I, Tésia Thomas, Founder of Zipr Shift LLC and Inventor of the Zipr Shift zipper will not fool you into believing and desiring a technology that doesn’t exist, function, or otherwise.
I am fully transparent about the development of the product. Ask me anything!
However, the best thing about a fully mechanical invention is that our demo prototype is the product, just a weaker product of somewhat different materials and construction. What you see is what you get. We didn’t make the zippers interlock and unlock with magic, video editing, or anything else like that. I promise!
Right now at Zipr Shift LLC, we’re trying to gauge market interest in the consumer goods, packaging, industrial, and fashion markets.
From SBIR Solicitation A16-062, we have verified military need for our product. We know exactly what requirements the Department of Defense has for a high pressure closure system and we expect to meet them. As of now, having conducted preliminary testing and comparison with our competitor’s products, we know that Zipr Shift zippers are a much more effective closure system. It all comes down to two measures:
- Tensile strength- ASTM zipper standards
- Gas, air, and water tight seal under pressure and subject to load
We know we’re the more effective closure system but the question is “How much so?”
I’ve qualified everything in terms of a multiple- “Zipr Shift zippers are 2x stronger than old-fashioned zippers.” However, in reality, I don’t know if it’s 2x, 20x, 9834249x or whatever other number. The “2x” qualifier comes from the 3D printed prototypes I tested that were printed in ABS plastic.
I used YKK size #15 brass zippers as the control and as you can see from a copy of the tensile results, my 3D printed prototypes were much stronger because the walls of the ABS plastic parts had to fracture while the YKK zipper teeth only had to slip past one another. The strength is in the design- the only way the walls of the U-shaped prototypes could get past one another was to break through each other!
When is 3D printed ABS plastic EVER stronger than fully dense, injection molded brass?
When the ABS comprises the better zipper design.
ASTM Zipper Standard: Chain Crosswise Tensile Strength
YKK #15 brass zipper- split at 193.31 lbF
Zipr Shift ABS prototype- fracture at 467.2 lbF
I was trying to get a sense of how rubber jacketed steel would perform under tensile stress. But, I wanted the weakest estimate possible. Steel has a much greater tensile strength than ABS and it will bear all of the stress of the zipper tape. I expect Zipr Shift zippers to be at minimum 3x the strength of old-fashioned zippers once the final product is tested with the thinnest steel thickness.
That’s another thing. The zippers I’ve invented are standardized so if I thicken the metal or use a stronger metal (think: brass vs steel) then the zipper’s tensile strength will increase.
You have to bend the metal to get through Zipr Shift zippers!
So, our zippers are inherently stronger than old-fashioned zippers.
Now, onto the next thing: gas, air, and watertight closure.
The tape will more easily trap gas, water, and air molecules when it is stressed as the tapes will move closer together. Zipr Shift zippers are tough under pressure and load!
There are currently eight checkpoints that a molecule must get past in order to escape the clutches of a Zipr Shift zipper tape as shown in the image above.
The teeth of old-fashioned zippers will easily move apart, and the gaps between the teeth will grow when the old-fashioned zipper tape is under stress.
We have to test how much so the Zipr Shift zippers are watertight, airtight, and gastight. But, our closure is a far tighter closure than our competitors who have tested their zippers and claim to be watertight, airtight, and gas tight. If it wasn’t then we wouldn’t have superior tensile test data.
As I said above, Zipr Shift zipper tapes are the more effective closure system.
Get ready for the new standard in zippers! 🙂
