TODAY’S PATENT – READILY BURSTABLE SLIDE FASTENER

The Readily burstable slide fastener was invented by Shigeyoshi Takasawa, Shunji Akashi, Mark Davies on 12^th August 2014 bearing patent number US8800118B2.

The present invention relates to a readily burstable slide fastener for an inflatable device, such as a lifejacket, that includes a first stringer, a second stringer and a slider slidably mounted on the second stringer. At a weakened region along the slide fastener coupling elements are omitted from each of the stringers so that when a bursting force is applied to this region the coupling elements adjacent thereto are disengaged. The coupling elements are omitted from the top of the first stringer so that when the slider is at the top of the coupling elements of the second stringer, the first stringer can disengage from the slider. When the slide fastener is fitted to an inflatable lifejacket, the stringers are separated completely when the lifejacket is inflated.

An inflatable device is provided comprising an inflatable member and a covering, the covering being secured around the deflated inflatable member by a readily burstable slide fastener. Preferably the slide fastener opens automatically fully along its length under the force of the inflating member.