Velcro

[Hilary23]

How does velcro work?

[Maxrom]

I'm by no means an expert on Velcro, but from what I gather it's a very simple idea. Basically, Velcro relies on two different types of material that hold together. One half had thousands of tiny hooks on it, and the other has a softer, fibrous and almost fluffy texture. When the pieces of material are pressed together, the tiny hooks get entagled in the fibrous material, causing it to grip. When pulled apart, you simply force the hooks away from the other material, which is normally accompanied by the tearing sound associated with Velcro. Each time you stick the two halves together, and tear them apart, you do slowly cause wear, either by breaking the hooks, or wearing out the fibrous material. After time, on heavily used Velcro, this can sometimes lead to it not holding together as well as it did when new. Just as an aside, Velcro is actually a trademark - this type of fastening system is manufactured by other companies, and not called Velcro. However, much like the trademark Hoover is used to describe a vacuum cleaner, Velcro is typically used to describe this type of fastener.

[gazzawazza]

Just for a bit more information, Velcro was discovered/invented by a man named George de Mestral. You know those thistle-type things that stick on your clothes? Well he noticed that after taking his dog for a walk (german shepherd I do believe) the dog was covered in them. He examined them under a microscope and saw that they were, like Maxrom says, thousands of tiny hooks and eyes stuck together. This set him thinking and, hey presto, soon he'd invented the incredibly useful fastening material.

[Mr W]

I beleive (I may be wrong) that this was another British idea that got no support here (like the space shuttle / mustard project) and had to move abroad where it became a massive success.

[velcro]

velcro or hook and loop fastener is made of nylon, you have the "hook" side and the "loop" side, the hook side has hundreds of tiny plastic hooks and the loop side has hundreds of soft loops

The hooks attach to the loops to create a fasteneing

The hook and loop fastener is generically known as velcro, unfortuantely the company velcro wants to own the world on this product and wants everyone to think that velcro is the only brand of this product..not true

I used www.indigoshop.co.uk for there brand called Fastenerz Hook & Loop and its compatible with all the other brands including velcro and is a v high quality product, shouldnt the customer have a choice to get the best price?