GB2259265A - Computerized numerical control automatic roughening apparatus for the sole edge of a footwear piece - Google Patents

Abstract

A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus comprises a footwear retaining device for fixing the footwear piece and a sole edge roughening device for roughening the bottom circumference of the footwear piece retained by the retaining device. A cantilever assembly is provided for supporting the sole edge roughening device, together with drive means for driving the cantilever assembly and the roughening device to move along the sole edge. Support means for the apparatus guide rail means 210, 222 which mount the cantilever and roughening device for movement in longitudinal, lateral and vertical directions. <IMAGE>

Description

COMPUTERIZED NUMERICAL CONTROL AUTOMATIC ROUGHENING APPARATUS FOR THE SOLE EDGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention: The present invention relates to an automatic roughening apparatus for the sole edge, especially to a computerized numerical control automatic roughening apparatus for the sole edge which has a computerized numerical control system and a fixed sole and can work at every working spot along the sole edge to carry out the roughening operation for the sole edge.

Description of the prior art: The present invention relates to an automatic roughening apparatus for the sole edge which roughens the sole edge in favor of the glue application and the sole sticking before sticking the sole under the bottom of the vamp in the course of manufacturing footwears.

The well known automatic roughening machine for the sole edge includes U.S. Patent No. 4,387,581 and U.S. Patent No. 4,389,861 filed by Useman Inc., U.S.A. This automatic sole roughening machine has a shoe support and a tool carriage therebetween have a relative motion.

Owing to the relative motion between the shoe support and the tool carriage, for effecting the relative lengthwise and widthwise motion between the shoe support and the tool carriage, an apparatus is required which comprises a first and a second numerical control motors and a device for controlling the relative heightwise location for the shoe support and the tool carriage including a third numerical control motor. Furthermore, other associated members and the heightwise location of the tool sensing device are required.

In the associated members, for example, a resilient device which moves the tool away from the restricted heightwise position related to the tool carriage under the operation of machine. Said automatic roughening machine for the sole edge has the following disadvantages: 1. Because of the relative motion between the shoe support and the tool carriage, its structure is sophisticated, the cost is raised and also resulting in a frequent failure.

2. A computer memorizes the status of selected spots on the sole edge. Because a relative motion exists between the shoe support and the tool carriage, the memorized selected spots on the shoe edge will often be inconsistent with the actual situation.

3. A selected spot on the sole edge is determined by relating to the restricted heightwise position of the tool.

Prior to digitizing the axial values of the coordinate of a selected spot, the tool carriage is moved a certain distance in heightwise to have the tool away from the restricted heightwise position. Therefore, it is troublesome in selecting the selected spots.

4. Because of the relative motion between the shoe support and the tool carriage, the roughening status actually required for the selected spot is not easily controlled and results in the sole roughening operation does not conform with the practical requirement.

In view of the above mentioned disadvantages of the conventional automatic roughening machine for the sole edge, the Inventor made an extensive research and finally, completed the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Thus, the present invention is directed in providing a computerized numerical control automatic roughening apparatus for the sole edge.

An object of the invention is aimed to provide a computerized numerical control automatic roughening apparatus for the sole edge which does not produce a relative motion between the footwear retaining means and the sole ege roughening means. In other words, it does not have a relative motion mechanism therebetween. The structure thereof is more simple, the cost is cheaper, has a much less failure occasion and longer service life.

Another object of the invention is to provide a computerized numerical control automatic roughening apparatus for thr sole edge which has the roughening means in motion and the footwear retained by the retaining means and not in motion so that the memorized state for each selected spot on the sole edge will be consistent with the practical situation.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an automatic roughening apparatus which has the footwear be retained and immobilized so that it is easy to control the state of the bottom edge of the vamp needed to be roughened.

Besides, it is easy to select the selected spot on the sole edge by just determining the coordinate of the selected spot in relation to a certain spot.

Now, for better understanding the construction, characteristics and other objects of the present invention, the invention will be described in greater detail by referring to the accompanying drawings that illustrate the preferred embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings: Fig.l is a diagram illustrating the prior art automatic roughening machine for the sole edge.

Fig.2 is a perspective view of the apparatus of the invention.

Fig.3 is a planar view of the apparatus of the invention.

Fig.4 is a side view of the apparatus of the invention.

Fig.5 is a diagram showing the footwear retaining mechanism of the invention.

Fig.6 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the computer control hardware framework of the invention.

Fig.7 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the computer system software framework of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown is Fig. 1, the construction and the drawbacks of the conventional automatic roughening machine of sole edge is described hereinbefore and will not be repeated here.

With reference to Fig.2, 3, 4 and 5, the automatic roughening machine for a sole edge according to the invention comprises a set of driving means 2, footwear retaining means 3, sole edge roughening means 1 and a set of pneumatic control elements 4 wherein, in the set of driving means 2, there is a stand 21 which is a casing with a considerable weight load endurability and on the top ofwhich there are divided into a high and a low zones in a flat state. Inwhich, on top of the higher zone, it has a pair of longitudinal guide rails 210 and a longitudinal driving motor 211 therebetween as well as a longitudinal linear feeding driving means 212 driven by said longitudinal driving motor. The longitudinal linear feeding driving means 212 can drive the longitudinal movement of longitudinal movable supporting table 22 having a slide underneath and capable of longitudinal moving along the guide rails. On top of the longitudinal movable supporting table 22 it still has another pair of lateral guide rails 220. Moreover, at one side of the top of the stand 21, there is provided with a lateral driving motor 221 which can actuate the lateral linear feeding driving means 222, which in turn drives another lateral movable supporting table 223 having a slide underneath and capable of lateral moving along the guide rails.Furthermore, on the lateral movable supporting table 23, there are a pair of vertical guide rails 230 and a vertical driving motor 231 and the latter can drive a vertical feeding driving means 232, additionally, can be provided with a weight pneumatic cylinder 233. All of the above longitudinal, lateral and vertical linear feeding driving means can be covered by a protection cover (preferably a shrinkable one) and not exposed.

Again with reference to Figs. 2, 3 and 4, roughening means for the sole edge 1 comprises a cantilever 11, a brush wheel motor 110 ofwhich the rotation speed conrtolled by a frenquency converter, a pair of driving means 111 with belt wheel driving and gear direction alteration, one or two wheel 112 made of wire brush, a spring resilience regulating means 113, a pneumatic supporting means 114, a roughening brush wheel pitching driving motor 115, a linear feeding driving means 116, a quide rail 1160, and provided on the linear feeding driving means 116, a pitman 117 stopped by the supporting arm 118 for the wheel driving components.

Further, at the end of the supporting arm 118, there is a pivot 14.

Further referring to Figs. 2, 3 and 4 , in the above sole edge roughening means 1, the revolution and the orthoreverse turn of the wheel motor 110 are controlled by the frequency converter. While the brush wheel motor 110 revolves, the brush wheel 112 is brought to rotate via the driving means 111 with a belt wheel driving and a gear reversing mechanisms. The rotation speed of the brush wheel 112 should depend on the size of the brush wheel, the diameter of the wire brush, the motion of the stand 2 in the direction of longitudinal, lateral and vertical axis in order to achieve the function of sole roughening in conformity with different material and shoe type.It should be emphasized that brush wheel 112 rotates around two parallel longitudinal axis and for the purpose that contact is maintained during roughening various types and materials of sole edge with the brush wheel 112 whithout detachment or too deep a roughening, a spring resilience regulating means 113 are used to regulate the pressure exerted on the brush wheel 112 by the spring. However, while presetting the roughening path of the brush wheel and sharpening the brush wheel, the brush wheel is supported by the pneumatic cylinder 114 and kept in a fixed position. And the roughening wheel pitching driving motor 115 controls a linear feeding driving means 116 and via guiding with guide rails, pushes the pitman 117 to have the brush wheel 112 and the supporting arm 118 for the wheel driving components pendulate around the pivot 119 on the cantilever 11.Thus, during the operations of path pre-setting and roughening, the brush wheel is always maintained in perpendicular state to the sole curvature to obtain the optimum roughening effects The above described motion of a sole edge roughening means 1 in directions of longitudinal, lateral and vertical axis is controlled by moving means on the stand 21 wherein, stand 21 is a supporting base for providing motions in directions of longitudinal, lateral and vertical axis; the front zone of the stand 21 is used to support the footwear retaining means; the longitudinal guide rails 210 equipped on the stand 21 is used as a guide for the longitudinal motion without deviation; a longitudinal driving motor 211 controlls the longitudinal linear feeding driving means 212 to provide and control the location of a coordinate in ordinate axis; a longitudinal movable supporting table 22 is installed on longitudinal guide rails 210, onwhich lateral guide rails are installed to guide the lateral motion not to deviate and additionally, onwhich lateral driving motor 221 is installed to control the lateral linear feeding driving means 222 to provide and control the position of abscissa; a lateral movable supporting table 23 is installed on abscissa axial guide rails 220 to provide the installation of vertical guide rails and guide the motion in perpendicular direction not to deviate; on the lateral movable supporting table, a vertical driving motor 231 is mounted to be used to control the vertical feeding driving means 232 to provide and control the coordinate position in the vertical direction.A weight pneumatic cylinder 233 is used to balance the out-moving center of gravity caused by the outsuspending of the cantilever assembly, and to avoid too much a deviation of load when the vertical driving motor 231 is in upward-downward motion which effects the location precision and the service life thereof.

The cantilever 11 described above is mounted on the vertical guide rails 230; accordingly, the sole edge roughening means 1 can get a three-dimensional curvature motion by controlled with the linear motion of the above stand in the lateral. longitudinal and vertical axes of coordinates, and then coupled with regulation of the pitching angle of the roughening brush wheel, the roughening operation for the bottom of the footwear fixedly clamped can be completed through previous teaching and setting memory for the brush wheel about the motion in ordinate axis.

abscissa axis, vertical axis and pitching angle.

Still referring to Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5, the footwear retaining means 3 comprises a bracket 31, a shoe tip clamping means 310, a locking and fixing means 311, a slide means 312, a head seat 313, a shoe length measuring device 314, a guide slide rail 315, a supporting body 316, an upper press plate 317, a lower support block 318, a heel left and right clamping device 319, a left or right shoe identifying device 320, a brush wheel trimming device 321, a trimming location sensor device 322, and a tail seat 323, etc. In which, various constructions are immobilized on the bracket 31 and the latter is locked and fixed on the front zone of the stand 2; the shoe tip clamping means 310 is composed of a pair of left and right slanted strut 310A, 310B and an upper pressing blcok 310 in order to clamp fixedly the shoe tip in a manner of left and right slant faces and upper pressing. The shoe tip clamping means is immovably mounted on the slide means 312. In addition, there is sensor switch on the shoe tip clamping means 310 and the tail seat 323.

When a footwear is put into the footwear retaining means 3, by triggering the sensor switch on the tail seat 323 or that of the shoe tip clamping means 310, a pneumatic cylinder pulling slide 312 moves towards the tail seat 323 in order to clamp footwears of different size. While clamping a vamp, signals sensed by the sensor switches on each of the shoe tip clamping means 310 and the tail seat 323 are used as the basis for sending a vamp clamping signal.At this time, the locking and fixing means 311 is energized to lock and fix the slide means 312 on the guide slide rail 315 which has one end fixed on the head seat 313 and the other on the tail seat 323; when the slide means 312 withdraws back to a given spot toward the head seat 313, i.e. the reference basal coordinates for shoe length measurement, the shoe length measuring device 314 is fixed on the slide means 312 and preferably is Encorder, Resolver and the like decoder. When the shoe length meansuring device 314 clamps the vamp toward the tail seat 323 along with the slide means 312 and the shoe length data is obtained to be used as the basis for grading the size of shoes.While an operator put a shoe in the footwear retaining means 3, the shoe is temporarily supported in a manner of supporting in threespots by a support body 316 having two rollers and provided on the guide slide rail 315 and by a lwoer support block supporting upwardly from the table support 31 to avoid the footwear drop or tilt; the operator has no need on one hand to grasp the footwear and on the other hand to touch the sensor switch, he just places the footwear and arbitrary touches the sensor switch on the shoe tip clamping device 310 or on the tail seat 323, the vamp will be sequencially automatically clamped in accordance with the program commenced from this signal.On the meanwhile of the slide device sliding toward the tail seat 323 to clamp the footwear in the length direction, the upper press plate 317 will be actuated and shake up to the highest position; then, the lower support block 318 supports the footwear tight. At this time, the upward facing sole has a height corresponding to the brush wheel 112 of the cantilever 11 assembly as a set basal position, and the axes in longitudinal, lateral, vertical and pitching directions have the path movement control according to the this basal position in order to achieve the automatic roughening objective.After the vamp is supported tight from up and down directions, the clamping device 319 for clamping the heel from left and right directions having two retaining piece is actuated and fixes the shoe; in the same time, a left-right identification device 320 connected with the left-right clamping device 319 withdraws by the actuation of the pneumatic cylinder 320a, resulting in the potentiometer 320b connected at the same immovable block extends out to touch the margin of the shoe, and then by the different potential difference generated by the unequal distance between the outer margin and the inner waist to the central line, the lefe-right identification device automatic detects the footwear as a left of right shoe. Thus, the automatic identification and automatic grading data effects are achieved.After the compurter controller operats the data, a suitable curvature path on the sole is automatically formed. A brush wheel trimming device 321 is provided owing to following so many times of grinding with the brush wheel, the waste chips will adhere and result in a poor grinding effect. When it happens, the brush wheel 112 will first touch the trimming spot sensor 322 used as the basis of changes of outer diameters of the brush wheel before and after the trimming, and second, the brush wheel 112 is rotated to touch the brush wheel trimming device 321 (may be sand wheel) to sharpen itself. This brush wheel trimming device can be made to be driven by a moter or ratchet immovable trimming in one way by hands.

Pneumatic control means 4 is a supplemental appliance to have the vaious devices of the invention automatic operate according to the program set by the computer controller wherein, each pneumatic control means comprises mainly, an electromagnetic valve, a manual valve, a check valve, a flow control valve, a pressure regulation valve, three points combination (conventional filter, pressure regulation valve, lubricator), pressure gauge, joint, lines and the like. The pneumatic control means are installed at the weight pneumatic cylinder 233, the pneumatic support device 114, the shoe tip clamping device 310, the locking means 311, the slide device 312, the upper press plate 317, the lower support block 318, the left-right clamping device 319 for the heel, the left-right identification device 320 and the like action mechanisms.

Furthermore, above the brush wheel of the sole edgeroughening apparatus according to the invention, there is equipped with a dust abatement means 5 which comprises dust abating fan motor, fan, filter, pipe and dust extracting hood and which may extracts the grinding dust away from the surface of the workpiece by the motor driven fan.

The roughening operation performed by the sole edge automatic roughening machine according to the invention is controlled by a computerized numerical control system, as shown in Fig. 6, which comprises a master control computer 61, and operation control station 62 and a servo power module 63 wherein, the master control computer 61 comprises a power supplier 61A, a master control panel 61B, a communication interface card 61C, an input-output interface card 61D, a digital/analogue conversion interface card 61E and a position instruction generator 61F to achiever a servo synchronism of each axis, a path control panel 61G and the k like.The master control computer 61 is a main control center for the sole roughening machine and is responsible for executing all the operation in the course of the roughening operation, teaching the spots on the working path and the storage thereof, calculating the spots on the patch track and the maneuver and control of the peripheral machines and tools. The operation control station 62 is used to control the power switch for the whole system of the Invent ion, inwhich the display teaching box 76 controlled by the microcomputer has functions such as, output various information during the course of operation, receive the control and command from the operator, and teaching the path for the shoe pattern etc.During the teaching, the operator is not necessary to teach in sequencial according to the shoe pattern path, but arbitrarily teaches the pa-th spots and the spots are sequenced by the master control computer to form a complete shoe pattern path. The servo power module includes a servo driver 63A for driving four direction driving motors on the machine body to achieve tracing the path track during the roughening operation. At the same time, an additional converter 63B controls the revolution rate change for the brush wheel motor 110 working on different shoe materials to control the quality of roughening. Moreover, the input-output interface card 61D is connected to an input module 63D, outpur module 63 and a decoder 314 of the shoe length measuring device.

The software framework of the system of the invention is as shown in Fig. 7 which comprises a main module 70, a human-machine interface module 71, a communication interface module 72, a work execution module 73, a shoe pattern spot editing module 74, a condition setting module 75, a teaching box 76, a CPU communication interface module 77, a shoe pattern path calculation module 78, a cantilever motion module 79 and an input-output module 80 wherein, the main module 70 is employed to receive the user's instruction, execute the forward, back to the origin, grinding the sole, editing the shoe pattern spots, setting the working condition, communicating with the CPU and the like actions.

The human-machine interface module 71 is responsible for transmitting word series to be displayed on the teaching device and receiving the key code or word series transmitted from the teaching device. The communication interface module 72 is delicated for transmitting a group of data and receiving the data sent. The work executing module 73 measures the size of the shoe, identify the left or right shoe pattern according to the work numbers assigned by the user, rate and the like data, and thereafter selects a suitable path to execute the roughening work.The shoe pattern spot editing module 74 is used to open or close a given shoe pattern file, set the parameters for the shoe pattern file for the purpose of letting the user add, modify or delete the spots taught, automatic sequencing the shoe pattern spots taught and observe the mechanical arm's motion path beforehand but not roughening. The condition setting module 75 is dedicated for setting the logic origin, resetting the execution times right now, observing the size of the grinding wheel, setting the upper limit of the using times for the grinding wheel, setting the sutomatic executed shoe pattern and speed, and setting the starting and stopping points for the cantilever. The CPU communication interface module is used to communicate with the grinding mechanisms and send files.The shoe pattern calculation module 78 carries out the track programming for the shoe pattern path based on the user's shoe pattern filing data.

The cantilever motion module is used to provide functions for the cantilever motion, in addition, based on the left or rith foot judgement, has the mirroring of the path track.

The input-output module 80 provides operation functions to the pneumatic control means and measures the left or right foot and the shoe length. The motor driving module 81 multiaxial synchronized function for the cantilever.

In view of the above, the sole edge automatic roughening apparatus according to the invention acutally exhibits the effects of precisely roughening and structural simplicity and these effects can really improve the disadvantages of the conventional one, such as, high cost and sophisticated operation resulting in an inaccurate roughening for the sole edge.

In view of the foregoing description, those of ordinary skill in the art will undoubtedly envision various modifications to the present invention which would not depart form the inventive concepts disclosed herein. It is therefore expressly intended that the above description should be considered as only that of the preferred embodiment. The true spirit and scope of the present invention may be determined by reference to the appended claims.

Claims (8)

1. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus comprising: a footwear retaining device for fixing a footwear piece; a sole edge roughening device for roughening the bottom circumference of the footwear piece retained by the footwear retaining device; a cantilever assembly for supporting the sole edge roughening device; and drive means for driving the cantilever assembly and the roughening device to move along the circumference of the sole; characterized in that the drive means is provided with support means for the overall apparatus, the support means bearing guide rail means for moving the cantilever and the sole edge roughening device in the longitudinal, lateral and vertical directions.

2. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edgeroughening apparatus of claim- 1 which is further characterized in that the sole edge roughening device comprises a cantilever, a brush wheel motor having the revblutionspeed controlled by a frequency converter, a pair of belt wheel driving and gear directional alternationdriving devices, one or two pairs of brush wheels made of steel wire brushes, a spring resilience regulating device, a pneumatic supporting device, a roughening brush wheel pitching drive motor, a linear feeding drive device, a quide rail and a pitman provided on the linear feeding drive device.

3. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus of claim 1 which is further characterized in that the footwear retaining device comprises a bracket, a shoe tip clamping device, a locking and fixing device, a slide device, a head seat, a shoe length measuring device, a guide slide rail, a supporting body, an upper press plate, a lower support block, a heel left-right clamping device, a left-right shoe identifying'device, a brush wheel trimming device,- a trimming location sensor device and a tail seat wherein, all the constructions are ismobilized on the barcket locked and fixed on the front zone of the stand; the shoe tip clamping device is composed of a pair of left and right slanted struts and an upper press block in order to immovably clamp the shoe tip in a three-point manner, i.e. the left and right slant faces and the upper press, which is stably mounted on the slide device and there are sensor switches on the shoe tip clamping device and the tail seat.

4. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus of claim 1 or claim 3 wherein, the left-right shoe identifying device in the footwear retaining device is composed of a pair of (left-right) symmetric pneumatic cylinders and a pair of (left-right) symmetric potentiometers in which, the potentiometer is brought to touch the shoe margin by the actuation of the pneumatic cylinder in such a manner that the sensing function is achieved and then by the potential difference between the left and right potentiometers to decide whether the footwear is a left or right one.

5. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus of claim 1 wherein, above the brush wheel there is equipped with a dust abatement apparatus which comprises a dust extraction fan motor, a fan, a filter, lines and dust extraction hood in order that the grinding dust produced during the sole roughening operation is extracted away from the surface of the workpiece by the fan driven by the dust extraction motor.

6. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus of claim 1 wherein, the working points on the path for the shoe pattern roughening are keyed in on the circumferential path of a sample sole by the cantilever assembly Jand roughening device directed by a teaching box, which has different density of points input in accordance to the curvature of the sole roughened path.

7. A computerized numerical control automatic sole edge roughening appparatus of claim 1 wherein, in the process of teaching the path working spots, it has no need to teach in sequencial, but can arbitrarily teach the shoe pattern path spots and then sequencing by a master control computer to complete a shoe pattern path in such a manner that it is convenient for the user to teach the input and modify the path.

8. A computerised numerical control automatic sole edge roughening apparatus substantially as hereinbefore defined with reference to Figures 2-7 of the accompanying drawings.