Automatic-Controlled Intelligent Production Line for Shoe Soles

Rui Yang

, Ruihan Hu

2,*

, Lin Gan

1,*

, Hualin Ke

1,*

and Yanyin Xie

3,*

Guangdong Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Modern Control Technology,

Guangzhou 510070, China

Faculty of Computing, National Pilot School of Software, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150000, China

Guangdong HEGII Sanitary Wares Co., Ltd, Chaozhou 528000, China

Keywords: Visual Localization, Unmanned, Intelligent Production.

Abstract: In order to protect the health of workers from the damage caused by their contact with toxic chemicals such

as xylene and acetone during manual production of shoe soles, this thesis presents the realization of automatic

and intelligent processes of production of shoe soles, such as automatic glue spraying, automatic hot printing,

automatic film pressing, and automatic abrasive spraying, with the application of technologies, such as visual

positioning, automatic spraying, automatic drying, automatic printing and automatic cleaning, and the

intelligent production procedures, such as automatic glue spraying, automatic hot printing, automatic film

pressing, and automatic abrasive spraying. The processes of the presented production line include automatic

glue spraying, automatic hot printing, automatic film pressing, automatic shoe sole cleaning and automatic

wear-resistant spraying. This thesis is conducive to the establishment of a typical model of intelligent

production for the industry of shoe soles.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the development of modern manufacturing

technology and the improvement of people's quality

of life, the markets for clothing and footwear

accessories are growing constantly with an

continuously increasing market demand for the

output of related industries. As the basic component

of footwear that is essential to people’s shoe-wearing

and travelling experience, shoe soles also witness a

growing demand in the market. As the cost of

personnel and factory land continues to increase,

shoe processing factories are experiencing fierce

competition. It is therefore imperative for these

factories to find a method of shoe sole production

with higher efficiency and lower cost. (Chen, 2022;

Luo, 2022; Fülöp Melinda Timea, 2022; He, 2022;

Stockinger Christopher, 2021; Tian, 2020) The

prevailing processing technologies of shoe sole

production can be generally categorized into two

qualitative methods: direct injection molding and

reprocessing after molding. Direct injection molding

relies on special formulas of agents with wear-

resistant, anti-skid, and other properties, by mixing

Corresponding author

these additives into the injection molding materials

of a shoe sole, so that the injected shoe sole directly

becomes wear-resistant, anti-skid, portable and

comfortable. (Eversheim, 1982; H. Sasaoka, 1987;

Layek, 1988; Ferrarini, 1997; G.W Zhang, 2002;

Hidehiko, 2007; Gheorghe, 2014; Yin, 2013) On the

one hand, this method has the advantages of

convenient processing and low equipment cost, but

the high cost of special additives and the method’s

application limited to the upper and lower sides of

shoe soles make the material cost of shoe soles still

remain high. (Peter, 2013; Morosan, 2013; Fatih

Mehmet Özel, 2013; H N Nagendra, 2019) In

addition, the appearance of shoe soles needs to be

molded at one time, so if a special appearance is

required, the wear-resistant and anti-skid effects of

its printing will be reduced. On the other hand, shoe

soles can be molded by hot melt materials, or

processed by leather and other materials before

surface treatment such as spraying and printing,

which can maximize material cost savings. (Indri

Marina, 2019; Pierluigi Petrali, 2018; Alexandru

Nitu, 2018; Chen, 2018) However, the existing sole

processing procedures are cumbersome and require a

Yang, R., Hu, R., Gan, L., Ke, H. and Xie, Y.

Automatic-Controlled Intelligent Production Line for Shoe Soles.

DOI: 10.5220/0012040000003620

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Economic Management and Model Engineering (ICEMME 2022), pages 581-586

ISBN: 978-989-758-636-1

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

581

large amount of manpower in production for division

of labor and cooperation, so that the cost of labor and

equipment for the processing of shoe soles remains

high with unstable review efficiency, and unified

efficiencies between each post. In particular, the

production of leather soles needs to go through the

processes of glue spraying, printing, film pressing,

cleaning, and wear-resistant spraying, so even

though the manufactured products of leather soles

can meet the needs of the appearance, wear

resistance, skid resistance, etc., the expensive

production equipment and labor force the processing

cost of the soles high.

2 INTELLIGENT PRODUCTION

LINE

In the process of feeding, the formed materials are

“fed to” (fixed on) the station of the conveyor

machine. Then, in the process of handling, the

materials on each station are processed through the

procedures as follows: one or any combination of

glue spraying, printing, film pressing and abrasive

spraying. Afterwards, during the process of blanking,

the processed materials are taken from the station and

sent to the finished product area. The invention of

this production line is the integration of the

processing technologies of glue spraying, printing,

film pressing and wear-resistant spraying, so that the

molded sole (upper) can be processed at one time,

and the stability of processing efficiency and

precision through the production process is

improved. By using assembly lines and multi-axis

mechanical arms to connect the production processes

in series, the production efficiency, processing

accuracy, and labor cost savings of shoe sole

manufacturing can all be improved. (Fig. 1)

Figure 1: Application of an automatic processing method for shoe sole production and the adopted equipment

2.1 Artificial Shoemaking

With the continues development of technology,

Intelligent technology persistent to impact traditional

manufacturing. As a traditional industry, the footwear

industry requires a large amount of labor and the

production technology is relatively backward, and the

level of automation is low. (Fig. 2)

2.2 Technical Proposal

The production process of shoe making mainly

comprises the processing of soles, shoes, uppers,

insoles and other parts. In this case, an automatic

processing method for sole processing is introduced

and the automatic processing of formed soles is

realized. The production process consists of a series

of consistent steps: automatic glue spraying,

automatic printing, automatic film pressing,

automatic cleaning, and automatic abrasive spraying.

(Fig. 3) The production frequency is set to ≤ 16s/pair

(or 2475 pairs/day, 11 hours per day). See Table 1 for

robot selection.

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Figure 2: Manual operation with health hazard risk

Table 1: Robot selection.

2.3 Automatic Processing Equipment

The automatic processing equipment consists of the

following components: The feeding component is

used to fix the formed materials on the station of the

conveyor machine; The conveying component is used

to convey the materials to each station; The

processing components include one or any

combination of the glue spraying module, the printing

module, the film pressing module and the abrasive

spraying module; The glue spraying module is used

to locate materials via mechanical vision, grab them

from the work station via the first six-axis spraying

robot, spray glue on them, and dry the materials in the

first dryer; The printing module is used to grab

materials and place them on the printing machine

mold via a four-axis robot, conduct air bag extrusion

printing on materials in the printing machine, and dry

the materials in the second dryer; The film pressing

module is used to put materials into the film pressing

machine via a four-axis robot for film pressing; The

wear-resistant spraying module is used to press and

fix the materials on multiple stations via a multi-

station compactor, wipe clean their bottoms via a

bottom wiping robot, spray wear-resistant agents on

them via the second six-axis spraying robot, and dry

them in the third dryer; The blanking component is

used to remove the finished materials from the station

and send them to the finished product area. (Fig. 4)

Robot performance parameters

Performance Parameter Specifications

Payload 7kg

Scope of work 918mm

Number of control axes 6

Repetitive positioning accuracy ±0.02mm

Degree of protection (wrist) IP54

Body weight 51KG

Automatic-Controlled Intelligent Production Line for Shoe Soles

583

Figure 3: Automatic unmanned machine operation

Figure 4: Automatic glue spraying, automatic hot printing, automatic film pressing, automatic sole cleaning and automatic

wear-resistant spraying for the processing of shoe soles.

3 AUTOMATIC CONTROL

Feeding: place the formed materials on the station of

the conveyor machine and fix them on the station.

Handling: the materials at each station connected by

the conveyor machine are processed through

procedures including one or any combination of glue

spraying, printing, film pressing and abrasive

spraying. Glue spraying: locate the material through

mechanical vision, grab the materials from the work

station through the first six-axis spraying robot, spray

glue on them, and make them dry in the first dryer.

Printing: the materials are grabbed by a four-axis

robot and placed on the printing machine mold,

before they are pressed and printed in the printing

machine, and dried in the second dryer. Film

pressing: the materials are put into the film pressing

machine through a four-axis robot for film pressing.

Wear-resistant spraying: press and fix the materials

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on multiple stations through a multi-station

compactor, wipe clean their bottoms using a bottom

wiping robot, spray wear-resistant agents on them

through the second six-axis spraying robot, and dry

them in a third dryer. Blanking: the finished materials

are taken from the station and sent to the finished

product area. Preferably, the conveyor machine is

one or any combination of a conveyor belt, a

transport robot and a multi-axis mechanical arm.

Preferably, the following processing procedures of

alignment are included: alignment, identifying and

positioning the materials through mechanical vision,

and adjusting the position of the station according to

the positioning of the materials to align the materials

with the processing coordinates. Preferably, the three

steps of alignment are set after feeding, glue spraying

and printing, respectively. Preferably, the following

processing procedures of cleaning are included:

cleaning, cleaning the materials after film pressing

using a cleaning machine, and drying the materials in

the fourth dryer. Preferably, the glue spraying quality

inspection, printing quality inspection, and film

pressing quality inspection are implemented to detect

the quality of the processing of glue spraying,

printing, and film pressing, respectively, through

mechanical vision, and remove the defective

materials from the production equipment after

corresponding procedures. Preferably, each station is

provided with a unique identifier that will be read

before and after each processing step, while the

corresponding processing steps are executed

according to the unique identifier, so as to record the

production information of the materials on the

station. Preferably, the processing procedures are

optimized through the digital twin optimization

system: The digital twin optimization system

includes a physical space subsystem, a digital twin

model, a virtual space subsystem and an optimization

model; The physical space subsystem is used to

acquire the assembly working conditions of the

material processing equipment and the production

working conditions of the material processing

equipment through signal acquisition; The digital

twin model is used to collect data according to the

signals of the material processing equipment

provided by the physical space subsystem, and obtain

the twin data of the equipment body, the assembly

processes, the production processes and the

performance of the material processing equipment

according to the collected signals; The virtual space

subsystem is used to examine 3D physical models,

simulate virtual intelligent assembly scenarios, as

well as virtual intelligent production scenarios

according to the information from the digital twin

model; The optimization model is used to iteratively

optimize the twin data of the equipment ontology, the

assembly processes, the production processes and the

performance according to the simulation results of

the virtual space subsystem through deep learning

algorithms, and output the optimized results. (Fig. 5)

Figure 5. Processing Procedures

4 CONCLUSION

In this case, the processing technologies of glue

spraying, printing, film pressing and wear-resistant

spraying are integrated into the the automatic

production process, so that the molded soles (uppers)

can be processed at one time with stabilized

processing efficiency and precision. By using

assembly lines and multi-axis mechanical arms to

connect the production processes in series, the

production efficiency and processing accuracy of

shoe sole manufacturing can be effectively

improved, and the labor cost can be reduced.

Through the combination of digital twin technology,

3D model simulation, the Internet of Things,

virtualization and digital technology, various

attributes of sole production equipment are mapped

into virtual space to form digital images, so as to help

production personnel redesign and optimize the

equipment assembly and the parameters of shoe sole

production line, thereby improving the production

efficiency, utilization of production equipment, and

labor cost savings for shoe sole manufacturing.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported in part by the National

Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Fund

under Grant 6210023461, in part by the Natural

Science Foundation of Guangdong province under

Grant 2022A1515011749, in part by the Guangdong

Academy of Sciences' (GDAS') Project of Science

and Technology Development under Grant

Automatic-Controlled Intelligent Production Line for Shoe Soles

585

2017GDASCX-0115 and Grant 2018GDASCX-

0115, in part by the Guangdong Academy of Science

for the Special Fund of Introducing Doctoral Talent

under Grant 2021GDASYL-20210103087, in part by

the Opening Foundation of Xinjiang Production and

Construction Corps Key Laboratory of Modern

Agricultural Machinery under Grant BTNJ2021003.

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