Roughing machine for footware upper assemblies and a system that

Abstract

In an integrated system to achieve a number of operations on a footwear upper assembly, an automatic rougher that includes a roughing tool adapted to remove material--and hence rough--the cement margin (or bonding surface) of the footwear upper assembly to provide a cementing surface onto which an outer sole is later applied. The cement margin (or bonding surface), as is known in this art, typically follows a closed-loop path that rapidly changes in all directions of an X-Y-Z coordinate system and the roughing tool must be continuously re-oriented to the many direction changes of the cement margin in order to track the margin. According to the present teaching the upper assembly, and hence the cement margin thereof, is ordinarily moved in rotational movement, rocking movement, transverse translational movement, and, also, vertical translational movement (i.e., movement toward and away from the roughing tool) during the course of roughing. According to the present teaching, real-time data is assembled which may be used to achieve a later operation: e.g., the path of the cement margin is digitized and that digitized information is used to guide a cementer to apply adhesive unto the cement margin to adhere an outer sole to the upper assembly.