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.
Claims14
A method of buffing an article of footwear component with a footwear buffing system, the method comprising:
- buffing a sidewall of the article of footwear component with a sidewall buffing module having a first brush, wherein the article of footwear component extends into bristles of the first brush at least 5 mm;
- conveying the article of footwear component to an up surface buffing module;
- buffing an up surface of the article of footwear component at the up surface buffing module having a second brush, wherein the second brush is conveyed along the up surface of the article of footwear component and rotates in a first direction at a first location on the up surface and the second brush rotates in a second direction at a second location on the up surface;
- conveying the article of footwear component to a down surface buffing module;
- and
- buffing the article of footwear component at the down surface buffing module having a third brush and a compression member, wherein the compression member compresses the article of footwear component into the third brush while conveying the article of footwear component across the third brush.
A method of buffing an article of footwear component with a footwear buffing system, the method comprising:
- buffing a sidewall of the article of footwear component with a sidewall buffing module having a first brush;
- conveying the article of footwear component to an up surface buffing module;
- buffing an up surface of the article of footwear component at the up surface buffing module having a second brush, wherein the second brush is conveyed along the up surface of the article of footwear component and rotates in a first direction at a first location on the up surface and the second brush rotates in a second direction at a second location on the up surface;
- conveying the article of footwear component to a down surface buffing module;
- and
- buffing the article of footwear component at the down surface buffing module having a third brush and a compression member, wherein the compression member compresses the article of footwear component into the third brush while conveying the article of footwear component across the third brush.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.