Buffing system for footwear
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsChun-Chieh Chen, Yi-Min Chen, Chia-Hung Lin, Hsien-Kuang Wu, Hung-Yu Wu
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Abstract
Buffing of a footwear component allows for an alteration of the component surface to achieve an intended surface for aesthetics and/or manufacturing purposes. The buffing is performed in a system having a vision module, a sidewall buffing module, an up surface buffing module, and a down surface buffing module. Each of the buffing modules are adapted for the unique shape and sizes of a footwear component to effectively and automatically buff the footwear component.
Claims22
An article of footwear sidewall buffing system, the system comprising:
- a rotational brush with a plurality of bristles extending outwardly from a rotational axis of the rotational brush;
- a footwear component holder comprising a support surface and a clamp surface;
- a footwear component holder movement mechanism coupled with the footwear component holder and effective to the move a footwear component relative to the rotational brush;
- and
- a brush rotational drive coupled with the rotational brush to rotate the rotational brush at a variable rate based on location of the rotational brush relative to the footwear component holder.
A method of buffing an article of footwear component with a footwear sidewall buffing system, the method comprising:
- compressing the article of footwear component between a support surface and a clamp surface of a footwear component holder;
- contacting a rotational brush with the article of footwear component at a first location;
- rotating the rotational brush at a first rate at the first location;
- contacting the rotational brush with the article of footwear component at a second location, wherein the first location is different from the second location;
- rotating the rotational brush at a second rate at the second location;
- and
- rotating the support surface relative to the rotational brush.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.