By achieving an extruded, foamed core formed from plastic material peripherally surrounded and integrally bonded with a plurality of cooperating synthetic, plastic, extruded, outer layers, a unique, multi-component, multi-layer synthetic closure is provided which may be employed as a bottle closure or stopper for any desired product, whether the product is a liquid, a viscous material, or a solid distributed in a bottle or container and dispensed through the open portal of the container neck. The present invention achieves a mass producible, resilient, synthetic bottle closure which is employable for any desired bottle, including wine. By employing the present invention, a multi-component or multi-layer synthetic closure is attained which possesses physical properties substantially equal to or better than the physical properties found in cork material, which has caused such cork material to be the principal closure material for wine bottles.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation patent application of Ser. No. 09/945,694, filed Aug. 31, 2001 now abandoned, entitled Synthetic Closure which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 09/707,198, filed Nov. 6, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,997 entitled Synthetic Closure which is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/275,488, filed Mar. 24, 1999, entitled Synthetic Closure (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,451), which is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 09/176,563, filed Oct. 21, 1998 entitled Synthetic Closure (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,450), which is a continuation of Ser. No. 08/932,333, filed Sep. 17, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,965) entitled Synthetic Closure, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 08/842,496, filed Apr. 24, 1997 entitled Synthetic Closure, which is now abandoned.
A fastener element with a sheet-form base and an array of wedge-shaped engageable elements molded integrally with a surface of the sheet-form base. The wedge-shaped elements each have a steep side and a gradually rising side, and are arranged with their steep sides all directed in a common sense, such that the array can engage a similar array of oppositely-directed wedge-shaped elements to resist shear motion. The distal edges of the wedges are curved in top view.
