1. A method of manufacturing sheet-form composite touch fasteners, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a longitudinally continuous sheet of a loop material comprising a non-woven web of entangled fibers, the fibers forming both a sheet-form web body having oppositely directed faces and hook-engageable loops extending from at least one face of the web body;
introducing the loop material and molten resin to a gap adjacent a mold roll, the molten resin being introduced to the gap in discrete regions between the mold roll and a receiving face of the continuous sheet of loop material, such that the resin is subjected to pressure between the mold roll and the loop material, forcing the resin into cavities defined in the mold roll to form a laminate with a surface having spaced-apart resin-covered regions and exposed regions of the loop material, the resin-covered regions each having a resin base and multiple, loop-engageable fastener elements having stems integrally molded with and extending from the resin base in the direction in which the receiving face is directed, resin of the bases encapsulating fibers of said web body at the receiving face of the loop material in the resin-covered regions, thereby bonding the resin to the loop material; and then
cutting the laminate to form said composite touch fasteners, each composite touch fastener having a surface comprising at least a portion of one of the exposed regions of the loop material, and at least a portion of one of the resin-covered regions.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein molten resin is introduced to the gap in multiple, spaced-apart bands.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the gap is in the form of a nip defined between the mold roll and a counter-rotating pressure roll.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the laminate is cut across both loop material and one or more resin bases, such that the composite touch fastener formed comprises both loops and at least a portion of one or more resin-covered regions.
5. A method of manufacturing a composite material having fastener loops and loop-engageable fastener elements, the method comprising:
providing at least one longitudinally continuous flexible material having oppositely directed faces, the flexible material having fastener loops extending from at least one of its faces,
introducing molten resin to a plurality of spaced-apart, discrete regions of a resin-receiving face of the flexible material while leaving free of resin other regions of the resin-receiving face of the flexible material, at least some fastener loops of the flexible material on one or both faces of the flexible material remaining free of resin and positioned to be engaged by loop-engageable fastener elements; and
forming the resin to provide both a resin base portion joined to the resin-receiving face of the flexible material and resin loop-engageable fastener elements having resin stems integrally formed with and extending outwardly from an outer surface of the resin base portion, the stems extending in the same direction as the direction faced by the resin-receiving face of the flexible material.
6. The method of claim 5 in which the flexible material is of the same construction where the molten resin is introduced and where the fastener loops free of resin are positioned.
7. The method of claim 5 in which the flexible material is selected from the group consisting of nonwoven, knit and woven sheet material.
8. The method of claim 5 in which the resin-receiving face of the flexible material is comprised of fibers, resin of the base portion encapsulating fibers at the resin-receiving face of the flexible material to bond the resin to the flexible material.
9. The method of claim 5 employing a rotating roll having an outer surface constructed to form the outer surface of the resin base portion, the outer surface of the roll having forming cavities constructed to form the stems of the fastener elements integrally with and extending outwardly from the surface of the base portion.
10. The method of claim 9 in which the rotating roll is a mold roll that is paired with a counter-rotating second roll to form a nip, and in which the sheet material is introduced into the nip with the resin-receiving face of the flexible material directed toward the mold roll and with the molten resin located between the mold roll and the resin-receiving face of the flexible material.
11. The method of claim 10 in which multiple, spaced-apart continuous bands of molten resin of limited transverse dimension enter the nip with the flexible material and are formed into base portions joined to the flexible material and stems integral with and extending outwardly from the outer surfaces of the respective base portions.
12. The method of claim 9 in which the roll is a mold roll having mold cavities constructed with outer and inner mold cavity portions, the outer mold cavity portions shaped to form the stems integral with the outer surfaces of the base portion and the inner mold cavity portions shaped to form loop-engageable features on the outer ends of the stems.
13. The method of claim 5 including so selecting the flexible material, so conducting the method of forming the composite, and so cutting the resulting composite, as to provide a fastener product capable of being wrapped about one or more objects and secured by engagement of loop-engageable fastener elements with fastener loops of the product.
14. The method of claim 13 including applying adhesive to a selected region of the composite for attaching the fastener product to an article.
15. The method of claim 5 in which the spaced-apart regions comprise continuous bands.
16. The method of claim 15 in which the multiple, spaced apart regions of loop engageable fastener elements are separated by separate bands of flexible material.
17. The method of claim 5 in which a distribution of the loop-engageable fastener elements is produced that is narrower than a region of the resin-receiving face that is substantially free of the resin.
18. The method of claim 5 in which the face of the flexible material opposite to the resin-receiving face is entirely covered with engageable fastener loops.
19. The method of claim 5 in which the resin-receiving face of the flexible material bears both engageable fastener loops and loop-engageable fastener elements.
20. The method of claim 5 in which the loop-engageable fastener elements are formed as loop-engageable fastener hooks having crook-form tips.
21. The method of claim 5 in which the loop-engageable fastener elements are formed as loop-engageable mushrooms.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An apparatus comprising:
an array of antenna elements configured to emit a radio frequency beam;
a lens located over the array of antenna elements, wherein the lens is configured to change a first angle at which the radio frequency beam enters the lens to a second angle when the radio frequency beam exits the lens and wherein the second angle changes when a location at which the radio frequency beam enters the lens changes, the second angle differing from the first angle; and
a metamaterial lens located over the lens, the metamaterial lens having a substantially buckyball shape, wherein the metamaterial lens is configured to change the second angle at which the radio frequency beam enters the metamaterial lens to a third angle when the radio frequency beam exits the metamaterial lens, the third angle differing from the second angle.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the metamaterial lens is selected from a group consisting of a negative index metamaterial lens and a positive index metamaterial lens.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the array of antenna elements is configured to emit the radio frequency beam using a number of antenna elements in the array of antenna elements.
4. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising:
a controller configured to select the number of antenna elements from the array of antenna elements.
5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the number of antenna elements is in the location.
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein changing the number of antenna elements changes the location.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the array of antenna elements is configured to receive a second radio frequency beam passing through the metamaterial lens and the lens.
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the array of antenna elements comprises at least one of transmitters, receivers, and transceivers.
9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the metamaterial lens comprises a negative index material and has a buckyball shape comprising a truncated icosahedron.
10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the third angle is substantially horizontal with respect to a plane on which the array of antenna elements is located.
11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the metamaterial lens comprises a plurality of discrete components.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of discrete components comprises a plurality of metamaterial unit cells arranged in a configuration.
13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a number of antenna elements in the array of antenna elements is selected from one of first antenna elements in the array of antenna elements adjacent to each other and second antenna elements in the array of antenna elements not adjacent to the each other.
14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lens is a flat gradient index lens.
15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lens is comprised of at least one of a negative index metamaterial and a positive index metamaterial.
16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency beam has a frequency from about 300 megahertz to about 300 gigahertz.
17. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a platform, wherein the array of antenna elements, the lens located over the array of antenna elements, and the metamaterial lens are associated with the platform and wherein the platform is selected from one of a mobile platform, a stationary platform, a land-based structure, an aquatic-based structure, a space-based structure, an aircraft, a surface ship, a tank, a personnel carrier, a train, a spacecraft, a space station, a satellite, a submarine, an automobile, and a building.
18. An antenna system comprising:
an array of antenna elements configured to emit a radio frequency beam;
a lens located over the array of antenna elements, wherein the lens is configured to change a first angle at which the radio frequency beam enters the lens to a second angle when the radio frequency beam exits the lens and wherein the second angle changes when a location at which the radio frequency beam enters the lens changes, the second angle differing from the first angle;
a negative index metamaterial lens located over the lens, wherein the negative index metamaterial lens has a substantially buckyball shape and is configured to change the second angle at which the radio frequency beam enters the negative index metamaterial lens to a third angle when the radio frequency beam exits the negative index metamaterial lens, the third angle differing from the second angle; and
a controller configured to select a number of antenna elements from the array of antenna elements to change the location at which the radio frequency beam enters the lens.
19. A method for steering a radio frequency beam, the method comprising:
emitting the radio frequency beam from an array of antenna elements at a first angle into a lens at a location for the lens;
changing the first angle of the radio frequency beam to a second angle when the radio frequency beam exits the lens, wherein the second angle changes when the location at which the radio frequency beam enters the lens changes, the second angle differing from the first angle; and
changing the second angle of the radio frequency beam to a third angle when the radio frequency beam with the second angle passes through a negative index metamaterial lens having a substantially buckyball shape located over the lens, the third angle differing from the second angle.
20. The method of claim 19 further comprising;
selecting a number of antenna elements from the array of antenna elements to emit the radio frequency beam at the location.
21. The method of claim 19, wherein the radio frequency beam is a first radio frequency beam and the location is a first location, and further comprising:
emitting a second radio frequency beam from the array of antenna elements at a fourth angle into the lens at a second location for the lens;
changing the fourth angle of the second radio frequency beam to a fifth angle when the second radio frequency beam exits the lens, wherein the fifth angle changes when the second location at which the second radio frequency beam enters the lens changes; and
changing the fifth angle of the second radio frequency beam to a sixth angle when the second radio frequency beam with the fifth angle passes through the negative index metamaterial lens located over the lens.