Digital bite line creation for shoe assembly

A system for simultaneously generating a digital bite line and a limited visibility bite line for use in assembling a shoe, the system comprising:

• a turntable that receives a shoe sole assembly and rotates at a known rate;
• a press that applies a predetermined pressure to a lasted shoe upper to engage the lasted shoe upper with a shoe sole assembly retained upon the turntable, the press operable to apply the predetermined pressure to the lasted upper while the shoe sole assembly and lasted upper are rotated at the known rate;
• and
• a stylus assembly comprising a limited visibility marking tip that contacts the shoe upper at a junction line between the lasted shoe upper and the shoe sole assembly and a digital bite line creation unit that communicates measurements of the location of the stylus assembly at predetermined time intervals to a computing device to generate a digital bite line representative of the measurements made of the location of the stylus assembly.

A method for simultaneously generating a digital bite line and a limited visibility bite line for the assembly of a shoe, the method comprising:

• pressing a lasted shoe upper into a shoe sole assembly with a predetermined pressure to form a junction line where the lasted shoe upper meets the shoe sole assembly;
• rotating the lasted shoe upper and shoe sole assembly at a known rate while the lasted shoe upper is pressed into the shoe sole assembly with the predetermined pressure;
• contacting a stylus with a limited visibility marking tip to the junction line while the lasted shoe upper and shoe sole assembly are rotated at the known rate, such that the limited visibility marking tip creates a visible bite line observable under pre-determined viewing conditions;
• measuring the location of the stylus at predetermined time intervals while contacting the junction line during the rotation of the lasted shoe upper and shoe sole assembly;
• recording the measurements of the location of the stylus at a computing device;
• and
• generating a digital bite line at the computing device, the digital bite line corresponding to the limited visibility bite line created by the limited visibility marking tip.