What is a Zip (zipper) made of?
What is a Zip (zipper) made of?
Teeth of metal, moulded acetal or nylon coil on a polyester tape, forced together by a wedge inside the slider.
A zip almost never fails at the teeth. The slider wears: its channel opens up microscopically over thousands of cycles until it no longer presses the teeth fully together, and the chain splits behind it. Gently squeezing the slider closed with pliers fixes a great many zips that would otherwise be thrown away, and replacing the slider fixes most of the rest. The design took decades to become practical — Whitcomb Judson's 1893 clasp locker was unreliable, and Gideon Sundback's 1913 interlocking tooth design is the one still in use. The word zipper was coined by B.F. Goodrich in the 1920s for the sound its rubber galoshes made.
Component by component
| Part | Material | Why that material |
|---|---|---|
| metal teeth | brass, aluminium or nickel-plated zinc, clamped onto the tape | Metal teeth are strong and heat-resistant, which is why jeans and workwear use them, but each tooth is a separate crimped part. |
| moulded teeth | injection-moulded acetal or polyacetal, moulded directly onto the tape | Chunky plastic teeth do not corrode, are light and are what ski jackets and rucksacks use. |
| coil teeth | a continuous nylon monofilament spiral sewn to the tape | A coil zip flexes around curves and, uniquely, self-heals: force it open and it usually re-meshes on the next pass. |
| slider | die-cast zinc alloy, with a Y-shaped internal channel | The slider is a wedge, not a latch — the channel forces teeth apart going one way and cams them together the other. |
| tape and stops | woven polyester tape, with metal top and bottom stops | The stops are what keep the slider on the chain; losing a bottom stop is the usual reason a zip comes right off. |
Other clothing and kit objects
- Velcro (hook and loop) Two nylon tapes — one of stiff hooks, one of soft loops — copied directly from burdock burrs.
- Leather Animal hide whose collagen has been chemically stabilised so it cannot rot — usually with chromium salts.
- Gore-Tex A stretched PTFE membrane whose pores are far too small for a raindrop and far too big for a water vapour molecule.
- Denim A cotton twill with indigo-dyed warp and undyed weft — the dye sits on the fibre surface, which is why it fades.
- Helmet A hard shell to spread the blow over a crushable polystyrene foam liner that is destroyed by one impact.
- Bulletproof vest Many layers of woven aramid or polyethylene fibre that catch and deform a bullet; rifle threats need a ceramic plate.
- Synthetic leather A polyurethane or PVC skin on a textile backing — including the plant-based ones, which still need a plastic binder.
- Running shoe A knitted synthetic upper over a foam midsole and rubber outsole — about a dozen materials, all glued together.
- Shoe sole A rubber outsole for grip, a foam midsole for cushioning, and increasingly no clean way to separate them.
- Wetsuit Closed-cell neoprene foam full of nitrogen bubbles, faced with stretch jersey — the gas insulates, not the water.
- Life jacket Closed-cell foam or a CO2-inflated bladder, in a nylon cover — rated in newtons of buoyancy, not in size.
- Button Usually cast polyester resin; the good ones are shell, nut or horn, and you can tell by touch and temperature.
Common questions
- What is a Zip (zipper) made of?
- Teeth of metal, moulded acetal or nylon coil on a polyester tape, forced together by a wedge inside the slider.
- What is the metal teeth of a Zip (zipper) made of?
- Brass, aluminium or nickel-plated zinc, clamped onto the tape. Metal teeth are strong and heat-resistant, which is why jeans and workwear use them, but each tooth is a separate crimped part.
- What is the moulded teeth of a Zip (zipper) made of?
- Injection-moulded acetal or polyacetal, moulded directly onto the tape. Chunky plastic teeth do not corrode, are light and are what ski jackets and rucksacks use.
Related pages
- Velcro (hook and loop) Two nylon tapes — one of stiff hooks, one of soft loops — copied directly from burdock burrs.
- Leather Animal hide whose collagen has been chemically stabilised so it cannot rot — usually with chromium salts.
- Gore-Tex A stretched PTFE membrane whose pores are far too small for a raindrop and far too big for a water vapour molecule.
- Denim A cotton twill with indigo-dyed warp and undyed weft — the dye sits on the fibre surface, which is why it fades.
- Helmet A hard shell to spread the blow over a crushable polystyrene foam liner that is destroyed by one impact.
- Bulletproof vest Many layers of woven aramid or polyethylene fibre that catch and deform a bullet; rifle threats need a ceramic plate.
- Synthetic leather A polyurethane or PVC skin on a textile backing — including the plant-based ones, which still need a plastic binder.
- Running shoe A knitted synthetic upper over a foam midsole and rubber outsole — about a dozen materials, all glued together.
- Pencil Stationery and paper
- Tennis ball Sport and games
- Banknote Around the house
- Golf ball Sport and games
- Paper Stationery and paper
- Glass Building materials
Sources
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place