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(11) | EP 0 250 214 A3 |
(12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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(54) | Machine for automatically roughing the cement margin of a footwear upper assembly |
(57) Apparatus (and method) for automatically roughing the cement margin (103) of a shoe
or other footwear assembly (104), which footwear upper assembly includes an upper
mounted on a last and an inner sole disposed upon the bottom of the last and connected
to the upper. The apparatus (i.e. a roughing machine) typically includes a disc-shaped
wire wheel (or other roughing tool) (41) positioned with the plane of the brush approximately
perpendicular to the cement margin at the region of contact between the two. The roughing
machine includes a mechanism (1) to receive the upper assembly and provide some combination
of movements between the upper assembly and the periphery of the wire wheel to achieve
a constant region (or area) of contact between the two as the cement margin moves
with respect to the wire wheel in the course of roughing. The wire wheel is supported
at one end of an intermediately pivoted action arm (10); a load measuring beam (12)
is connected to the other end of the action arm to provide electrical signals proportional
to or representative of the pressure force between the wire wheel and the cement margin
at the region of contact. A servo-valve actuated air cylinder (13) drives the action
arm to load the wire wheel upon the cement margin, the amount of loading being closely
controllable (e.g. ± 2.25 x 10⁻¹ kgf [about one-half ± lb.f]) in response to the electrical
signals which are connected as input to the servo-valve as control signals. |