gap for allowing the foam material to enter the foam relief space.

Abstract: A continuous length of material of non-circular cross-section is pelletized to form discrete bits, by feeding the material to a cutting wheel with shaped cutters that form non-planar bits having non-circular axial projections and that are aligned with the material. The material is fed so as to maintain a rotational orientation with respect to the cutters, and so as to avoid buckling. Multiple banks of strands of material are severed simultaneously, thereby producing high volumes of shaped bits that are useful as filling and as filter material, and as friction-enhancing additives.

Abstract: A touch fastener has a base and an array of discrete fastener elements each extending from the base and together forming with the base a contiguous mass of resin. Each discrete fastener element includes a stem rising from the base, and a head overhanging the base from a front side of the stem to a distal edge, the front side of the stem, an underside of the head, and an upper surface of the base together forming, in side profile, a generally curved retention space boundary surface such that the boundary surface forms, at its innermost extent, a retention cavity defined between curvature discontinuities spaced from both the base and the distal edge.

Abstract: A reclosable package that includes a pouch of flexible material that includes a reclosable closure secured to the flexible material adjacent an opening to releasably retain the opening of the pouch in a closed state. The closure includes fastenable closure strips that extend along opposite sides of the opening and that are releasably fastenable in multiple relative positions spaced along each of two perpendicular directions. The closure and flexible material of the pouch are configured to provide a maximum stiffness, in resistance to bending about a pouch axis extending along the pouch perpendicular to the closure strips, as determined at a point along the closure with the closure strips fastened, that is more than 10 times the maximum stiffness, in resistance to bending about the pouch axis, of one of the closure strips as secured to the flexible material, as determined at the point along the closure with the closure strips unfastened.

Abstract: A releasable hanging system having a loop fastener component and a hook fastener component. The loop fastener component includes a flexible patch carrying a field of engageable fibers exposed on a front side of the patch and an adhesive on a back side of the patch. The hook fastener component includes a resin base carrying an array of male touch fastener elements. A significant majority of the male touch fastener elements each extend from the base to a distal tip to overhang the base in a single, common direction. The fastening system can be used to hang an object on a vertical surface such that the male touch fastener elements of the significant majority bear the weight of the object in a downward direction, and such that the significant majority of the male touch fastener elements are oriented so as not to inhibit lifting of the object in an upward direction.

Abstract: A composite hook and loop fastener in the form of an elongated strip has an elongated loop component, a hook component permanently affixed to the loop component, and a backing layer disposed on a face of the wrap tie in a discrete region. The backing layer is used for permanent attachment of the wrap tie to a supporting surface. One end of the loop component is available for encircling an object to be wrapped and engaging the fastener elements of the hook component. The loop component has a self-supporting web of entangled fibers, the fibers forming both a sheet-form body and hook-engageable, free-standing loops extending from at least one surface of the body, and the hook component has fastener elements extending from a common base. The backing layer may be a pressure sensitive adhesive or a synthetic resin.

Abstract: A fastening product, in the form of a flexible, sheet-form substrate (102) having a surface (108); a plurality of walls (104) extending from the surface (108) and defining therebetween an array (114) of cells (116) bounded by the walls (104) such that the walls separate adjacent cells of the array, the substrate (102) forming a floor (122) of each cell; and a plurality of fastener elements (106) extending from the surface (108) and interspersed among the cells (116). The fastener elements having heads (130) spaced above the surface (108) to define loop engagement overhangs (134) disposed within the cells. The cells (116) of the array (114) are arranged in columns (124) and rows (126), each column and each row comprising at least three of the cells, such that there exists at least one closed path (136) within the substrate (102) that fully circumscribes at least one of the cells.

Abstract: Methods of making a sheet-form loop product are provided. One method includes placing a layer of staple fibers against a first side of a substrate comprising a nonwoven web; needling fibers of the layer through the substrate by penetrating the substrate with needles that drag portions of the fibers through the substrate, leaving exposed loops of the fibers extending from a second side of the substrate; and anchoring fibers forming the loops by fusing the fibers to each other and to filaments of the nonwoven web on the first side of the substrate, while substantially preventing fusion of the fibers on the second side of the substrate.

Abstract: A method of making a laminated touch fastener includes introducing a flexible substrate to a resin applicator, applying flowable resin to a limited region of a surface of the substrate, and molding the applied resin to form a plurality of defined structures extending from a layer of the applied resin. The substrate surface, as the substrate is introduced to the resin applicator, has a surface characteristic that varies across the surface. The surface includes both a first region and a second region adjacent the first region, the surface characteristic varying to a greater degree within the second region than within the first region. The flowable resin may be applied within the first region such that an edge of the resin layer is disposed within, and adjacent an exposed portion of, the first region of the substrate surface.