A foldable plastic slider for straddling relation with a profiled plastic zipper. The straddling slider for closing or opening the zipper by movement therealong, comprising: a transverse support member including opposing sides, a pair of legs depending from the opposing sides of the support member, and a pair of wings hingedly attached to the opposing sides.
Method of installing a foldable plastic slider on to a reclosable plastic bag including a reclosable zipper extending along a mouth of said bag, said zipper including a first track with a first profile and a second track with a second profile, said first and second profiles being releasably engageable to each other, said plastic slider being slidably mounted to said zipper, said method comprising the steps of:
Supplying said slider with a transverse support member, first and second legs, and first and second wings, said support member having first and second opposing sides and a depending separating finger, said first and second legs depending fronm said respective first and second opposing sides, said first and second legs having respective first and second shoulders, said first and second wings hingedly attached to said respective first and, second opposing sides, said first and second wings having respective first and second cross pieces, each of said cross pieces including a cored out main body member and a solid sloped latch, said latch protruding from a surface of said main body member, said main body member defining a cavity disposed below said surface.
Placing said transverse support member on said plastic zipper with said depending separating finger between said first and second tracks and said first and second depending legs outside said respective first and second tracks such that said respective first and second tracks separate said finger from said respective first and second legs.
Rotating said first and second wings downward toward a bottom of said reclosable bag until said latch engages said respective leg, said cored out main body member allowing said respective latch to be deflected downward while said latch engage said respective leg; and pressing said first and second wings until said latch snaps into engagement with said respective shoulder of said respective leg.
Each wing has an opening for receiving its respective leg, and each wing has a cored out cross piece. The cored out cross piece has a solid ramp latch. The wings are folded relative to the support member and the latches engage the legs to assemble the slider on the zipper in a closed sidewall position.
Plastic zippers with sliders are well known in the art. The plastic zipper includes male and female tracks forming respective interlocking profiles. In the manufacture of a thermoplastic bag, the male and female tracks extend along the mouth of the bag and are adapted to be secured in any suitable manner to opposing flexible panels of the bag. The male and female tracks may be integral marginal portions of these flexible panels or they may be extruded separately and thereafter attached to the flexible panels along the mouth of the bag. The slider, which is mounted to the zipper, is used to open and close the zipper. When the slider is in a closed position, the profiles are interlocked with each other. In response to moving the slider to an open position, the profiles are disengaged from each other.
A foldable zipper slider with compression-type latch is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,644. This slider locks into place over the reclosable zipper using a flexible tongue compression-type latch. This flexible tongue style latch is effective on larger sliders, but when the size of the slider is reduced it becomes difficult and expensive to mold such an apparatus. Accordingly, there is a need to improve the compression-type latch so it can be effectively used on a smaller scale. The present invention seeks to achieve this result.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved one-piece foldable plastic zipper slider with compression-type latch.
The present invention relates to a foldable plastic slider for straddling relation with a profiled plastic zipper. The straddling slider for closing or opening the zipper by movement therealong comprises a transverse support member with opposing sides, a pair of depending legs, and a pair of wings hingedly attached to the opposing sides of the support member. The wings have openings for receiving the respective legs and each has a cored out cross piece. Each cored out cross piece has a solid sloped latch. The wings are folded relative to the support member and each solid sloped latch engages its respective leg. This locks the slider on the zipper.
While the zipper invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, a specific embodiment thereof has been shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. |
