Back to results
US 12,274,330 B2Granted
Buffing system for footwear
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsChun-Chieh Chen, Yi-Min Chen, Chia-Hung Lin, Hsien-Kuang Wu, Hung-Yu Wu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims12
An article of footwear up surface 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, a first clamp, and a second clamp, wherein the first clamp is configured to move and press the article of footwear against the support surface in a vertical direction when in a clamped position, wherein the second clamp is configured to move and press the article of footwear against the support surface in a vertical direction when in a clamped position;
- a brush rotational drive coupled with the rotational brush to rotate the rotational brush in first direction and in a second direction based on location of the rotational brush relative to the footwear component holder;
- and
- a brush movement mechanism effective to move the rotational brush from a heel end to a toe end of the support surface, wherein the brush movement mechanism positions the rotational brush between a first distance and second distance offset from the support surface.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.