Nike, Inc.

Industrial Technology Research Institute

Nike Innovate C.v.

Feng-Ming Ou

Patrick Conall Regan

Yu-Hsi Hsing

Dragan Jurkovic

I-Huang Liu

Chih-Chung Wu

Hao-Zhen Chen

Chia-Chi Yang

Mike F Quigley

Shih-Chang Chen

Jen-Ji Wang

Hsi-Hung Hsiao

Thomas W Wilson, Iii

Ching-Yuan Lin

Ping-Hung Tsai

Yu-His Hsing

Chien-Chih Chiu

Yi-Huang Liou

James Shih-Shyn Wu

Thomas W Iii Wilson

An item with fibers may be picked up and placed using a tool head with hooks that engage the fibers. The tool head may comprise at least one hook portion and at least one contact surface adjacent to the hook portion. The hooks that engage the fibers may extend from the hook portion. The tool head may be actuatable between at least a first configuration that permits the hooks to engage the fibers and a second configuration that does not permit the hooks to engage the fibers. An item may be picked up at a starting location with a tool head in the first configuration and placed at a placement location by moving the tool head and then actuating the tool head to the second configuration.

Pick-up and placement tools for items having hook portion and pusher

Automated painting of a shoe sole portion of a shoe is enhanced by use of a jig. The shoe sole portion may be secured between top and bottom plates of the jig such that a side surface of the shoe sole portion is left exposed. Additionally, the jig is adapted to create configurable masking lines along the side surface of the shoe sole portion using multi-layer deforming layers.

Jig for a shoe sole portion

Molded rubber objects may be molded and de-molded by defining both a desired final form for the molded rubber object and a tab extending from the final form of the molded rubber object using a cavity in a mold. Rubber pellets may be dispensed in predetermined amounts at desired location(s) within the cavity to provide the rubber needed to form the molded rubber object. Heat and pressure may be applied to the mold to cause the rubber pellets to fill the cavity defining both the desired final form of the molded rubber object and the tab. After the heat and pressure has been applied, a gripping device may grasp the tab and move the tab in a direction and with sufficient force to peel the rubber object from the mold cavity. If desired, the tab may be removed from the molded rubber object.

Automated rubber molding and de-molding

Cast polyurethane parts for shoes or other items may be formed in an automated fashion. A dispensing mechanism may dispense a predetermined amount of a liquid phase polyurethane mixture onto a flat surface face of a mold. A dispersal mechanism may distribute the liquid phase polyurethane mixture over the flat surface face of the mold to fill at least one cavity in the form. A vacuum may be applied to remove air bubbles from the liquid phase polyurethane mixture. Excess liquid phase polyurethane mixture may be removed from the flat surface face of the mold using a flexible blade that contacts and moves across the flat surface face. One or more conveyance mechanism may transport molds through the desired stages of a system and/or method in accordance with the present invention.

Automated forming of cast polyurethane

An automated system for painting a shoe sole portion of a shoe is provided. The automated painting system is adapted to use a variety of stations and components to automatically paint a side surface of the shoe sole portion while it is secured in a jig, transition the jig to an open position, and remove the painted shoe sole portion from the jig.

System for shoe sole portion painting

Rubber in its uncured state is very tacky and rubber forms such as pellets, sheets, etc., tend to be hard to process due to the agglomeration and sticking of these rubber forms. Aspects of the invention use cured rubber powder as an anti-tack agent in a molding rubber mixture. In one aspect, the cured rubber powder has a particle size between 50 and 250 &#x3bc;m in the uncured rubber forms, a diameter of between 1 and 10 mm, and a length of between 1 and 15 mm.

Anti-tack powder for uncured rubber pellets

A rotary spindle head with gear reducer is provided, which comprises a rotary spindle unit, a fork-shaped type spindle base and a driving unit. The fork-shaped spindle base is for linking up the rotary spindle unit with a machine tool, and the driving unit comprises a torque motor and a gear reducer which are sited coaxially on the fork-shaped spindle base. The gear reducer is connected to the rotary spindle unit to drive and rotate the rotary spindle unit in the fork-shaped spindle base. The gear reducer is designed to lower decelerating rate. Besides, the input and output of the gear reducer are coaxial design, the torque of torque motor could be magnified to several times and maintain higher rotational speed to do the high speed light cutting and high torque heavy cutting work.

Rotary spindle head with gear reducer

A feed drive mechanism and a connecting assembly thereof are described. The connecting assembly includes a main body and an outer sleeve. The main body has a connecting plate and an inner sleeve connected to a side surface of the connecting plate. Two opposite side surfaces of the connecting plate are respectively fixed on a screw nut seat and a lead screw nut of the feed drive mechanism, and a channel surrounds an outer side surface of the inner sleeve. The outer sleeve is sleeved on the outer side surface of the inner sleeve, enables the channel to be formed into a sealed space, and has an inlet and an outlet respectively communicating with the channel, thereby injecting a cooling medium into the channel.

Growing community of inventors

Taichung, Taiwan

Feng-Ming Ou