Zipper information
If your company has been producing clothes or bags for a short time and needs help with how to choose proper zippers, you can get the needed information in the following contents.
- Top stop
- Top tape extension
- Bottom stop
- Bottom tape extension
- Tape
- Teeth
- Slider
Zippers consist of tape, teeth, slider, top stop and bottom stop. The materials for each part is as followings:
Tape: The tapes of zippers are usually made of fiber, cotton or polyester fiber.
Teeth: The teeth of zippers can be made of aluminum alloy, brass, cupronickel and zinc alloy.
Slider: The sliders can be plated bronze, antique copper, white, yellow, black nickel, black antique nickel and dull silver. The sliders usually have the same color with teeth.
Stops: The stops of zippers have two types, top stop and bottom stop, which is used to prevent sliders from dropping out from the chain.
- Connecting piece
- Pull
- Body
- Crown
There are three types of zippers including metal zippers, nylon zippers and plastic zippers. Zippers can be made of aluminum alloy, brass, cupronickel and zinc alloy.
- Metal zipper
- Nylon zipper
- Plastic zipper
Open-end zipper | Close-end zipper | Two way open-end zipper | Close-end double slider zipper |
1-Open-end zipper (3#, 4#, 5#, 8#, 10#) doesn't have bottom stop but has retaining box. When the retaining box closes, it functions as bottom stop. Tape of zippers can be separated by pulling sliders next to the retaining box so the open-end zippers are mainly used for clothes.
2-Close-end zipper (3#, 4#, 5#, 8#, 10#) has bottom stop and can be opened only from upside of the chain. The tapes on both sides of zippers can't be separated when the close-end zipper is opened because there is bottom stop connecting them. Close-end zippers are mainly used for normal bags.
3-Two way open-end zipper (3#, 4#, 5#, 8#, 10#) has two sliders and can be opened or closed from both sides of the chain. Two way open-end zippers can be completely separated when sliders are pulled next to retaining boxes. Two way open-end zippers can be used on large bags, quilts and tents.
4-Close-end double slider zipper (3#, 4#, 5#, 8#, 10#) has two types, "X" form zipper and "O" form zipper. Close-end double slider "X" zippers has two sliders which are towards each other while the "O" form zipper has sliders backwards each other.
Type of zipper | How to measure the length of zipper |
Close-end zipper | From the top stop to the end of bottom stop |
Open-end zipper | From the top stop to the end of retaining box |
Close-end double slider "X" form zipper | From the top stop to the end of bottom stop |
Close-end double slider "O" form zipper | From the crown of one slider to the crown of the other slider. |
Metal zippers can be bright gold, light gold, platinum, black iron, anti-silver, bronze, anti-copper and pink gold.
The color of nylon zippers and plastic zippers can be beige, black, blue-light, blue-medium, brown-dark, brown-light, green-dark, green-light, grey-dark, grey-light, grey-medium, orange, peach, purple, red, tan-light, teal, white, wine-dark and yellow.