Shoe upper manufacturing method

A shoe upper manufacturing method comprising the steps of:

• A. obtaining materials for shoe uppers:
• turning on a laser cutting machine and inserting a material roller of the laser cutting machine into a roll of footwear fabric and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE);
• then arranging a material conveyor over the material roller for delivery of the footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer to a laser cutting platform;
• inputting a graphic file with designed upper patterns into a control computer of the laser cutting machine so that a laser head of the laser cutting machine cut through an inner diameter and an outer diameter of the footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer;
• next sending footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer being cut to a finished product area by a conveyor belt while residual waste is delivered to a garbage area by another conveyor belt;
• B. forming the shoe uppers:
• activating a shoe upper forming machine which is provided with one upper mold and a plurality of lower molds and placing a shoe upper template on the lower mold;
• then setting heating temperature and time of the upper mold and those of the lower mold while heat of the lower mold is transferred to the shoe upper template during heating process;
• turning on an air compressor, placing the footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer available on the finished product area onto the shoe upper template after confirming temperature of the lower mold has reached the set temperature, and covering a silicon negative-pressure barrier to keep air outside;
• then a vacuum pump of the lower mold starting working to remove residual air in the lower mold so that the footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer are stayed on the shoe upper template smoothly and stably;
• moving the lower mold under the upper mold and carrying the upper mold down to be aligned and connected with the lower mold to make the upper and the lower molds keep heating the footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer until the set heating time is up so that the footwear fabric and the thermoplastic elastomer are melted and adhered each other at the set heating temperature to form a multi-layer composite footwear fabric with designed upper patterns;
• then the upper mold is raised automatically and the lower mold is turned back to the original position automatically for heat dissipation to be ready for demoulding;
• during heat dissipation of the lower mold, another lower mold is automatically moved to repeat the steps mentioned above;
• cooling down the silicon negative-pressure barrier after heat dissipation of the lower mold and then lifting the silicon negative-pressure barrier for cooling down the multi-layer composite footwear fabric continuously;
• perform demoulding by pulling the multi-layer composite footwear fabric up slowly to release from the shoe upper template after cooling down;
• then delivering the multi-layer composite footwear fabric already adhered and formed to a laser machine to carry out the next step after the demoulding;
• C. processing the shoe uppers:
• activating the laser machine to perform processes including making holes for breathing, trimming burrs, and cutting unnecessary waste and then delivering the finished multi-layer composite footwear fabric to a printing machine for the next step;
• and
• D. printing the shoe uppers:
• turning on the printing machine and place the multi-layer composite footwear fabric on a printing table of the printing machine to do printing and then taking the multi-layer composite footwear fabric out after the printing to get a finished product.