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US 10,758,007 B2Granted
Article with thermally bonded ribbon structure and method of making
AssigneeUnder Armour, Inc.
InventorsTom Luedecke, Carmen Zhu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of manufacturing an upper for an article of footwear includes dispensing ribbon in an overlapping pattern of ribbon sections to form a ribbon structure; and fixedly attaching a first ribbon section to an underlying material with thermal joining.
Claims20
A method of manufacturing an upper for an article of footwear, the method comprising:
- dispensing ribbon from a multi-function apparatus that includes a ribbon feeder and an ultrasonic horn, wherein the ribbon is dispensed from a ribbon dispensing outlet of the ribbon feeder in an overlapping pattern of ribbon sections to form a ribbon structure and wherein the ultrasonic horn is attached to the ribbon feeder at a fixed distance from the ribbon dispensing outlet;
- and
- thermally joining a first ribbon section to an underlying material using the ultrasonic horn of the multi-function apparatus.
A method of manufacturing an upper for an article of footwear, the method comprising:
- forming a ribbon structure including a plurality of ribbon sections arranged in an overlapping pattern, the plurality of ribbon sections including a first set of ribbon sections and a second set of ribbon sections;
- wherein forming the ribbon structure includes dispensing the plurality of ribbon sections from a multi-function apparatus that includes a ribbon feeder and an ultrasonic horn, wherein the plurality of ribbon sections are dispensed from a ribbon dispensing outlet of the ribbon feeder and wherein the ultrasonic horn is attached to the ribbon feeder at a fixed distance from the ribbon dispensing outlet;
- and
- selectively, thermally joining the first set of ribbon sections to the second set of ribbon sections using the ultrasonic horn of the multi-function apparatus.
1 more element
A method of manufacturing an upper for an article of footwear, the method comprising:
- forming a ribbon structure including a plurality of ribbon sections including a first set of ribbon sections and a second set of ribbon sections arranged in an overlapping pattern to form a plurality of overlapping regions;
- wherein forming the ribbon structure includes dispensing the plurality of ribbon sections from a multi-function apparatus that includes a ribbon feeder and an ultrasonic horn, wherein the plurality of ribbon sections are dispensed from a ribbon dispensing outlet of the ribbon feeder and wherein the ultrasonic horn is attached to the ribbon feeder at a fixed distance from the ribbon dispensing outlet;
- and
- selectively, thermally joining the first set of ribbon sections to the second set of ribbon sections with thermal joining using the ultrasonic horn of the multi-function apparatus;
- wherein the plurality of ribbon sections are translucent and have a first opacity;
- wherein the overlapping regions have a second opacity that is greater than the first opacity.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.