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.
Claims23
An article of footwear down surface buffing system, the system comprising:
- a rotational brush with a plurality of bristles extending outwardly from a rotational axis of the rotational brush, the rotational brush rotates in a first direction and in a second direction based on location of the rotational brush relative to the article of footwear;
- a footwear component holder comprised of a plurality of rollers forming a support plane, wherein each of the plurality of rollers have a rotational axis parallel with the rotational axis of the rotational brush and the rotational axis of the rotational brush is positioned on a first side of the support plane and a portion of the plurality of bristles extending to a second side of the support plane;
- and
- a compression member positioned on the second side of the support plane, the compression member configured to move in a movement plane that is parallel to the support plane.
A method of buffing an article of footwear component with a footwear down surface buffing system, the method comprising:
- compressing the article of footwear component with a compression member and against a footwear component holder comprised of a plurality of rollers forming a support plane, wherein each of the plurality of rollers have a rotational axis parallel with the rotational axis of a rotational brush and the rotational axis of the rotational brush positioned on a first side of the support plane and a portion of a plurality of bristles of the rotational brush extending to a second side of the support plane, wherein the compression member is configured to move in a movement plane that is parallel to the support plane;
- contacting the rotational brush with the article of footwear component at a first location;
- rotating the rotational brush in a first direction at the first location;
- conveying the article of footwear component in a first direction across the rotational brush from the first location to a second location;
- and
- rotating the rotational brush in a second direction at the second location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.