US1868928A - Method of making shoe-filler - Google Patents

Description

July 26, 1932.

A. THOMA METHOD OF MAKING SHOE FILLER Filed Sept. 27, 1929 m w a j Patented July 26, 1932 ANDREW. THOMA, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGIIOR TO NORTH AMERICAN.

PATENT OFFICE CHEMICAL COMPANY, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSA:

CHUSETTS METHOD OF MAKING SHOE-FILLER Application filed September 27, 1929. Serial No. 395,665.

This application is for the process of mak ing the product claimed in my copending application Serial No. 395,664 filed September 27, 1929.

The advancing requirements of shoe manufacture and especially of present styles, call for lightness of the plastic or spreadable shoe filler and permanency, almost stiffness in fact, when in its ultimate spread and laid condition inthe shoe-bottom cavity of the finished shoe. Accordingly my present invention is a method of providing extreme lightness, stiffness and permanency as well as reduced cost in the shoe filler by employing as a considerable part of the bulk giving portion of the filler light weight binder and body material. The binder, wax tailings, heretofore commonly employed, has been Very heavy. One of the striking novelties of my invention is not only to employ chiefly a light weight binder, but to employ said binder in the dual capacity of both body material and binden. This accomplishes the use of a large proportion of said light weight'material and it accomplishes various other unexpected advantages. In other words my new filler consists of body material, body-binder-material, and binder; To this end I employ the ,hard kinds of binder materials, especially the hydrocarbons, such as rosin, resin gums, asphalts, bituminous materials, and the like, and I preferably employ these in the form of ground particles or granulations instead of in a melted condition as always heretofore. For example certain grades of rosin are lighter in weight or of higher specific gravity than certain grades of cork. For accomplishing the light weight feature of my in vention. I select therefor the light weight binder material and of such a hardness that it can be ground the same as the cork or other inert or woody matter. preferably grinding the two together, or otherwise providing the hard binder material in decimated form or granulations of proper size to function as body material and as the latent binder portion of the filler mass, giving" both bulk an Quality to th structural cons stency of the filler commercially and then later in use.

In making my filler, the woody or comminuted fibrous portion of the body material 1s preferably first soaked in hot water, s01- uble Oll, soap solution, and/or any of the gas or steam or ebullition producing constituents.

ments and aids in the subsequent rapidity of the shoe-bottom filling operation. Heat, dry, moist or wet, or the gas or other expansionmeans just mentioned constitute other means and steps toward the same ends. The preliminary soaking ofthe fibrous body-material is to conduce to ultimate lightness by first swelling or distending the cork and then interposing therein this barrier to prevent the otherwise inevitable soaking of the cork or loading thereof with the heavy, sluggish soft wax tailin gs. Also the oiled or solubleoil-containing cork or other absorbent body material is more lively, resilient, tough. more easily spread. more easily conditioned (because more readily absorbent or responsive to steam or'to melted binder, even if sealed) than natural or dry cork (untreated) which is dead, dry, brittle, etc. Still further life. resilience and lightness is preferably secured by fixing the soapy solution or the like in the cork permanently, which may be done by introducing any reacting agent such as a preferably weaksolution of sulphate of aluminum. The reacting agent precipitates the soluble fatty acid radical such as the soap solution, into an insoluble aluminum stearate. Asa generic term for the treatment with, oil, grease, fat, soap and the like I refer to it as a conditioning with unctuous substance or as an unctuous treatment. Preferably the aforesaid fixing or setting step takes place before thebinder is introduced, but it may b 'later, the setting agent then being mixed in as dry powder into the binder, to be rendered active by the subsequent steaming step in laying the filler, or it may lT-Q'lHiJYOClUCSCl as a liquid setting or reacting agent whenever desired. The comminuted body-material, preferably fibrous and preferably soaked, swelled, and set as. thus ex panded, to promote resilience and lightness, is then sprayed or otherwise coated with hot fluid resins or any of the hard hydrocarbons already mentioned, preferably also the high gravity or very light Weight kinds, preferably while the comminuted body material is being agitated in a mixer. This promotes still further lightness of the final filler. By this process each granule or particle of the finely ground woody or mineral matter or other comminuted body material is provided with a very thin fine coat of the hard high melting material which instantly sets hard as it strikes the granules. in such case, the coating is preferably heavy and, whether the bodyparticles have uniform size or not, the desired evenness may besecured by sieving or forcing the coated particles, slightly warm, through a desired mesh. This pro vides a finely coated body material which is at least partly high-heat responsive. Then this body material is united into a sticky mass by being mixed with as thin a coating as possible of low melting sticky wax tailings or any'of the other stron ly sticky and permanently plastic, adhesive and coherent low melting binders. The low melting soft wax tailings is preferred and is in a hot and very fluid condition when being intermixed with the coated body granules so as to envelope the granules thinly and yet suiiiciently tohold the mass together as a coherent body, capable of being shaped into a commercial parcel for shipping, storing and general handling. The amount of this very soft and easily fluid binder may be largely varied according to the proportion of granular hydrocarbons and the like which are next introfibrous body material and the soft or low melting wax tailings or other hydrocarbons, I introduce into the mixer therewith hard hydrocarbons of the kind or kinds previously menti oned,preferably of the very lightweight variety or varieties, said hard material being in dry ground particles or granulations.

This granular mass of hard binder materialin a wholly unmeltedcondition or inherently dry, is then mixed thoroughly into and throughout the still warm and miscible materials which. have just been mixed together. The result is that the small chunks or particles of hard binder material in their ground or broken condition are incorporated as thoroughly throughoutthe filler mass as the fibrous or other body material. The granules of binder mater al now occupy the position of body material side by side with the other body material throughout the mass. Under ordinary heat these granules are incapable of acting as binder but only as body material. In other words as the active binder or low melting wax tailings responds readily to low heat, it-will be seen that my invention greatly assistsat the shoe factory in getting the filler mass soft for use. It quickens or speeds up the conditioning step. Likewise it is much easier to spread. Thus it saves time and heat. Also it is low cost. Likewise it can be made very light weight, depending on the coating of latent high-heat-responsive stiffener and also on the ground or granulated hard latent binder to furnish both the necessary volume (body material) and also the necessary high grade binding quality for the laid mass as will presently be explained. To still further promote the quick stiflening and the lightness of the laid filler I introduce into the soft wax tailings binder powdered rosin, asphalt or other dry latent binder. Before the mixture has hardened or set, and while it is still soft, I preferably incorporate the same by blowing said powder on the soft binder coating or into the soft wax tailings binder, preferably during the mixing process, finely decimated hard binder material such as the asphalt, hydrocarbons and the like already mentioned. This forms the double office of constituting a dulling powder to reduce the mass quickly to a dough-like stability and also it introduces the high melting point element already explained. Such dry or hard binder material, whether as chunks, coatings, powder or the like, I term bodybinder. It constitutes body-material or is simply a space-occupier unless and until fused in the use of the filler. T he functioning of the body-binder material, or such portion thereof as is ultimately melted in the process of filling the shoe-bottom cavities, as a high grade binder and stiffener does not take place until the filler has been actually placed in the shoe. Then the deposited filler is subjected to a sudden high heat preferably by a super-heated spreading roll. This momentary extra melting heat fluxes 0r fluidifies the hard ground coating and also the particles or granulations of body-binder that the roll comes in contact with and the simultaneous flowing or filler-spreading act unites the same throughout the laid filler so that the suddenly melted and united ingredients, which previously ramified the filler as separated particles and as inert chunks, now ramify the layer as a united stiffener as soon as the high heat is removed. On the other hand, the unfused particles and chunks and coatings remain as space-occupiers or simply body-material. As the hot roll flows the filler with its spreading action.v the roll comes in contact with more or less of the hard parti cles throughout the mass, melting the same and flux ng them with the soft binder and causing them to stick likewise to the rest of the body material. By the same means and act the sudden high-heat likewise melts or softens more or less of the hard coatings so far as the super hot tool contacts therewith, which cooperates with the rest of the melted and fiuxed binder to insure positive, direct and permanent gripping together of all the body particles into one strong, stiffened but yet flexible, homogeneous sheet or spread layer of filler throughout the'cavity. The body material consists now of both the woody particles and such of their coatings as have not been fused but still remain such and also such of the hard particles of binder material as may not have been fused. I refer to this new kind of body material as body-binder material. The final laid filler in the finished shoe has a permanency, stiffness (i. c. it is rigid and nonstretchable) and hardness heretofore impossible, and is thereafter not subject'to bunching or shifting and is not amenable to low heat such as a shoe would ever be subjected to in use. The particular hard binder that I prefer is blown asphalt. This is a residuum petroleum of the beltic base variety treated until it is substantially saturated with oxygen or at least until its character is changed into permanent flexibility or pliability so as to eliminate its natural brittleness by becoming toughened by oxygenating treatment to the extent known by the name in the trade of blown asphalt. I have found this material has remarkable and unexpected advantages in carrying out my invention. A shoe bottom filler piece made with this blown asphalt is'non-sticky externally as an article of manufacture, softens and readily becomes spreadable, and, under the sudden high heat treatment explained, becomes permanently pliable when thus laid in the shoe bottom, never becomes liable to bunch, is very strongly adherent to leather, so that the blown asphalt layer can never shift in the shoe bottom, is not responsive so as to soften under any heat to which the shoe would be exposed in use, is tough and durable beyond the ordinary life of the shoe, needs no backer and strengthening element as a filler component within or on the piece, is cheap, without waste in manufacture and use, and is always clean.

If preferred, the spraying or coating of the fine woody particles or other comminuted body-material may be omitted, depending upon the subsequent step of the application of the sudden high heat tounite the particles by means of such of the hard particles of bind er as are thereby melted and forced into gripping on, "emont with the woody or other particles the layer is spread. In

' such case the comminuted body material,

preferably first wetted or and pretreated alrea explained, is united into the desired pro 'n .y sticky mass by lie-- interm xed with the soft or low meltin binder, preferably wax tailin gs, and the rd chunl-ls or particles of hydrocarbon or the are once mire d into the st til the latter is ky mixture unor doughy the same before, and/or powd red latent bind-era's blow into the mass being mixed or is otherwise introduced. Or the hard binder may be secured sufficiently by a heavier spraying and the introduction of the hard, high-heat particles. dry maythen be omitted. in all these ways I add a firmer filler mass to a softer filler mass to make the complete shoe-filler. The method of use'of such filler or method of filling shoes therewith is claimed in my copending application Ser. No. 338,320 filed Aug. 26, 1929.

The natural absorption of the soft wax tailing's by the cork or the like is prevented by the moistening of the cork or the saturation thereof with the repelling water, soap,

etc, and preferably the cushioning stearate precipitate, and the sudden high heat tends to convert some of this repelling moisture into steam thereby facilitating the spreading movement, but as the high heat application is so momentary, and the soft wax tailings binde is preferably only such a thin coa g mply to hold the parts together (in the preferred embodiments mentioned), the cork or other fibrous material is ultimately left very porous. Some of the water is left to evaporate later and to be absorbed by the adjacent leather. The hard or stiffening binder grips the cork particles tenaciously, being much more strongly tenacious than the binders heretofore used or heretofore possible to use by previous methods, and hence the cork particles, having parted with their absorbed water or the like, are held in a porous open condition by the set, tenacious stiffener of the binder, thereby further conducing to the light weight character of the finished layer. This is especially marked in case the fatty content (soluble oil or soap) is set as an insoluble stcarate b y the sulphate of aluminum treatment at the start or later in the process. Even the operator subject-s the filler layer to such pressure as to produce more or less contraction, nevertheless my process leaves the filler mass semi'porous and more porous than before. Other dry inert material may be intro duced along with the dry body binder material capable of being developed by the sunden high heat step into an additional firming or stiffening ingredient. Such ingredients may be ground along with the body material and hard hydrocarbons and introduced into the filler mass therewith the same as already explained. Also pulverized or granulated dulling powders may be introduced. In fact I wish it understood that the final filler may embody most of the features set forth in my copending application Ser. No. 297,630 above referred to.

Summarized, my invention comprises, in this preferred embodiment, the following features. I depend merely on the old method of making filler with ground body material and binder to furnish the foundation base for my new filler and I incorporate therewith latent matter which is developed as a stiffener to the extent determined by the operative at the time of actual installation of the filler as a layer in the shoe-bottom cavity. Preferably the sticky element in the filler, as an article of manufacture, is a minor element to be largely reinforced for strength and stiffness by the latent matter later at the time of filling the shoe-bottom cavity. Also my method is new in the broadest sense in providing the filler with a body forming mass within the compound of any kind which is capable of functioning both as a binder and as a bulk body former. Whether it functions as one or the other depends on whether or not it is fiuxed at the time of being laid in the shoebottom. This may be accomplished in various ways but preferably while it is pressed against or by a super-hot levelling tool or roll. Such portion of this latent body-binder material as does not flux or come into actual fiuxing condition or contact, remains as before the heat rolling process, a particle or portion of the body forming part of the filler. The same is true of the body-bindcr which may be set as a coating by the spraying or other applying process. My invention therefore makes it possible for the operative to determine the relative proportion of stifiness and the relative proportion of body material. If he Wishes the ultimate cavity layer to be extra stiff he maintains the heat at such a very high temperature or in contact with the filler such a period of time as will melt and flux a greater portion of the body-binder ingredient or of the high-melting point ingredient or component, which thereupon sets at once when the heat is removed and leaves the laid filler in a permanently extra rigid condi tion. If he wishes a more flexible and less rigid filler layer in the cavity, he does not apply as much heat or applies it a shorter pe riod. I prefer to employ ,round cork or other fibrous body forming material along with the body-binder material as it makes a more resilient cavity layer, but this fibrous material may be omitted and the entire body material of the filler may be body-binder. Gther features and details of my invention are set forth elsewhere herein and in the appended claims.

In order to present my method more visually distinct I refer to the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 shows in section a piece of bulk filler made according to my method;

Fig. 2 shows a section of a died-out filler piece embodying my invention;

3 is an enlarged or magnified section of a cork granule sprayed as explained; and

F 4 is a sectional view of a mass or bulk of filler made in connection with the spraying step. 7

Referring to the drawing, F 1 shows a bulk or mass of filler 1 composed of ground cork or other uusual fibrous or other com- Fig.

minuted body material 2, preferably soaked and so treated, as explained, as to remain distended and light-Weight (the stearate treatment), some or all of which particles have a coating 3 of high-melting-point body binder material of any of the hard kinds previously mentioned. These coated particles are surrounded or mixed in with wax tailings or other soft binder 4, preferably dulled with powdered latent binder or body-binder. I then intermix with the foregoing elements 2, 3 and 4 ground or comminuted dry particles 5 of high heatresponsive body binder.

The step of setting the cork, or the precipitation and other cork-treatment previously mentioned, is preferably accomplished before mixing the filler. In fact, it may be long before, and the cork then dried and stored for later use. Or it may be accomplished at the period. of mixing, or when filling the shoebottom cavity, in which latter case the precipitating agent is contained in the filler in an inactive condition and rendered active by the steaming of the filler for spreading or by the water pressed from the cork, for example, by the spreading roll or by the leveller. Also the requisite chemicals for this setting or fixing treatment, as already explained, may be provided in connection with treating the cork or treating the binder, and in either case the filler may be mixed either before or after the fixing or setting takes place. Certain other phases of this general subject are contained in my applications Ser. No. 336,908 filed Feb. 29, 1929 and Ser. No. 389,872 filed Aug. 31, 1929.

In Fig. 3 I have shown a granule 6 of cork (or, as previously explained, it may be a granule of rosin or any other body binder material in chunk or dry solid fragmentary form), greatly magnified, in order to show the thin film or covering 3 of the hard body binder as it is sprayed thereon in a spray 7 from a nozzle 8. It will be understood that I have simply indicated conventionally the apparatus, as spraying nozzles for liquefied substances which are normally solid are well known commercially.

In Fig. 2 the same elements are shown in the form of a filler piece moulded into a shape-maintaining coherent and compressed self-supporting piece as an article of manufacture, containing a predetermined volume for filling a single shoe-bottom as set forth and claimed in my application Ser. No. 297,630 aforesaid. Fig. 2 shows this piece having the latent stiffener or body binder material 5 denser in the upper part, so that when a high heat tool, preferably a roll as indicated at 9, is pressed down thereon, as shown in Fig. 2, more or less of the material 5 is suddenly melted and flowed along with the rest of the spreading piece and intermingled and spread more intimately with the body materials 2, 3 to give strength, permanency and stiffness to the filler layer as it finally exists in the shoe-bottom cavity. This method of use is contained in my aforesaid application Ser. No. 338,320. If the coated particles are present as shown, some of their coatings are melted by contact with the roll 9 and serve, upon setting, to hold the layer tenaciously together as well as stiffer. As already explained, the filler, in bulk or in piece, may omit various of the elements and be made with the various combinations ofelements previously mentioned, according to the particular advantages, economies and requirements of different grades and kinds of shoes and conditions of use and other circumstances.

For example, Fig. t shows a filler mass 10 as made in connection with the spraying step, the sprayed granules being united by soft binder i the same as in Figs. 1 and 2 to constitute the bulk filler or it may be the piece embodiment if preferred.

This application is a continuation in part of my previously mentioned applications where the advantages of hard, tenacious, high melting point material are set forth, particularly the high melting point asphalts, and where the formation of the filler into a selfsupporting spreadable piece of standardized shape and other detailed construction is explained at greater length and duly claimed. I there enter into greater detail as to the advantages and disadvantages of the low melting variety of hydrocarbon binder, especially of a paraffin base and its advantage in connection with hard asphalts or other high melting hydrocarbons in aiding the laying by preventing the heated laying tool from sticking unduly, and also point out that when made in a finished dense individual piece even with a crust, top layer or upper portion of high-melting material as in Fig. 2 herein, the danger of smooching and staining and tool clinging are minimized or eliminated. Because of their high melting point, materials of the nature of asphalts having 150200 melting point could not be used in mass in a kettle or usual filler apparatus as heretofore practiced with plastic fillers of the present day and earlier. The reasons are set forth in more detail in my copending application Ser. 838,320 aforesaid. The latter application also sets forth a method which requires extra high heat for the preliminary softening of the piece to make it spreadable properly in the shoe-bottom cavity, the latter also requiring more or less heat. Accordingly I have omitted to set forth herein the wide range of variations in materials etc. because the same are set forth and explained fully in the aforesaid two copending applications. The preferred embodiment of my filler, as herein set forth, is readily influenced by low heat for its preliminary conditioning, and hence simply requires for said preliminary softening a very low-heat pan like a glue pot or culinary cooker where the heated water jacket prevents injury or undue heating of the filler mass while maintaining it sufficiently soft for the operator to lift into the shoebottom and then apply the second step, viz.

the super-heating by means of a spatula, such for instance as shown in my Patent No. 87 8,688 of February 11, 1908.

I claim:

r 1. The art of making heat plastic, spreadable, shoe-bottom filler, which comprises melting a soft, sticky, cementitious, lowheat melting point binder, and mixing but not fusing with said melted low-heat melting point binder, hard high-heat melting point body binderselected from the group consisting of asphalt, rosin, resin gums, bitumen and hard hydrocarbon, in the form of small, discrete, segregated units in a dry, hard state, thereby to produce a heat plastic filler mass capable of being sufiici-ently softened for spreading in a shoe bottom cavity by low heat adapted to soften the soft binder without softening the hard body binder, the hard body binder being adapted to be softened and blended with the soft binder by the sudden brief application of high heat.

2. The art of making heat plastic, spreadable, shoe-bottom filler, which comprises melting a soft, sticky, cementitious, low-heat melting point binder, and mixing but not fusing with said melted low-heat melting point binder, hard high-heat melting point binder selected from the group consisting of asphalt, rosin,resin gums, bitumen and hard hydrocarbon, in a dry, hard, comminuted state, thereby to produce a heat plastic filler mass capable of being sufficiently softened for spreading in a shoe bottom cavity by low heat adapted to soften the soft binder without softening the hard body binder, the hard body binder being adapted to be softened and blended with the soft binder by the sudden, brief application of high heat.

3. The art of making heat plastic, spreadable, shoe-bottom filler, which comprises preparing a comminuted, fibrous body material by coating its individual particles with hard, high-heat melting point binder selected from the group consisting of asphalt, rosin, resin gums, bitumen and hard hydrocarbon, meltmg a soft, sticky, cementltious, low-heat meltmg point binder, and mixing said coated particles of body material with said melted lowheat melting point binder without fusing or blending the high-heat melting point coatings with the low-heat melting point binder. Signed by me at Cambridge, Massachusetts, this twenty-seventh day of J uly, 1929.

ANDREW THOMA.

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