Method and system for automatically manufacturing shoes

Abstract

Described are a method and a system for automatically manufacturing shoes. The method includes automatically manufacturing a plurality of soles in a first station and automatically manufacturing a plurality of uppers in a second station, wherein the first and the second station are operating in parallel and are arranged in a common facility so that a manufactured sole and a manufactured upper can be transported to a joining station and be automatically joined there.

That which is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for automatically manufacturing a shoe, the method comprising:
 automatically manufacturing a plurality of soles in a first station; and   automatically manufacturing a plurality of uppers in a second station;   wherein the first and the second station are operating in parallel and are arranged in a common facility so that a manufactured sole and a manufactured upper can be transported to a joining station and automatically joined there.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a first number of soles manufactured in the first station corresponds to a second number of uppers manufactured in the second station. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the correspondence between the first number and the second number takes at least one of a percentage of defective soles and a percentage of defective uppers into account. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein automatically manufacturing the plurality of soles in the first station comprises molding individual soles from a plurality of particles. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising conducting an automated quality check of the manufactured soles. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein conducting the automated quality check comprises at least one of conducting an automated measurement of a weight of the manufactured soles and conducting an automated measurement of a size of the manufactured soles. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the joining station automatically joins the manufactured sole and the manufactured upper by applying heat. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the step of automatically joining the manufactured sole and the manufactured upper is performed without an adhesive. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the step of automatically joining the manufactured sole and the manufactured upper comprises directly welding material of the upper onto material of the sole. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transportation to the joining station is automated. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the automated transportation to the joining station is carried out by at least one robot device. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a quality check station performs an automated quality check after the automatic joining of the manufactured sole and the manufactured upper. 
     
     
         13 . A shoe manufactured by the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         14 . A system for automatically manufacturing a shoe, the system comprising:
 a first station configured to automatically manufacture a plurality of soles;   a second station configured to automatically manufacture a plurality of uppers; and   a joining station configured to automatically join a sole and an upper;   wherein the first station and the second station are configured to operate in parallel and are arranged in a common facility such that a manufactured sole and a manufactured upper can be transported to the joining station and automatically joined.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the first station is configured to manufacture a first number of soles that corresponds to a second number of uppers that the second station is configured to manufacture. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the joining station is configured to automatically join the manufactured sole and the manufactured upper by applying heat. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the joining station is configured to automatically join the manufactured sole and the manufactured upper without an adhesive. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , further comprising at least one robot device configured to automatically transport the manufactured soles and manufactured uppers to the joining station. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14 , further comprising a quality check station configured to perform an automated quality check after the joining station.