Machine for automatically roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper assembly

A machine for automatically roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper assembly, that comprises:

• a support to receive the footwear assembly, which support is capable of rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• drive means connected to drive the support to achieve said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• a roughing tool mounted to move relative to the footwear assembly and operable to achieve roughing of the cement margin as the cement margin moves relative to the roughing tool in the course of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• and
• sensing means to provide feedback signals, acts to maintain a determined orientation between the roughing tool and the footwear upper assembly in the course of relative motion between the two, said sensing means including a sensing mechanism to ride upon and apply pressure upon the cement margin in the course of said relative motion and operable to provide rocking signals which control the rocking movement, and finger means disposed to contact and follow the side of the upper assembly to provide angular information, in the form of a signal, with respect to orientation of the upper assembly relative to the roughing tool to permit control of said rotational movement, thereby to achieve said determined orientation;
• said roughing tool being an electric motor driven rotatable brush in the form of a disc whose plane of rotation is substantially vertically oriented and whose periphery contacts the cement margin and roughs the same in the course of said translational movement which is along a path essentially orthogonal to the plane of rotation of the brush, said determined orientation along such that the edge of the upper between the cement margin and the side of the upper is maintained by said rotational movement substantially orthogonal to said plane of rotation;
• said roughing tool being an electric motor driven rotatable brush in the form of a disc whose plane of rotation is substantially vertically oriented and whose periphery contacts the cement margin and roughs the same in the course of said translational movement which is along a path essentially orthogonal to the plane of rotation of the brush, said determined orientation being such that the edge of the upper between the cement margin on the side of the upper assembly is maintained by said rotational movement substantially orthogonal to said plane of rotation;
• wherein said rotational movement is about a vertical yaw axis, wherein a roughing-tool drive is provided to effect movement of the roughing tool toward and away from the axis to control the region of contact between the brush periphery and the cement margin and the contact pressure therebetween, and wherein the sensing means includes a pair of fingers with a middle finger sensor disposed between the pair of fingers and adapted to follow along the side of the upper assembly adjacent to said edge to provide signals to control the position of said region of contact.

A machine for automatically roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper assembly, that comprises:

• a support to receive the footwear assembly, which support is capable of rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• drive means, including a yaw-drive motor, connected to drive the support to achieve said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• a roughing tool mounted to move relative to the footwear upper assembly and operable to achieve roughing of the cement margin as the cement margin moves relative to the roughing tool in the course of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• and
• sensing means to provide feedback signals to control the drive means which, on the basis of the feedback signals, acts to maintain a determined orientation between the roughing tool and the footwear upper assembly in the course of relative motion between the two, said sensing means including a sensing mechanism to ride upon and apply pressure upon the cement margin in the course of said relative motion and operable to provide rocking signals which control the rocking movement, and finger means disposed to contact and follow the side of the upper assembly to provide angular information, in the form of a signal, with respect to orientation of the upper assembly to provide angular information, relative to the roughing tool to permit control of said rotational movement, thereby to achieve said determined orientation;
• in which the roughing tool is an electric motor driven rotatable brush in the form of a disc whose plane of rotation is substantially vertically oriented and whose periphery contacts the cement margin and roughs the same in the course of said translational movement which is along a path essentially orthogonal to the plane of rotation of the brush, said determined orientation being such that the edge of the upper between the cement margin and the side of the upper assembly is maintained by said rotational movement substantially orthogonal to said plane of rotation;
• wherein rotation is effected through 360 degrees in one direction to complete roughing of one footwear upper assembly and is reversed for 360 degrees rotation to complete roughing of the next footwear upper assembly, thereby to even wear of the roughing tool, to apply consistent roughing to both the left and the right footwear of a pair, and to eliminate the need for slip rings for the yaw-drive servomotor.

A machine for automatically roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper assembly, that comprises:

• a support to receive the footwear assembly, which support is capable of rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• drive means connected to drive the support to achieve said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• a roughing tool mounted to move relative to the roughing tool in the course of said rotational movement;
• and
• sensing means to provide feedback signals to control the drive means which, on the basis of feedback signals, acts to maintain a determined orientation between the roughing tool and the footwear upper assembly in the course of relative motion between the two, said sensing means including a sensing mechanism to ride upon and apply pressure upon the cement margin in the course of said relative motion and operable to provide rocking signals which control and follow the side of the upper assembly to provide signals angular information, in the form of a signal, with respect to orientation of the upper assembly relative to the roughing tool to permit control said rotational movement, thereby to achieve said determined orientation;
• in which the sensing means provides signals to maintain said region of contact is positioned slightly inward and away from said edge to assure that roughing does not occur at the side of the upper;
• in which said sensing mechanism comprises rollers that follow undulations in the cement margin in the course of said translational movement, and in which the sensing means is an assemblage that includes the sensing mechanism and the finger means, which assemblage is free to rotate through a limited angle about its longitudinal axis and provides signals on the basis of the angular position of the assemblage to control said rocking movement.

A machine for automatically roughing the cement margin of footwear assembly, that comprises:

• a support to receive the footwear assembly, which support is capable or rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• drive means connected to drive the support to achieve said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• a roughing tool mounted to move relative to the footwear upper assembly and operable to achieve roughing of the cement margin as the cement margin moves relative to the roughing tool in the course of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• and
• sensing means to provide feedback signals to control the drive means which, on the basis of the feedback signals, acts to maintain a determined orientation between the roughing tool and the footwear upper assembly in the course of relative motion between the two, said sensing means including a sensing mechanism to ride upon and apply pressure upon the cement margin in the course of said relative motion and operable to provide rocking signals which control the rocking movement, and finger means disposed to contact and follow the side of the upper assembly to provide angular information, in the form of a signal, with respect to orientation of the upper assembly relative to the roughing tool to permit control of said rotational movement, thereby to achieve said determined orientation;
• in which said sensing mechanism comprises fingers and a pair of roller sets, one roller set being disposed on each side of the roughing tool and in close proximity to the roughing tool, in which the longitudinal axis of the roller sets is at an acute angle to the fingers so that, during roughing, the edge of the upper assembly is received within the acute angle thus formed and the portion of the upper assembly comprising the cement margin and the side of the upper assembly is wedged between the roller sets and the fingers.

A method of roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper that comprises:

• supporting the footwear upper assembly by a mechanism capable of applying to the upper assembly rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• applying a rotating roughing tool to the cement margin;
• applying a combination of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement to the upper assembly while simultaneously effecting roughing of the cement margin by the roughing tool, which combination of movement serves continuously to present a new roughing surface to the roughing tool in the course of roughing and, hence, results in uniformity of roughing, said combination of movement serving, as well, to cause the roughing tool to track the cement margin as the cement margin moves past the roughing periphery of the roughing tool to prevent the roughing tool from roughing the side of the upper assembly;
• and
• providing a follower mechanism to supply feedback signals that control said combination of movement as well as to achieve positional control of the roughing tool, which follower mechanism comprises rollers that follow the undulations of the cement margin and fingers that follow the contour of the side of the upper assembly, the longitudinal axis of the rollers being at an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the fingers so that, during roughing, the edge of the upper assembly is received within the acute angle thus formed so that the portion of the upper assembly comprising the cement margin and the side is wedged between the rollers and the fingers so that, in the course of roughing, the rollers do not slip over the edge onto the side of the upper assembly and the fingers do not slip over the edge onto the cement margin, whereby the roughing tool is caused to track the cement margin truly in the course of roughing.

A method of roughing the cement margin at the bottom of a footwear upper assembly, which cement margin is disposed slightly inward from the edge between the bottom and the sides of the footwear upper assembly along a closed path whose length is a full cycle of movement of the footwear upper assembly in the course of a roughing cycle, said closed path being irregular in both direction and contour, that comprises:

• supporting the footwear upper assembly by a mechanism capable of applying to the upper assembly rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement in the course of said full cycle;
• applying a roughing tool to the cement margin to effect roughing thereof along said closed path;
• and
• applying a combination of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement to the upper assembly while simultaneously effecting roughing of the cement margin by the roughing tool, which combination of movements serves continuously to present a new roughing surface to the roughing tool in the course of roughing, said combination of movements serving, as well, to cause the roughing tool to track the cement margin as the cement margin moves past the roughing portion of the roughing tool in a way that maintains a determined and constant orientation between the roughing tool and the path of the cement margin to provide an essentially constant contact area between the roughing portion of the roughing tool and the roughing surface of the cement margin and, hence, to result in uniformity of roughing, said rotational movement including angular indexing movement of the footwear upper assembly during roughing in the region between the toe portion and the heel portion thereof to maintain said determined and constant orientation despite direction changes of the cement margin between said toe portion and said heel portion.

A method of roughing the cement margin at the bottom of a footwear upper assembly, that comprises:

• supporting the footwear upper assembly by a mechanism capable of applying to the upper assembly rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• applying a roughing tool to the cement margin to effect roughing thereof;
• and
• applying a combination of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement to the upper assembly while simultaneously effecting roughing of the cement margin by the roughing tool, which combination of movements serve continuously to present a new roughing surface to the roughing tool in the course of roughing as well as to present an essentially constant contact area between the roughing portion of the roughing tool and the cement margin in the course of roughing and, hence, results in uniformity of roughing, said rotational movement serving to cause the roughing tool to track the cement margin in a determined orientation therebetween as the cement margin moves past the roughing portion of the roughing tool, said rotational movement including angular indexing movement of the upper portion thereof to maintain the determined orientation substantially constant despite direction changes of the cement margin between said toe portion and said heel portion.

Apparatus for roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper assembly, that comprises:

• means for supporting a footwear upper assembly by a mechanism capable of applying to the upper assembly rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement;
• means for roughing the cement margin;
• and
• means for effecting a combination of said rocking movement, translational movement and rotational movement to the upper assembly while simultaneously effecting roughing of the cement margin by the means for roughing, which combination of movements serves continuously to present a new roughing surface to the means for roughing in the course of roughing to present an essentially constant contact area between the means for roughing and the cement margin in the course of roughing and, hence, results in uniformity of roughing, said rotational movement serving to cause the means for roughing to continuously track the cement margin with a determined orientation therebetween as the cement margin moves past the roughing portion of the means for roughing, wherein said rotational movement includes angular indexing movement of the upper assembly in the course of roughing in the region between the toe portion and the heel portion of the upper assembly to maintain the determined orientation substantially constant despite direction changes of the cement margin between said toe portion and said heel portion said rocking movement being about a transverse axis of the footwear upper assembly between the toe portion and the heel portion of the footwear upper assembly.