Footwear Assembly Systems With 3D Printing

摘要

Methods and systems are disclosed for apparel assembly using three-dimensional printing directly onto fabric apparel materials. Disclosed is a method and system for direct three-dimensional printing and assembly of an article of apparel, including designing a three-dimensional pattern for printing, positioning at least a portion of the article on a tray in a three-dimensional printing system, the portion being positioned substantially flat on the tray, printing a three-dimensional material directly onto the article using the designed pattern, curing the printed material, and removing the article from the three-dimensional printing system.

主权项

1. A system for three-dimensional printing directly onto multiple fabric portions of an article of footwear, comprising:
a first nontransitory computer-readable medium encoded with a first computer program product loadable into a first memory of a first computer and including first software code portions for storing a three-dimensional pattern for printing directly onto the multiple fabric portions of the article of footwear; a print server; a switching device; a three-dimensional printer device; wherein the print server is in direct communication with the three-dimensional printer device and the switching device; wherein the switching device is in direct communication with the three-dimensional printer device and the print server; wherein the first nontransitory computer-readable medium is in direct communication with the switching device; wherein the print server comprises a second nontransitory computer-readable medium encoded with a second computer program product loadable into a second memory of a second computer and including second software code portions configured, when executed on the second computer, for instructing the three-dimensional printing device to print directly onto the multiple fabric portions of the article of footwear through a first sequence of printing steps and a second sequence of printing steps; wherein a first fabric portion of the multiple fabric portions is at least a portion of a side of an upper of the article of footwear and a second fabric portion of the multiple fabric portions is at least a portion of a bottom of the upper of the article of footwear; wherein the three-dimensional printer device comprises
a tray receiving, in the first sequence, the first fabric portion positioned substantially flat on the tray to provide a first fabric printing substrate and receiving, in the second sequence, the second fabric portion of the article of footwear positioned to provide a second fabric printing substrate for printing a sole of the article of footwear,at least one printing head for printing three-dimensional material onto the first fabric portion in the first sequence and onto the second fabric portion in the second sequence, andat least one ultraviolet light for curing three-dimensional material printed in the first and second sequences; and wherein the three-dimensional printer device is configured to print the three-dimensional material onto at least one irregular surface portion of at least one of the first fabric portion and the second fabric portion.