Patent Application
20220080689
The present invention relates to shoes, and more particularly to an environmentally friendly shoe material and a method for manufacturing the same.
With the advancement of technology and the rise of environmental awareness, more and more manufacturers on the market have begun to use recycled resources or recycled waste as materials for making products. However, most of the existing shoes on the market, such as sports shoes, sandals, slippers, casual shoes, etc., have soles made of a single material, for example, made of rubber with good wear resistance and elasticity. Therefore, how to apply recycled waste to shoe soles as one of the materials for manufacturing shoe soles is a topic to be solved at present.
One objective of the present invention is to provide an environmentally friendly shoe material that can maintain its due function and take environmental protection into account, and a method for manufacturing the same.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing an environmentally friendly shoe material comprises: mixing scraps and a foaming material to provide a shoe material mixture, the scraps including bottle scraps formed by crushing plastic bottles; putting the shoe material mixture into a mold and compression molding the shoe material mixture into the environmentally friendly shoe material; and separating the environmentally friendly shoe material from the mold.
In another embodiment, the aforementioned method further includes: heating the mold.
In yet another embodiment, the scraps further include paper scraps, wood scraps, plant scraps, coffee grounds, discarded foamed plastic fragments or combinations thereof.
In yet another embodiment, the step of mixing scraps and the foaming material to provide the shoe material mixture includes: mixing the scraps, catalyst, and thermosetting polyurethane elastomer to provide a first mixture; and mixing water with the first mixture to provide the shoe material mixture, wherein the catalyst, the water and the thermosetting polyurethane elastomer are mixed to produce the foaming material.
In yet another embodiment, in the foaming material, a content of the catalyst is 15-20% by weight, a content of the water is 10-20% by weight, and a content of the thermosetting polyurethane elastomer is 60-70% by weight. Or, a ratio of the catalyst, the water and the thermosetting polyurethane elastomer is 20:20:60 or 15:10:75.
In yet another embodiment, the foaming material is liquid rubber.
In yet another embodiment, the method for manufacturing the environmentally friendly shoe material further comprises: putting a thermoplastic polyurethane film into the mold; and covering the shoe material mixture with the thermoplastic polyurethane film to perform compression molding and produce the environmentally friendly shoe material.
The present invention further provides an environmentally friendly shoe material according to an embodiment, wherein the environmentally friendly shoe material is suitable for being made into a component of a shoe and includes scraps and an elastic material, and the scraps include bottle scraps made by crushing plastic bottles.
In another embodiment, the environmentally friendly shoe material further includes paper scraps.
In yet another embodiment, the elastic material includes rubber or thermosetting polyurethane elastomer.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a content of the scraps is 30-60% by weight.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the size of the plastic bottle scraps is 2-8 mm.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the environmentally friendly shoe material further comprises a thermoplastic polyurethane elastic layer as a surface of the environmentally friendly shoe material.
In this way, the environmentally friendly shoe material provided by the present invention can not only maintain its due function, but also take environmental protection into account.
After studying the detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be discovered:
In the following detailed description, many specific details are explained in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other cases, well-known methods, procedures and/or elements are not described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention.
The present invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of the embodiments of the present invention, which is made by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to scale.
The method for manufacturing an environmentally friendly shoe material provided by the present invention can be applied to the manufacture of shoe components. For example, the method for manufacturing an environmentally friendly shoe material provided by the present invention can be applied to the manufacture of shoe soles. In order to clearly illustrate the spirit of the present invention, the application of the manufacturing method to the sole of the shoe will be explained as an example in the following description.
Referring to
Next, in a step S12, the above-mentioned shoe material mixture is put into a mold and molded into the shoe material by compression molding. Furthermore, compression molding may be performed using the mold at room temperature (that is, without heating). Finally, in a step S14, the shoe material is separated from the mold.
The sole produced by the above-mentioned manufacturing method may include an elastic material 10 and scraps 20 as shown in
In another embodiment, the aforementioned manufacturing method can further include heating the mold, as in a step S11 shown in
The above-mentioned embodiment is explained by using liquid rubber as an example of the foaming material. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the above-mentioned foaming material can be replaced by other materials. For example, please refer to
In a step S201, the scraps, catalyst, and thermosetting polyurethane elastomer (TSU) are mixed to provide a first mixture. The scraps may be scraps made of recycled materials, such as plastic scraps, paper scraps, scraps of other recycled materials, or any combination thereof. The plastic scraps can be made by crushing, for example, PET bottles, bottle caps, or a combination thereof. The size of the plastic scraps can be, for example, a size visible to the human eye, such as 2-8 mm, but the present invention is not limited to this. The catalyst can be, for example, triethylenediamine.
Then, in a step S202, water is mixed with the first mixture to provide the shoe material mixture. The catalyst, the water and the thermosetting polyurethane elastomer are mixed to produce the aforementioned foaming material. In the foaming material, the content of the catalyst can be, for example, 15-20% by weight, the content of water can be, for example, 10-20% by weight, and the content of the thermosetting polyurethane elastomer can be, for example, 60-70% by weight. Specifically, the ratio (content) of the catalyst, the water and the thermosetting polyurethane elastomer may be, for example, 20:20:60 or 15:10:75 (weight percentage). The content of the scraps can be, for example, 30-60 weight percent, and the content of the foaming material can be, for example, 70-40 weight percent. The added foaming material is mixed with the scraps to enable the scraps to be adhered and uniformly or unevenly dispersed in the foaming material.
After the shoe material mixture is formed, in a step S22, the above-mentioned shoe material mixture is putted into the mold and molded by compressing molding to produce the shoe material. More specifically, the compression molding can be performed using the mold at room temperature (that is, without heating). Finally, in a step S24, the shoe material is separated from the mold.
In another embodiment, the aforementioned manufacturing method can further include heating the mold, as in a step S21 shown in
In other embodiments of the present invention, the above step S12 (or S22) may include the following steps. First, a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) film is placed in the mold. Then, the above shoe material mixture is put onto the thermoplastic polyurethane film in the mold, and the thermoplastic polyurethane film covers the entire shoe material mixture. Finally, compression molding is performed to produce the shoe material. Therefore, the surface of the finished shoe material will have a thermoplastic polyurethane layer, such as a thermoplastic polyurethane layer 30 shown in
Although the present invention is disclosed above with the foregoing embodiments, these embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention. All changes and modifications made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention fall within the scope of protection of the present invention. For the scope of protection defined by the present invention, please refer to the attached claims.
