Securing electrical conductors
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An elongated electrical cable or flexible circuit board includes an electrically conductive path and an insulating body encompassing and electrically isolating the conductive path, the insulating body including an exposed surface having an array of fastener elements extending therefrom, the fastener elements arranged and constructed to engage mating fastener elements associated with a supporting surface to selectively secure the cable or flexible circuit board to the supporting surface. The fastener elements can be loop-engageable fasteners and/or loops. Such a cable or flexible circuit board is continuously formed by introducing an electrical insulating material including a thermoplastic resin into a gap formed adjacent a peripheral surface of a rotating mold roll, the mold roll defining an array of cavities therein, the insulating material being introduced under pressure and temperature conditions selected to cause the insulating material to at least partially fill the cavities to form fastener element stems integrally with and extending from one broad side of a strip of said insulation material; while introducing conductive wires and/or a conductive path formed on or within a substrate to the gap so as to cause the insulating material to envelop and electrically isolate the conductive path and/or to cause the conductive path to become an integral part of the strip of insulation material from which the fastener element stems extend.
47 Citations
84 Claims
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1-42. -42. (canceled)
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43. A method of forming an electrically conductive hook tape, the method comprising:
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providing a flexible substrate having first and second, opposite broad surfaces and an array of molded projections extending from the first broad surface, the first broad surface and the molded projections being formed integrally of a thermoplastic resin;
applying a sensitizer to an exterior surface of the substrate; and
applying a solution comprising a conductive material to the exterior surface at least to a portion of an area where the sensitizer was applied, thereby producing a chemical reduction reaction between the conductive material and the sensitizer whereby the conductive material attaches to the exterior surface of the substrate, thereby forming a tape carrying an array of projections extending from an electrically conductive substrate. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
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54-67. -67. (canceled)
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74. A method of forming an electrically conductive fastener tape, the method comprising:
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providing a substrate having an array of stems, the array of stems integrally formed with and extending from the substrate;
forming engageable heads on the stems;
applying a sensitizer to an exterior surface of the substrate; and
applying a solution comprising a conductive material to the exterior surface at least to a portion of an area where the sensitizer was applied, thereby producing a chemical reduction reaction between the conductive material and the sensitizer whereby the conductive material attaches to the exterior surface of the substrate, thereby forming a tape carrying an array of projections extending from an electrically conductive substrate. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77)
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78. A method of forming an electrically conductive fastener tape, the method comprising:
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introducing a thermoplastic resin into a gap adjacent a rotating mold roll, such that the resin fills a field of fixed cavities defined in a peripheral surface of the mold roll to form a field of molded stems extending from a first broad surface of a base;
solidifying the resin;
stripping the solidified resin from the peripheral surface of the mold roll by pulling the features from their respective cavities;
forming engageable heads on the stems;
applying a sensitizer to at least an area of the first broad surface of the thermoplastic substrate; and
applying a solution comprising a conductive material to at least to a portion of the area where the sensitizer was applied, producing a chemical reduction reaction between the conductive material and the sensitizer whereby the conductive material attaches to the exterior surface of the substrate. - View Dependent Claims (79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
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Specification