Manufacture of footwear
OwnerNorman William MacLeodinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making an item of footwear (2) and to a last (5) to be used in that method and apparatus. The last (5) includes a body (8) which mimicks the general shape of a foot around which an upper (3) for the item of footwear (2) is formed. The last body (8) has a base (9) corresponding to a sole of the general foot shape and the base is adapted to be heated to facilitate moulding of a rubber sole (4) to the upper (3) while the upper is still positioned on the forming last (5). The last preferably has heating means (16) located inside.
Claims9
A method of making an item of footwear, the method comprising the steps of:
- forming an upper for the item of footwear on a forming last, the forming last including a body having the general shape of a foot around which the upper of the footwear item is formed in a series of separate operations, the last body having a base corresponding to a sole of the foot shape;
- providing an apparatus having a plurality of separate workstations for performing discrete footwear fabrication operations, including a moulding workstation for moulding a rubber sole;
- removably mounting the forming last on the apparatus and moving the last sequentially through the plurality of separate workstations to complete the upper before moving the last with the formed upper thereon to the moulding workstation;
- and
- moulding a rubber sole onto the formed upper while it is still mounted on the forming last,
- the forming last being heated before and/or during the moulding step,
- wherein the step of heating the forming last includes heating the base of the last body, whilst substantially preventing the heating of parts of the body other than the base.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.