GB2216463A

GB2216463A - Ornamental printing of soles and heels for shoes

Info

Publication number: GB2216463A
Application number: GB8903913A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Paolo Scotuzzi
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-03-02
Filing date: 1989-02-21
Publication date: 1989-10-11
Also published as: GB8903913D0; IT8805122A0; IT1224231B

Abstract

Soles and heels for shoes are finished, preferably before assembly with other parts to form shoes, by printing using flexible transfer pads to apply colour, pattern or ornament to surfaces (3, 4, 5) which will be visible after assembly. Overlapping designs can be produced, as can specific spots, badges, marks, etc, on soles and heels usually made of foamed polystyrene. The transfer pads can be rolled or swivelled during printing to enable whole designs to be completed. <IMAGE>

Description

TITLE: Ornamental printing of Sole and Heels for Shoes DESCRIPTION: The invention relates to the finishing of soles and heels for shoes. It is particularly but not exclusively applicable to soles and heels made from foamed polyurethane and intended for women's shoes.

T.he finishing of such soles and heels is usually carried out before their assembly with other parts to make complete shoes. One procedure employed for the aforesaid finishing, perhaps the main one, consists of painting the parts which will be exposed and visible after shoe assembly. This operation, carried out manually or by means of automatic devices, consists of applying one or more colours, using a spraying method together with adequate stencils and templates to delimit the area to be painted, to the prepared areas of the soles and heels.

Another finishing operation, applicable to soles and heels of polyurethane, plastics or other materials consists of fixing or gluing papers, cloths, fabrics or flexible and elastic laminates, duly coloured and cut out, onto the shaped and sometimes warped surfaces of the soles and heels to be treated; this operation is almost always performed by hand both for glue laying and for laying, stretching and possible edging of the added laminates. To avoid gluing, the laminates and the like may be self-adhesive, but this does not avoid the problems of manual laying, stretching and possible edging.

As may be understood, the above mentioned procedures are difficult and are not rational, especially for volume production. The results are often incomplete and imperfect, especially with imitation mottled animal skin finishings, because boundaries and colours must coincide and perfectly overlap. Also, matching with printed or woven cloths when employed for the remaining parts of the shoe, is difficult and often imperfect.

The invention provides a method of finishing soles and heels for shoes, the method using a tampographic printing process to apply colour and/or pattern and/or ornament to the soles or heels. A tampographic printing process uses flexible transfer pads to transfer a film of indelible ink to the soles or heels, no matter what their shape or composition. Instead of indelible inks, paints, varnishes and even powders can similarly be transferred.

This procedure enables the addition of more paints of different kind and colour, but their overlapping (even on pre-painted backgrounds prepared with traditional painting and spraying methods) and the composition and combination of colours and patterns in order to obtain partial covering on whatever part of the surface it is desired to treat. It is possible to obtain excellent imitation animal skin patterns. This procedure realizes coatings which rapidly adhere to the surfaces, and remain absolutely fast to the same.

This invention, which is really new in the field of printing of foamed polyurethane soles and heels, has the following advantages -better results than those obtained hitherto using traditional procedures; -realization of complete finishings, both for their execution and for their look and aesthetic result; possibility of obtaining various patterns, writings, figures and marks, differently coloured, regardless of the nature of the surface which must undergo this procedure; -complete and perfect covering of the parts to be treated; patterns truly matching the patterns and colours of other parts of the shoe; possibility of copying drawings, spots of different colours for example, on one-colour backgrounds previously prepared, so giving the possibility of intervening on already painted elements.

The invention is illustrated by the drawings, of which Figures 1 to 3 are perspective views of foamed polyurethane soles, of various forms, and being coloured or decorated by a method according to the invention; and Figures 4 to 6 are perspective views of foamed polyurethane, heels of various forms, each awing different decorations applied by a method according to the invention.

As noted above, the heels and soles are made of the material being, at present, the most commonly used one, foamed polyurethane; however the procedure of the invention does not exclude heels and soles manufactured from various synthetic resins, and does not exclude heels and soles made of wood, cork, leather and other materials.

Soles as shown in Figures 1 to 3 are of one piece construction and are finished by means of tampographic printing using flexible transfer pads. This procedure allows the covering of concave, convex, cylindrical or irregular surfaces with patterns using transfer pads and inks, rapid drying paints, various pigments or paints used for silk-screen printing, varnishes, pastes or powders. The sectors indicated with reference numerals 1 to 15 schematically represent surfaces which are painted or printed with various illustrations, patterns and designs by the tampographic printing procedure. In the figures, the illustrated shapes are finished using the aforesaid procedure and with continuous or composed patterns, depending on the difficulties of the shapes themselves.

All the represented examples, further to clearly show the various ornaments that may be obtained, suggest and explain the way of obtaining'them: as a matter of fact the tampographic printing procedure employs rolling or printing determined by the movement of more transfer pads, movable or swivelling, according to the requirements.

In all figures, the outside surfaces of soles and heels are duly and completely printed: dotting and hatching represent various drawings, skin or clothes imitations. All ornamentations are obtained by means of adequate and correct colours, even if they are laid in different phases, so having patterns and colours truly matching the upper parts of the shoes. This procedure does not exclude the possibility of tampographically printing ornaments, drawings, spots, badges, marks, etc., on previously prepared elements, using different colours.

In Figures 1 to 4 also the part adherent to the bearing surface has been represented; this part may be coloured differently from the sides of the soles and heels sides, as already noted.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of finishing soles or heels for shoes, the method comprising applying colour and/or pattern and/or ornament to the soles or heels by a printing process using flexible transfer pads.

2. A method according to claim 1 applied to soles or heels made of foamed polyurethane.

3. A method according to claim 1 applied to soles and heels made of wood, cork, leather or light alloy.

4. A method according to any preceding claim in which the colour, pattern or ornament is applied using inks.

5. A method according to any preceding claim being applied to the whole of the surface of the sole or heel which is to be visible after assembly to form a shoe.

6. A method according to any preceding claim in which at least parts of the sole or heel are treated more than once, to provide background and overlaid colour pattern, or ornament.