1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates generally to a slider for a slide fastener and more particularly to a provisional pull tab attached to the slider provisionally when the slider is subjected to stringer-threading step or when it is manipulated to inspect the performance of reciprocating along fastener element rows.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Nowadays, a pull tab of a slide fastener slider has been playing an increasingly important role in enhancing fashionableness and attracting eyes, so that various types of pull tabs are manufactured so as to suit various specific tastes of consumers. In order to satisfy such consumers' demand to attach to sliders such various pull tabs as suit their individual tastes, sliders of the construction capable of having pull tabs releasably attached thereto have been developed. One typical example of such sliders of the non-locking type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,938 and another example but of the automatic-locking type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,638.
In a process of finishing a slide fastener, there is what we commonly call "stringer-threading step"; that is, a step of threading a pair of right and left stringers of the slide fastener into a Y-shaped channel of a slider in order to slidably mount the slider on the slide fastener. As reillustrated herein in FIG. 8; in this step, the non-locking type slider 11 is first mounted upside down in a recess 125 in a top of a slider holder 101 with its pull tab 107 depending downward therefrom by its own gravity; then, a locking lever 103 is swinged clockwise (as viewed in FIG. 8) so as to bring a detent 104 into fitting engagement with an aperture 112 of the depending pull tab 107, thus pulling the slider 11 downwardly into stably resting in the recess 102 and then the pair of right and left fastener stringers (not shown) are threaded through the Y-shaped channel 14 of the slider 11. As far as an automatic-locking slider 50 is concerned, in addition to the function of causing the slider 50 to stably rest in the recess 102; as shown in FIG. 9, pull of the pull tab 107 by the detent 104 has another function of pulling a locking member 57 of the slider 50 downwardly, thus bringing the locking prong 59 out of the Y-shaped channel 53 so as to permit a pair of fastener stringers (neither shown) to be threaded through the Y-shaped channel 53 of the slider 50 at rest. A pull tab 107 is thus indispensable in the finishing process for both types of sliders 11, 50. Furthermore, in an inspection following the finishing process, a pull tab 107 is also necessary to pull a slider 11, 50 back and forth so as to see whether the slider 11, 50 accomplishes proper function of reciprocating along the fastener stringers. For these reasons, even during the finishing process and inspection, a commercial pull tab 107 or a pull tab suitable to commerce heretofore must be attached to the slider 11, 50.
However, it is acknowledged that the operation of detaching the pull tab 107 from the slider 11, 50 is much more difficult and tedious than that of attaching the pull tab 107 to the slider 11, 50. Furthermore, during the stringer-threading step, particularly if an aperture 112 in the pull tab 107 is too small, the detent 104 is very difficult to fit into such a small aperture 112, thus being liable to damage the pull tab 107 around the aperture 112, thereby adversely affecting the commercial quality of the pull tab 107.