Why Do Zippers Have Initials Ykk on Them?
Why Do Zippers Have Initials Ykk on Them? The initials YKK stand for Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushiki gaisha (Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation), which was the name of the company from 1945 until 1994. The YKK Group is a Japanese group of manufacturing companies. As the world’s largest zipper manufacturer, YKK Group is most famous for making zippers; however, it also manufactures other fastening products, architectural products, plastic hardware and industrial machinery.
This company is now the world’s foremost zipper manufacturer, making about 90% of all zippers in over 206 facilities in 52 countries. In fact, they not only make the zippers, they also make the machines that make the zippers, their largest factory in Georgia makes over 7 million zippers per day.
In 1934 Tadao Yoshida founded Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushiki gaisha (translated Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation). The company specialized in marketing of fastening products. In February 1938 San-es Shokai was renamed to Yoshida Kogyosho. WWII was under way by 1939 and the next major corporate event would not take place until February 1942.
In July 2000, the company established YKK Newmax Co., Ltd, specializing in the production of snaps and buttons. In December 2002, a machine company was established in Suzhou, China. A company specializing in sales, YKK Fastening Products Sales Inc. was established in February 2003. YKK AP Inc. was founded in October 2003, specializing in architectural products.
The zipper may be used to secure an article of clothing, a tent or other fabric enclosure, luggage, or other soft container. A zip, zipper or zip fastener is a popular device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric. It is used in clothing (e.g., jackets and jeans), luggage and other bags, sporting goods, camping gear (e.g., tents and sleeping bags), and other daily use items.
The bulk of a zipper consists of two strips of fabric tape, each affixed to one of the two pieces to be joined, carrying from tens to hundreds of specially shaped metal or plastic teeth. These teeth can be either individual or shaped from a continuous coil, and are also referred to as elements. The slider operated by hand, moves along the rows of teeth. Inside the slider is a Y-shaped channel that meshes together or separates the opposing rows of teeth, depending on the direction of the slider’s movement.