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HIGH TECH, HIGH TOUCH, REVOLUTIONS, EVOLUTIONS
JULY/AUGUST 2012 | www.footwearbiz.com
That was again a major revolution. Machinery
producers, particularly specialists in cutting, had to
completely rethink their systems. They had to acquire new
knowledge and build up skills in electronic controls and
software that were totally alien to them, a change that
transformed both themselves and shoemakers at the same
time. Observing any one of the latest generation of die-
less cutters, with projection systems, interactive pattern
nesting and high frequency oscillating knives, we can,
despite all the different implementations and machine
variations, detect a single dominant design that all
suppliers seem to comply with.
The evolutionary path towards this design was far more
complex and tortuous than it might at first appear.
Explorations in different cutting technologies including
water jet and laser were tried, automatic detection and
classification of leather flaws and quality areas attempted —
and many failures made — before the consolidated systems
that we see today finally appeared. The fact is however that
die-less cutting has changed cutting rooms in virtually all
shoe factories in the industrialised world just as CAD has
done in the design departments. These two technologies
depend very much on each other and together have had
probably the greatest impact on shoemaking today.
MECHANICAL TO MECHATRONIC
Shoemaking became an industry through the introduction
of machinery and early methods of work organisation.
Machines in particular, by alleviating human labour and
allowing workers to perform their tasks more rapidly and
efficiently, provided the growth in throughput and
production volumes that the market was demanding. All
through the first part of the last century machines became
ever more complex, covering all major steps in the shoe
manufacturing process. First there was stitching, then die-
cutting and, finally, making with the first pulling over
machines. In order to operate, these machines needed a
form of ‘power’. Initially this was provided by steam, gas
engines and then electricity. Pneumatic circuits and, later
on, hydraulic pumps enhanced the power applied and
allowed a greater level of control of the machines
themselves.
Finally there was electronics, enabling more and more
functions to be regulated, controlled and programmed by
means of the electronic controls the machines were
equipped with. And, with electronics, came IT to cover
those high-level programming tasks that required more
attention and, quite often, a multi-axis control of the tool
path the system had to follow. Toe lasting and heel and side
lasting machines, bottom and side roughing and cementing
machines, bottom pounders and other similar machines are
now complex ‘mechatronic’ systems, in which the
mechanical, electronic and IT components are equally
important and contribute evenly to their performance.
These machines can be fully programmed by using CAD-
generated data to execute their tasks automatically. They
have effectively de-skilled the operators who attend them
and contribute greatly to a more consistent quality shoe,
enabling moreover the transition of shoemaking from the
“mass market – high volumes” era into the “niche market –
high flexibility” one.