Zipper

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This article is about the fastening device called zipper. For other uses of the word zip, zipper, or the acronym ZIP, see zip (disambiguation).

A zipper (British English: zip fastener or zip) is a popular device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric. It is used in clothing, luggage and other bags, sporting goods, camping gear (e.g., tents and sleeping bags), and other textiles.

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[edit] Description

Zipper slider brings together the two sides
Enlarge
Zipper slider brings together the two sides

The bulk of a zipper consists of two strips of fabric tape, each affixed to one of the two pieces to be joined, carrying tens or hundreds of specially shaped metal or plastic teeth. The slider, operated by hand, moves along the rows of teeth. Inside the slider is a Y-shaped channel that meshes together or separates the opposing rows of teeth, depending on the direction of its movement. The friction of the slider against the teeth causes a characteristic buzzing noise, which is probably the origin of the name zip(per). The name also may have originated in the greater speed with which the two sides of a zipper can be joined or separated, compared to the time needed for fastening or undoing laces or buttons.

Some zippers have two slides, allowing variation in the opening's size and position. In most jackets and similar garments, the opening is closed entirely when one slide is at each end. In most baggages, the opening is closed entirely when the two slides are next to each other at any point along the zipper.

Zippers may:

  • increase the size of an opening to allow the passage of larger objects, as in the fly of trousers or in a pocket
  • join or separate completely two ends or sides of a single garment, as in the front of a jacket
  • attach or detach completely one separable part of the garment to or from another, as in the conversion between trousers and shorts
  • decorate an item.

A zipper costs very little, but if the zipper fails, the garment may be unusable until the zipper is repaired or replaced. The problem often lies with the zipper slider, which may have been bent upwards due to wear. Repair is easy in this case: just push the slider downwards.

[edit] History Of The Zipper

An early device superficially similar to the zipper, "an Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure", was patented in the United States by Elias Howe in 1851; but it was probably never manufactured. Whitcomb L. Judson patented a "Clasp Locker", for fastening shoes and boots, in 1893, and attempted to market the invention through the Universal Fastener Company. His designs used hooks and eyes. The true zipper, and the design used today, is based on interlocking teeth. It was invented in St. Catharines, Ontario by Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born immigrant to Canada who was in 1913 the top designer at Universal Fastener Company. He made his first "Hookless fastener" in 1913, and designed the complex machinery needed to manufacture it. The patent was issued in 1917 as a "separable fastener." The B. F. Goodrich Company coined the name Zipper in 1923 for the line of rubber overshoes that it made using the fastener. The name slowly came to be associated with the fastener itself, and eventually acquired generic status.

Initially the fly zipper was resisted on moral grounds, as it made it too easy to take off one's pants. This was overcome when the Prince of Wales adopted the zip fly.

The zipper slowly became popular for children's clothing and men's trousers in the 1920s and 1930s. In the early 1930s the haute couture designer Elsa Schiaparelli featured zippers in her avant-garde gowns, helping it to become acceptable in women's clothing. In 1934, Tadao Yoshida founded a company called San-S Shokai in downtown Tokyo. Later, this company would change its name to YKK and become the world's largest manufacturer of zippers and fastening products.

Today, such leading global companies as YKK, KCC Group, and Tex Corp, make various types of zippers including "invisible" zippers, metallic zippers, and plastic zippers.

Recently invented is the Excoffier zipper, which possesses a new shape of zipper teeth.

[edit] Types

  • Coil zippers form the bulk of the sales of zippers world-wide—the classic zipper. The slider runs on two coils on each side. The "teeth" on this zipper are coils. Two basic types of coils are used. One type uses coils in spiral form, usually with a cord running inside the coils. The other type uses coil in ladder form, also called the Ruhrmann type. This second type is now used only in a few parts of the world, mainly in South Asia.
  • Invisible zippers' teeth are behind the tape. The tape's color matches the garment's, as does the slider, so that, except the slider, the zipper is "invisible". This kind of a zipper is common in skirts and dresses. Invisible zippers are usually coil zippers.
  • Metallic zippers are the type found in jeans today. The teeth are not a coil, but are individual pieces of metal moulded into shape and set on the zipper tape at regular intervals.
  • Plastic-moulded zippers are identical to metallic zippers, except that the teeth are plastic instead of metal. Metal zippers can be painted to match the surrounding fabric, plastic zippers can be made in any color of plastic.
  • Open-ended zippers use a "box and pin" mechanism to lock the two sides of the zipper into place, often in jackets. Open-ended zippers can be of any of the above specified types.
  • Closed-ended zippers are closed at both ends; they are often used in baggage.

[edit] Manufacturing

Japan makes 68% of the world's zippers. A large part of these are manufactured by YKK. Almost all of the rest are made in southeast Asia.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Henry Petroski: The Evolution of Useful Things (1992); ISBN 0-679-74039-2
  • Robert Friedel: Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty (W. W. Norton and Company: New York, 1996); ISBN 0-393-31365-4

    [edit] External links

    Patents

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