ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,421,638, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Velcro IP Holdings LLC (Manchester, N.H.).
"Making soft fabric touch fasteners" was invented by Stephen R. Arata (Kingston, N.H.) and Gregory K. Kopanski (Candia, N.H.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods of making a male touch fastener product, by shearing distal portions of loops extending from a side of a flexible fabric, leaving fibers extending from the side of the flexible fabric in place of the sheared loops, the fibers extending to respective free distal ends, while leaving other loops extending from the side of the fabric intact, and then heating the distal ends with energy supplie...