US3435474A - Automatic edge trimmers - Google Patents

Description

April 1, 1969 H. A. IMHOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS led April 19, 1967 I of 9 Sheet fizz/en for Herman/l lm/vof' By his/ Norway April 1, 1969 H. A IM HOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS Sheet 2 01'9 Filed 'April 19, 1967 April 1, 1969 H. A. IMHOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS Sheet Filed April 19, 1967 April 1, 1969 H. A. IMHOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS Sheet Filed April 19, 19 67 April 1, 1969 H. A. lMHOF 3,435,474

AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS Filed April 19, 1967 Sheet 5 of 9 April 1, 1969 H. A. lMHOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS Sheet 6 of Filed April 19, 1967 April 1, 1969 H. A. IMHOF AUTOMATI C EDGE TRIMMER S Sheet Filed April 19, 1967 I H. A. lMHOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMERS April 1, 19 9 Filed April 19,1967

Api'il 1, 1969 H. A. lMHOF AUTOMATIC EDGE TRIMMEHS Sheet Filed April 19, 1967 wNh NNQ United States Patent 0 U.S. Cl. 12-89 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A through feed finishing machine for unattached shoe soles having biased rotatable tools mounted in pairs for operation on opposite sides of the soles. Each rotating tool is powered by an individual motor and each tool is provided with a pressure equalizing means mounted opposite the tool to assist in keeping the sole moving along a path through the machine during the operation resulting in a uniform cut. The sole is urged at a uniform speed through the machine by knurled drive rolls and holddown rolls acting in pairs, placed along the path of travel at positions closer together than the shortest sole to be finished.

Background of the invention Field of the invention-This invention relates to shoe machines and in particular to machines which automatically perform finishing operations upon unattached shoe soles.

Description of the prior art-Finishing operations upon shoe soles, both insoles and outsoles, have previously been performed in separate and distinct steps, each requiring constant attention of a skilled operator. For example, edge trimming, even though done on an automatic machine, has required an operator to place each sole upon the machine and then remove the same following the operation. The addition of the time for individual operators to burnish, ink and size stamp the soles has resulted in a time consuming and expensive operation.

. Summary of the invention It is one of the objects of this invention to produce a machine for performing several finishing operations on an unattached shoe sole automatically without the constant attention of an operator.

Another object of this invention is to produce an automatic machine for sequentially performing finishing operations upon shoe soles independent of the particular style or size, the only exception being when the operation includes size stamping.

The subject machine operates upon a through feed principle, automatically feeding unattached soles from a magazine, and each sole travels through the machine leaving each operation with the same orientation with which it entered.

High fashion shoes incorporate soles, both inner and outer, which have a definitive profile adding materially to the overall appearance of the shoe. The profile of the outsole may consist of a sloping, curved or grooved surface along the outer edge of the sole and is usually incorporated during the finishing operations as opposed to the rough forming operation.

As a feature of this invention, the machine includes an automatic stack feed device upon which the operator may place a stack of unattached soles, the only consideration being that the soles be placed -with the side which will be exposed in .the finished shoe upwardly and the toe facing toward the machine. The feeding device automatically orients the sole such that a line passing along the heel-toe axis will travel along the direction of feed.

3,435,474 Patented Apr. 1, 1969 ice The feeding mechanism also sequentially and individually feeds soles at the appropriate time to prevent jamming or overlapping of the soles during the various operations.

The shoe sole moving along a line through the heeltoe axis sequentially passes through individual finishing operations. Each individual finishing operation is achieved on a through feed principle and independently of other operations, enabling any of the operations to be eliminated from the total machine without alfecting the remaining operations. The sole as it passes through the various operations is retained in the same orientation originally imparted to it by the feed mechanism by the coaction of knurled feed rolls to move the soles between operations and pressure equalizing mechanisms to counterbalance disorienting pressures generated during the finishing operations. The knurled feed rolls acting in conjunction with backup rolls are placed along the path of travel of the sole at a distance less than the length of the shortest sole to be finished. The sole passe between the rolls and is thus urged forward at a constant speed, being under the control of one of these pairs of rolls at all times. Flexing of the sole is simultaneously minimized by the positive control imparted by the feed and backup rolls.

The illustrative machine, although not to be considered definitive, includes for accomplishing the finishing operations, a trimming mechanism which uniformly removes material from the edges of pre-stamped soles as well as imparting fashion characteristics such as edge profile thereto, if such is desired.

To assure that the trimming operation uniformly includes the entire sole, two separate abrasive wheels are used, each abrasive wheel being driven by an individual motor which substantially divorces the operation on one side of the sole from influences of the operation on the other. The abrasive wheels are located on opposite sides of ,the line of travel along the line of feed and have slightly overlapping strokes. Since the abrasive wheels are not directly opposite each other and are mounted on inwardly biased arms, means are provided for counterbalancing the pressure and assuring that ,the sole continues to move along a line through its heel-toe axis.

Following the trimming mechanism in the illustrative machine is the burnishing mechanism which mechanism removes dust left during the trimming operation as well as smoothing points of unevenness left by the abrasive wheels. The burnishing operation, having removed the dust, leaves the sole, in this instance the outsole, in proper physical condition to receive ink along ,the outer edge. If the inking is followed by a stamping operation which places the appropriate size stamp on the sole, the sole leaves the machine in a condition ready for attachment to a shoe upper.

Pneumatic means are provided to initiate the operation and to assure a proper time sequence which will utilize the machine to its maximum capabilities.

The above and other features of the invention, including various novel details of construction and combinations of parts will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims.

Brief description of the drawings FIG. 3 is a plan view of the feed mechanism for themachine;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing the positions of the parts during a feeding cycle;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation, partly in section, showing the feed actuating cylinder during one of the feeding operations;

FIG. -6 is a side elevation view of a portion of the illustrative machine showing mechanisms for trimming and burnishing;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the mechanism shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the trimming portion of the machine;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of one of the bul'nishing wheels;

FIG. 10 is a side elevation of a portion of the illustrative machine showing a mechanism for inking and stamping;

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the portion of the machine shown in FIG. 10.

Description of the preferred embodiments FIG. 1 shows the relative arrangement of the mechanisms of the illustrative machine and includes at the uppermost portion of the figure a feed mechanism F where a stack of unattached soles may be placed .to be automatically fed to the operating portions of the machine. As an unattached sole leaves the feed mechanism F traveling toward the lower right hand corner of the figure, it will sequentially pass through a trimming mechanism T, a burnishing mechanism B, an inking mechanism 1, and a marking station M. Through the use of this machine, a stack of soles which have been roughly diepunched to size are placed by an operator at the feeding station F and when they are released at the exit end of the machine, they are completely finished and ready to be attached to a shoe.

Feed mechanism The illustrative machine includes a plate 2 for supporting the soles throughout the finishing operation, the plate being supported by legs L carried by a base plate P. A stack of soles is placed by an operator upon the plate 2 at the feeding station F (seen best in FIGS. l5) with regard only as to having the soles right side up and .toe forward. To keep the soles in a stack and properly positioned for feeding, a V-shaped gate 4 is adjustably attached to the plate 2 by screws 6 passing through slots 8 in gate 4 and attached to uprights 10 welded to plate 2. The gate 4 is adjusted in accordance with the thickness of the passage of a single sole thereunder.

To further assist in maintaining the stack of soles in proper position for automatic feeding, there is provided in the illustrative machine a weight 12 in the form of a bar. The bar is designed to constantly provide a downward force upon the stack of soles and is suspended above the feeding device by a means not a part of this invention and therefore not shown.

The driving mechanism comprises a reciprocable feed plate 14 having a pair of forwardly extending parallel spaced legs 16, 18 (FIGS. 3 and 4) encompassing a V- notch of sufficient width to cradle the heel of a sole and having a depending bracket 20 at its rearward end. Slidably overlying the plate 14 and having approximately the same shape is an aligning plate 22 which is urged to move with the plate 14 by means of springs 24 and 26 which pull the aligning plate forward against the next outsole to be fed. The plate 22 is moved rearwardly with the plate 14 by upstanding pins on the plate 14. Both plates 14 and 22 are mounted for controlled reciprocal motion between grooved guides 27 attached in parallel along the opposite sides of the plate 2. The depending bracket 20' of feed plate 14 is rigidly attached to a piston rod of a pneumatic cylinder mounted beneath the plate 2 which cylinder provides the necessary motivation for feeding.

The cylinder 38 is a double acting pneumatic motor having a piston rod 40 and two inlets 42, 44. When air is introduced to the forward inlet 42, the piston rod 40 is forced into the cylinder 38 and when air is introduced to the inlet 44, the piston rod 40 is forced out of the cylinder 38.

When the machine is ready to receive a sole for finishing, the plate 1 4 is actuated. The forward movement of the plate 14 causes it to abut the lowermost sole, the heel of the sole being cradled by the V-notch, and to move the sole beneath the gate 4. As the plate 14 is moved forwardly, tension is put upon springs 24, 26 pulling plate 22 to a more forward position.

Plate 22 having a V-shaped groove in its forwardmost edge serves the function of aligning the second from the bottom sole by corralling the sole between the plate 22 and the gate 4 in preparation to be fed by the plate 14, see FIGS. 4 and 5.

As the sole leaves the feed mechanism, passing under the gate 4 it travels beneath a roller 28 which is biased downwardly into cooperative relationship with a knurled drive roll by means of springs 30. Roller 28 is mounted upon a pair of arms 32 pivoted about pins 34 to assure ease in vertical movement in response to the passage of a sole S thereunder.

Secured to the rearward ends of the arms 32 and passing through the main plate 2 are downwardly and rearwardly extending arms 33 interconnected by a cross arm 3-5 carrying a cam member 36 for a purpose to be later described.

To insure proper timing of the feed mechanism with respect to the finishing operations, the depending tab 20 includes at its lowermost end a double acting switch 46 intimately connected to the pneumatic lines which communicate with the cylinder 38. When the double acting switch 46 is in the position shown in FIG. 2, air is ad mitted through the inlet 42 drawing the piston rod 40, depending tab 20 and feed plate 14 to the right thus feeding another sole S into the machine. As the sole passes beneath the roller 28 it pivots arms 32 and 33 with the attached cam member 36 in a counterclockwise direction. When the piston rod 40 has reached its innermost position the double acting switch 46 is adjacent to the sloping cam member 36.

As the sole S advances to a position where it is no longer under the roller 28, said roller drops back to contact the knurled drive roll 100.

The movement of the arms 32 and 33 in a clockwise direction brings the sloping cam member 36 to its uppermost position. The upward movement of the cam member 36 causes the double acting switch 46 to reverse and thus air is forced into the inlet 44 moving the piston rod 40 to its outermost position. To assure continuous feed of outsoles, the piston rod 40 advances to its outermost position at which time the double acting switch contacts a stationary bracket 48 which automatically reverses the double acting switch and restarts the cycle. The feeding cycle will continue without operator care until such time as there are no soles remaining behind gate 4, at which time the weight 12 will prevent further reciprocation of the feeder plate 14.

As the unattached outsole leaves the above described feed mechanism F of the illustrative mechanism, and passes beneath the roller 28, it likewise leaves the control of the feed plate 14. Further forward movement of the sole is provided by the knurled drive roll 100. The combination of the roller 28 which is downwardly biased and the knurled drive roll 100 keeps the sole uniformly moving along a line passing through the heel-toe axis, even though it no longer is engaged by the feed plate 14.

Because of the relative flexibility of the soles as well as their small mass, the support plate 2 is as continuous as possible with the aforementioned and following knurled drive rolls extending through small rectangular openings 50 in the plate 2. The sole is kept in a relatively horizontal position by the coaction of the knurled drive rolls which have their uppermost surfaces generally tangential to the upper surface of plate 2 and downwardly biased rollers acting in vertical planes to keep the sole in contact with the drive rolls.

As an added means for keeping the flexible outsoles against the support plate 2, there is provided an overlying plate 102 (FIGS. 2, 4, 6l0) which is placed at a sufiicient distance above the plate 2 to allow free movement of the soles and yet close enough to prevent warping, buckling, or bending of the flexible sole S during the finishing operations to be performed thereupon.

Spaced along the line of travel of the sole at points closer together than the lentgh of the shortest sole to be finished are further combinations of downwardly biased roller and knurled drive rolls including rollers 104, 106 and knurled drive rolls 108, 110. Because it is important that the soles pass through the finishing operations at a constant speed, each of the drive rolls 100, 108 and 110 is driven by the same motor 112 by means of a chain 114 and equal size sprocket- s 116, 118, and 1-20 keyed to the shafts of drive wheels 100, 108, and 110, respectively. It is to be noted that a spring loaded sprocket 111 is used to keep a continuous tension upon the chain 114 avoiding speed fluctuations caused by a slack chain.

*Further operations may require additional motivating means to avoid overloading the motor. In the illustrative mechanism (best seen in FIG. an additional motor 332 is used to drive a final knurled drive roll 302 and a stamping roll 326. The knurled roll 302 and the sampling roll 326 rotate at the same speed as the other driving rolls since the motor 332 is a twin of the motor 112, and the sprockets 303, 327 which are keyed to the rolls and joined to the motor by chain 334 are the same size as the other drive sprockets.

Trimming and burnishing In the illustrative machine the first finishing operation performed on the sole S is the trimming operation. This operation is accomplished by means of a pair of rapidly rotating abrasive cylinders 122 and 124 (FIGS. 7 and 8) having a peripheral shape complemental to the shape to be imparted to the shoe sole, i.e., sloping, grooved, etc. The abrasive cylinders which extend through and rotate within appropriately placed slots 123 and 125 in plates 2 and 102, are directly driven by means of identical air motors 126, 12 8 (FIG. 6) rigidly attached to the outer ends of swinging arms 130, 132. Because each of the abrasive cylinders must finish one side of the sole they must be able to move freely toward and away from the line along which the toe end foremost sole passes. Likewise, since it is important that the shoe sole have a uniform amount of material removed from its periphery, it is necessary that the combination of the two abrasive cylinders pass along substantially the entire length of said edge.

The removal of a uniform amount of material, without distorting the sole by excess pressure, is accomplished by using separate identical motor for each abrasive cylinder to assure a constant speed of rotation in combination with a constant inward pressure sufi'icient to hold the tool in contact with the sole without bending the edge of the sole. Appropriate coverage of the entire shoe sole is accomplished by placing the abrasive cylinders and their attached motors not directly opposite each other, but mounting each on separate rotatable, inwardly biased arms, one slightly downstream of the other, allowing each cylinder to reach a little beyond the heel-toe axis during its operation.

It is evident that placing a mass of any size on the end of an arm to be pivoted presents problems of control because of the force moment generated-thereby. In particular, the motors 126, 128 and their attached abrasive cylinders 122, 124 located upon the ends of arms 130, 132 present a formidable mass which will obviously tend to stay at rest when at rest and also to continue any motion once begun. This tendency presents a problem at three critical times; first when the rapidly travelingsole initially contacts the abrasive cylinder, and secondly when the sole has an indentation, i.e., at the shank, and lastly when the heel end of the sole is at the abrasive tool. When the sole initially contacts the abrasive cylinder the impact tends to cause the cylinder to bounce away from the sole, a reaction which would cause uneven removal of material. To counteract this undesirable reaction there has been provided on each arm a dash pot 134, 136 with a one Way valve, allowing the arm and its supported motor and abrasive cylinder to move toward the line of travel without resistance and yet to resist any rapid movement away from the line of travel.

Arms and 132 are pivoted about their down-stream ends which are respectively mounted upon upright shafts 13 8, 1-40 extending between the bottom plate P and the support plate 2 (FIG. 6). Further mounted upon the upright shafts 138, 140 are torsion springs 142, 144 which constantly bias the arms 130, 132 toward the line of travel of the sole, assuring constant contact therewith. The use of the torsion spring further allows easy adjustment of tension on the arm.

Because it is critical to operations further downstream that the shoe sole continue traveling along a line through the center of the machine it is necessary to provide a mechanism in addition to the knurled drive rolls to maintain proper orientation equalizing lateral pressure generated by the finishing operation. In the illustrative machine, this end is accomplished by providing opposite each of the abrasive cylinders an inwardly biased pressure compensation wheel 146, 148 mounted upon the ends of arms 150, 152. Arms 150, 152 are pivoted about the rearwardmost ends and are biased toward the line of travel of the shoe sole by means of springs 154, 156 assuring constant balancing of pressure generated during the trimming operation.

Because of the criticality in the position of the abrasive cylinders 122, 124, when the first contact is made to assure movement to the proper side of the sole, and further because of the spring members which bias the arms inwardly, there is provided in the illustrative machine adjustable stop members 158, 160 for the arms supporting the abrasive cylinders positively stopping inward movement thereof. Likewise, st- op members 162, 164 prevent the pressure equalizing mechanisms 146, 148 from moving inwardly to a point where they would be forced to the incorrect side of a shoe sole.

As the sole leaves the trimming mechanism and passes between the roller 104 and the drive roll 108, it enters, in the illustrative machine, the burnishing station. The burnishing mechanism, which in all essentials is similar to the trimming mechanism, comprises a pair of identical air motors 200, 202 mounted upon inwardly biased pivotal arms 204, 206. Directly attached to the rotating shaft of each motor is a burnishing wheel 208, 210 which has the same exterior profile as the abrasive cylinders 122, 124. The burnishing wheels smooth slight irregularities caused by the abrasive cylinders, i.e., at the point of overlap at the toe of the sole and remove any dust left on the sole by said abrasive cylinders, thus leaving the sole in condition for inking. The joint function of removing the dust and irregularities is accomplished by providing the burnishing wheels with a multiplicity of flat surfaces 209 (FIG. 11). The flat surfaces sufficiently jar the sole to remove the dust but because of the speed of rotation and relative size of the fiat surfaces do not impose any irregularities. It is to be noted that the burnishing wheels likewise have stops 212, 214 controlling the inward movement of their supporting arms and pressure equalizing means 216, 218 including stop means 220, 222.

As the trimmed and burnished sole leaves the burnishing station, it is moved forward under control of a knurled drive roll 110 and its adjoining downwardly biased roller 106 to the inking operation.

Again at a distance along the path of travel of the sole S, less than the length of the shortest sole to be finished, there is located another downwardly biased roller 300 and knurled drive roll 302 to urge the outsole along the line of travel. Between roller 106 and roller 300 there is mounted on the outermost end of an inwardly biased pivotal arm 304 (FIGS. 1 and 9) a mechanism for applying ink to the edge along one side of the sole S. The inking mechanism itself comprises a reservoir 396, a rotating inking wheel 308 and a means for recirculating ink via flexible tube 310. The inking wheel is of any well known material capable of withstanding a great deal of rubbing without material failure and yet of a consistency enabling it to transfer ink from the reservoir 3% to the outer edge of the wheel 308, where it is transferred to the sole. As was the case in the mechanisms previously described, the inking wheel is biased toward the line of travel of the sole by means of a tension spring 312, and has its lateral pressure balanced by means of an inwardly biased pressure equalizing roller 314 mounted on the op posite side of the line of travel of the sole on a pivotal airrn 316 inwardly biased by spring 318. As was the case in the previous operations, arms 304 and 316 are respectively stopped from traveling beyond the line of travel of the heel-toe axis of the sole by means of stops 320, 322.

Following the inking mechanism, above described, the outsole passes by an identical mechanism which inks the opposite side of the outsole. Since the only variation between the mechanism described in the preceding paragraph and that which inks the opposite side of the outsole is the fact that the inking mechanism itself and the pressure equalizing mechanism are on opposite sides, the mechanism is not described, and identical numerals are applied to corresponding parts.

In place of the usual knurled feed roll and the downwardly biased guiding wheel previously described, the final combination of the illustrative mechanism replaces the drive roll with a stamping roll.

The downwardly biased roller 324 holds the outsole firmly against a stamping roll 326 which is adapted to receive interchangeable numerals N to designate the size of the sole which has been finished. As the stamping roll 326 rotates the numeral N comes into contact with an ink roller 328 which lies partly submerged in ink held in a reservoir 330 which is adjustably fastened to the frame beneath the support plate 2.

The drive roll 302 and stamping roll 326 are driven by a motor 332 at the same speed as the other drive rolls through a chain 334 thus assuring a constant speed of travel of the outsole during the entire finishing operation.

Although the illustrative machine makes no provision for handling the soles after stamping it is well within the contemplation of this invention that the soles may freely drop into a proper receptacle, may be received by a stacking mechanism placing the soles in uniform orientation for the ease of handling or may be fed onto another conveyor system for automatic transportation to further work stations.

It will be understood that the particular machine embodying the invention is shown by way of illustration only and not as a limitation of the invention. The principles and features of this invention may be employed in varied and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention, such as machines for reducing shoe soles or any other operation adapted to the through feed principle.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A machine incorporating the through feed principle for automatically performing finishing operation upon an unattached shoe sole comprising a flat supporting base plate, means for moving soles, one at a time along the base plate, a pair of finishing tools yieldably mounted in staggered positions on opposite sides of the base plate, means for inwardly biasing said tools for operation upon opposite sides of a sole as it passes through the machine along a line passing between the tools, the limit of inward movement of one of the tools extending beyond the limit of inward movement of the other, individual driving means for each of said tools and pressure equalizing means provided to counteract the pressure transverse to the line of travel generated by each of said finishing tools.

2. A machine as in claim 1 wherein the means for moving the sole along the base plate comprises in combination knurled drive rolls extending through the base plate, said rolls being mounted with their axes parallel to the base plate and perpendicular to the line of travel of the sole, and rollers mounted on the opposite side of the base plate biased toward the drive rolls for holding the sole firmly against the drive rolls.

3. A machine as in claim 1 including an overlying plate mounted adjacent to the base plate and spaced from said base plate to assist in keeping the shoe sole in an essentially uniplanar configuration.

4. A machine as in claim 1 wherein said pair of finishing tools are edge trimmers.

5. A machine as in claim 1 including a second pair of rotatable tool means mounted for burnishing the sole and removing excess dust.

6. A machine as in claim 1 including means for stamping the size of the sole upon the lower side of said sole during the operation.

7. A machine as in claim 1 wherein an automatic feed means is provided comprising means to feed the soles one at a time to the machine and means to properly orient the sole for travel through the machine.

8. A machine as in claim 5 wherein the burnishing tool has a series of fiat portions on its periphery.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,722,024 11/1955 Burke 1285.l 1,987,809 1/1935 Wernmark l2l7 2,943,337 6/1960 Sweeney 1286.7

PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner.

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