Footwear component manufacturing system
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsPaul Irving Archer, Hossein Allen Baghdadi, Jay Constantinou, Gregory Paul Dufour, Sami Mohamad Fakhouri, Floyd Whitney Miles, Joseph Thomas Muth, Bradley C. Tutmark
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system including an injector, a press, and a robotic conveyance is used to form a physically foamed article of footwear component from a single-phase solution of a polymeric composition and a supercritical fluid. The parameters and features of the system are configured for the formation of the footwear component in an automated manner with enhanced throughput by the system.
Claims20
A physical foaming injection molding system for a footwear component, the system comprising:
- an injector;
- a press paired with the injector, the press comprising a universal runner plate comprising at least one runner outlet and configured to interface with a removable mold that is configured to engage with the injector and the press, the mold being one of an array of molds that the universal runner plate is configured to interface with;
- and
- a robot comprising an end effector adapted to reversible engage with the mold, wherein the robot is positioned relative to the press to reversible engage the end effector with the mold.
A physical foaming injection molding system for injecting a single-phase solution of a polymeric composition and a supercritical fluid, the system comprising:
- a temperature control unit;
- a temperature conditioning rack effectively coupled with the temperature control unit, wherein the temperature conditioning rack is adapted to condition a temperature of a mold maintained at the temperature conditioning rack;
- a press comprising a universal runner plate comprising at least one runner outlet and configured to interface with a removable mold that is configured to engage with the press, the mold being one of an array of molds that the universal runner plate is configured to interface with;
- a robot comprising an end effector adapted to reversible engage with the mold, wherein the robot is positioned relative to the temperature conditioning rack to manipulate the end effector at the temperature conditioning rack to reversible engage with the mold and the press to reversible engage with the mold;
- an RFID reader;
- and
- a controller having a processor and memory, the controller is logically coupled with the RFID reader and the robot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.