GB2255270A - Shoe upper orienting and positioning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a shoe upper orienting and positioning apparatus comprising, a heel seat gripper 211, 212 carried on a vane pneumatic cylinder 22 for rotation through 180 DEG about shaft 217 in alternate clockwise and anti-clockwise directions and for movement in toeward and heelward directions, a toestop 230 mounted for heelward and toeward movement to enable the upper to be supported in a substantially horizontal plane between the seat gripper and the toe stop. The apparatus receives an upper, carried on its last, after completion of one operation at one work station, positions it between the gripper and toe stop, possibly rotates it through 180 DEG in readiness for a subsequent operation and then moves it longitudinally so as to be aligned with the position in which it is to be received in the following work station. <IMAGE>

Description

SHOE UPPER ORIENTING AND POSITIONING APPARATUS The present invention relates to an apparatus for orienting and positioning a shoe upper carried on a last, in respect of its toe or heel end in the transfer of the upper and last from one work station to another.

Automating the manufacture of shoes, whereby the number of operatives needed to oversee a series of successive operations in shoe manufacture, has resulted in increasing use of transfer machines that move a partially manufactured shoe from one work station to the next, for example from a lasting station to a heat-setting station - such machine is described in EP o 758. However, problems arise in automatic transfer when it is necessary for an upper, after completion of one operation at one work station to be positioned with the heel or toe in a particular position in order for the next operation to be accomplished at a following work station.

We have now developed an apparatus that accepts an upper from one work station and orients and aligns the toe or heel end of the upper with the position required for the toe or heel by the machine that is to carry out the next operation at a following work station, In the context of this specification the expression 'an upper' refers to a shoe upper carried on a last.

The apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful where an upper, bottom up, is transferred from a lasting station to a scouring station having a rotating abrasive disc lying in a horizontal plane, in that in the transfer care has to be taken that the upper when presented to the scourer is in the bottom down position and has the toe end positioned behind the scourer toe stop in order that the toe margin may be pressed into contact with the abrasive disc.

The apparatus of our invention comprises a gripper means that in its rest position accepts and grips the toe/heel end of an upper transferred from a first station by conventional transfer means, a toe/heel stop movable towards and away from the said gripper means to enable the upper to be supported in a substantially horizontal plane between the said gripper means and the toe stop, means for thereafter moving the upper supported between the toe/heel stop and the gripper to a position where the toe/heel stop is aligned with the toe/heel stop on the machine at the next work station; the said gripper means being mounted for movement towards and away from the toe/heel stop and means being provided to adjust the rest position of the gripper such that the gripper is aligned with the rear of the seat of the upper before transfer.

The apparatus may also accept the upper in the bottom up or bottom down position and rotate it through 1800 to bottom down or bottom up position before transfer to the next work station. Conveniently this may be achieved by mounting the gripper means for rotation through 1800 in alternate clockwise and anticlockwise directions, each movement being triggered either by the gripper means accepting the upper for rotation of the upper, or on release of the upper for rotation back to a position to accept a further shoe upper, The invention will now be more fully described by reference to the drawings in which:: Fig. 1 represents, diagrammatically, a sequence of operational steps in the manufacture of a shoe involving the use of the apparatus of the present invention Fig, 2 iS a diagrammatic illustration of one embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention as used in the sequence of figure 1.

Referring to figure 1, a lasting station generally indicated at 1 includes a last pin 2, on which a last containing an upper is located, and a seat clamp 3 against which the heel of the upper is held during the lasting operation, shown in the lasting position.

An apparatus according to the present invention is located adjacent the lasting station 1 and generally indicated at 20. The apparatus includes a heel seat gripper means 21 carried on a vane type pneumatic cylinder 22 for rotation through 1800 in alternate clockwise and anticlockwise directions and for movement in toeward and heelward directions along slides 23 and 24, and a toe stop assembly 25 also mounted for heelward and toeward movement along slide rails 23 and 24 between a first retracted position and a second predetermined position, heelward of the retracted position, for locating the toe of the upper at a required point.

A scouring station 30 of the type described in patent publication No.2227961 is positioned next to apparatus 20 and includes a toe stop 31, an abrasive disc 32 and a heel pad 33. Finally heat setting station is indicated generally at 40.

Transfer arms 50, 60 and 70 include pincer type gripping means 51, 61 and 71 for gripping the waist area of the upper and depend downwardly from the said arms for upward-downward movement and for sliding movement along the arms between an out of the way position and a position for gripping the upper when located on one work station the transferring the upper from to another work station or to the apparatus of the present invention.

The apparatus of the invention generally indicated at 20 in Figure 1 is shown in ore detail in Figure 2. The heel seat gripper means 21 consists of heel grippers 211 and 212 pivotally mounted at 214, 215 in a bracket 213 secured to shaft 217 of rotating vane cylinder 22 and movable between open and closed positions under the influence of a pneumatic cylinder and piston arrangement 216. Vane cylinder 22 and associated gripper bracket 213 are mounted on a support member 219 which is carried on slides 23 and 24 for sliding movement therealong between a toeward rest position defined by adjustable stop means 220 against which it is urged by a low pressure piston and cylinder arrangement 221, and a rearward position away from stop 20.

Slides 23 and 24 are mounted in supports 222 and 223 carried on beam 224 secured to the apparatus frame (not shown), rotatably carried on shaft 231 secured to block 232 of arm 233 extending upwardly from plate 234. Plate 234 is fixedly secured to block member 235, slidably carried on slides 23 and 24, and adjustably secured through slots 238, 239 and wing nut and bolt arrangements 240, 241 to a second block 236 also carried for sliding movement along slides 23 and 24. Block 236 is secured to one end of a relatively high pressure pneumatic piston and cylinder arrangement 237 the other end of which is secured to beam 224.

In setting up to the apparatus to operate with scourer 30 of Figure 1, the position of plate 234 on block 236 is adjusted such that when the piston of piston and cylinder arrangement 237 is at its maximum outward travel toe stop 230 is aligned with toe stop 231 of scourer 30 as indicated by the dotted line B of Figure 1. Adjustment of toe stop 31 of scourer 30 to suit different shoe sizes requires readjustment of plate 234 in order that the toe stops are retained in alignment. Although the adjustment illustrated is manual, clearly other methods could be employed, for example block 235 and 236 could be linked by a stepped pneumatic piston and cylinder arrangement which operates in tandem with a similar piston and cylinder arrangement used to adjust the position of toe stop 31 of scourer 30.

The rest position of the seat gripper 21 is also adjusted to be aligned with the heel clamp 3 of lasting machine 1 as indicated by the dotted line A in Figure 1, i.e.

aligned with the back of the seat of the upper on machine 1, to enable the heel 251 of upper 250, shown in dotted outline in figure 2, to be received within the gripper 21.

In use, with the apparatus set up as described above, pincer gripping means of 51 of transfer arm 50 extend downwardly to grip a lasted shoe, bottom up, in waist area lift the last off pin 1, transfer the shoe along the transfer arm 50 and deposit it between pincer arms 211 and 212 of seat gripper 21 of apparatus 20. Pincers 211 and 212, acting under the influence of pneumatic cylinder 216, grip the heel of the upper which is then released by pincers 51 and the pincers move to an out of the way position along transfer arm 50. At the same time the pneumatic piston and cylinder arrangement 237 operates to move the plate 234 with associated arm 233 and toe stop 30 until the toe stop contacts the toe end 252 of upper 250 to provide support therefor.Vane motor 22 then rotates the gripper 21 clockwise through 1800 whereby the upper 250 is inverted from the bottom up to a bottom down position following which pneumatic piston and cylinder arrangement 237 then forces the upper1 gripper 21 and support 219 heelwards against the pressure exerted by piston and cylinder arrangement 221 until the piston of 237 reaches its full travel. At this stage the toe portion 252 of upper 250 is aligned with a position lying just behind the toe stop 31 of the scourer machine 30.The pincers 61 of transfer arm 60 then from an out of the way position move to grip the upper 250 at about the waist region and the shoe is released from seat band 21 under the action of pneumatic cylinder 216 and from between the seat band 21 and toe stop 230 by the action of pneumatic cylinders 237 and 221 which move the toe stop assembly 252 and the support 219 respectively in opposite directions, The upper 250 is carried by pincers 61 along the transfer arm 80 to the scouring machine 30 where it is deposited on the seat and sole supports of the machine and the toe end brought into contact with toe stop 30 by the action of seat band 33.

After the scouring operation seat band 33 of the scourer 30 releases upper 250 which is removed by the pincers 71 of transfer arm 70 and transferred along arm to be placed on means for moving upper 250 into the heat setting apparatus 40.

During the transfer from apparatus 20 to scourer 30 and the scouring operation, piston and cylinder 221 of apparatus 20 draws the casting 219 and seat band 21 back against stop 220 into its rest position. Simultaneously the vane motor 22 causes the seat band 20 to rotate in a clockwise direction and piston and cylinder 237 withdraws toe stop assembly away from gripper 21 thus placing the apparatus in a condition to receive a further upper from the lasting machine 1 and for the sequence of operations to be repeated.

Claims (1)

1. A shoe upper orienting and positioning apparatus comprising: a gripper means that in its rest position accepts and grips the heel end of an upper transferred from a first station by conventional transfer arm means, a toe stop movable towards and away from the said gripper means to enable the upper to be supported in a substantially horizontal plane, means thereafter for moving the upper supported between the toe stop and the gripper means to a position wherein the upper is in alignment with the position of the upper required at the next work station; the said gripper means being mounted for movement towards and away from the toe stop and means being provided to adjust the rest position of the gripper means such that it is aligned with the rear seat of the upper before transfer.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the said gripper means is rotatable through 180 in alternate clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the forward/rearward movements of the gripper means and the toe stop are controlled by individual piston and cylinder arrangements.

4. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein rotation of the gripper means is effected by mounting the gripper means on a vane type pneumatic motor.

5. An apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims when used to transfer an upper from one work station to a second work station.

8. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the said transfer is effected by a transfer arm extending between the work stations, the said arm including means depending from the arm to grip the waist of the upper said means being carried on said arm for sliding movement from an out of the way position to a first portion for gripping the upper and thence to a second position at which the upper is released.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6 when used in transferring an upper from a lasting station to a scouring station.

8. An apparatus substantially as herein described with a reference to Figure 2 of the drawings.