FR2780619A1 - Manufacture of sports shoe upper - Google Patents

Abstract

The uppers of the footwear are made from sub-assemblies produced by passing a strip (7) of a woven and/or non-woven or knitted textile fabric in steps between the two halves (9, 10) of a a mold into which a plastic is injected. The sub-assemblies, complete with plastic reinforcing zones, are then cut from the textile strip and assembled to make the footwear uppers.

Description

Method of manufacturing a sports shoe upper.

  The subject of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a constituent subassembly of a shoe upper or a complete upper of a sports shoe, in particular for sliding, walking or skating sports, comprising a rod of woven textile material and / or non-woven or knitted, provided with inserts in

  plastic material attached to the textile material by overmolding.

  It is known to make uppers for sports shoes essentially from a textile material which promotes breathing of the foot, this textile material being more preferably waterproof. At least on the sides, at the level of the malleoli, these rods are provided with more or less hard plastic reinforcements which are fixed to the rod by sewing. The seams, however, have two major drawbacks. The sewing operation firstly limits the hardness of the usable plastic, which must be passed through by a needle. In all cases, needle ruptures are frequent and their replacement disrupts manufacturing. On the other hand, in the case of the use of a waterproof fabric, the seams have the effect of removing the tightness by creating what is known as water intakes. To restore the seal, it is

  necessary to glue waterproof strips on the seams inside the shoe, which increases the cost.

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  In order to obviate these drawbacks, patent application WO 95/24305, repeating a method known from prior patents FR 2 484 215 and US 4, 447,967, describes a method consisting in placing a sock or a portion of sock in a mold having the shape of a shoe and partially injecting, into the mold, a thermoplastic material, in one or more

  operations, so as to form the desired reinforcements.

  Since the sewing operation is deleted, the

  injected plastic can be relatively hard.

  However, this process requires, on the one hand, the manufacture of molds which are expensive in quantity corresponding to at least the number of sizes desired and, on the other hand, the making of a sock capable of being

  threaded on the form constituting the core of the mold.

  The object of the invention is a process which does not require the prior preparation of a sock and which can

  to be implemented using a less expensive mold.

  The method according to the invention is characterized in that a strip of textile material is advanced step by step between two shells of a mold into which the plastic material is injected, then the stem sub-assemblies are cut, respectively complete rods, provided with their yoke, in the textile strip, so as to obtain constituent subsets of rods, respectively complete rods. The sub-assemblies are then assembled from

  traditional way to form the stem.

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  The method according to the invention can be applied both to fix reinforcements and to technical elements such as a lace pass, loop holder or

still decorations.

  The accompanying drawing shows, by way of example, a mode

of the invention.

  Figure 1 shows a shoe with textile upper

reinforced according to the invention.

  Figure 2 schematically illustrates the manufacturing process. FIG. 3 represents a piece of textile strip provided

overmolded reinforcements.

  Figure 4 is a thickness view of the strip

shown in Figure 3.

  The shoe shown in Figure 1 comprises a rod 1 of knitted textile material. This upper 1 is provided with a reinforcement 2 of thermoplastic material surrounding the rear of the shoe over the greater part of the height of the upper and descending on each side in the direction of the middle of the shoe. The rod 1, open on the instep, also has a reinforcement 3 for the passage of the lace 4 and on which hooks 5 are also fixed. This part 3 is preferably also made of plastic material also fixed. seamless to textile 1. The shoe

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  shown is further provided with an overmolded sole 6. The reinforcement 2 is fixed by overmolding, as will be described in relation to FIGS. 2 to 4. The textile material intended to constitute the upper 1 is

  delivered in the form of a strip 7 wound in a reel 8.

  This strip 7 is brought between the two shells 9 and 10 of a mold containing an imprint 11 of the reinforcement 2 to be obtained. The strip 7 is advanced step by step between the shells 9 and 10, at the rate of the successive operations

  injection of the thermoplastic material into the mold.

  There is thus obtained, continuously, the strip shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The rods are then cut according to the dashed line 12. This gives a flat rod which is folded so as to give it the shape shown in FIG. 1 Part 3 is then

  also overmolded on the textile.

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Claims (1)

CLAIM   Method of manufacturing a sub-assembly constituting a shoe upper or a complete sports shoe upper, in particular for sliding, walking or skating sports, comprising a textile material (1) woven and / or non-woven rod woven or knitted, provided with plastic inserts (2) fixed to the textile material by overmolding, characterized in that a strip (7) of textile material is advanced step by step between two shells (9, 10) d '' a mold into which the plastic is injected, then cut the rod sub-assemblies, respectively the complete rods (12), provided with their inserts, in the textile strip.