Patent Application
20250000211
This application claims priority to Taiwanese Utility Model Patent Application No. 112206804, filed on Jun. 30, 2023, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The disclosure relates to an insole.
A conventional sole structure includes an outsole, a midsole, and an insole that is replaceable. Provision of the insole provides comfort to a wearer. If the insole is made from an elastic material, such insole also helps to relieve pressure on a foot sole of the wearer, and hence can serve as a cushion against such pressure, thereby preventing foot fatigue.
At present, the insole may include a foam layer, a fabric layer adhered to the foam layer, and a plurality of air holes extending through the foam layer and the fabric layer. Because the air holes of the insole have relatively large diameters, edges of such air holes may cause a foreign body sensation to the foot sole of the wearer.
Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide an insole that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art. The insole includes:
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment(s) with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that various features may not be drawn to scale.
It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Taiwan or any other country.
For the purpose of this specification, it will be clearly understood that the word “comprising” means “including but not limited to,” and that the word “comprises” has a corresponding meaning.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the meaning commonly understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. One skilled in the art will recognize many methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein, which could be used in the practice of the present disclosure. Indeed, the present disclosure is in no way limited to the methods and materials described.
Referring to
The insole body 10 may be made from a breathable polyurethane (PU) foam material (serving as the breathable foam material), so that the insole body 10 exhibits breathability. In certain embodiments, the insole body 10 may have a thickness ranging from 3 mm to 10 mm. Specifically, the thickness is adjustable depending on the requirement of a shoe into which the insole body 10 is to be inserted. The insole body 10 has a bottom surface 11, a top surface 12 that is opposite to the bottom surface 11, and a plurality of air voids 13 that are spatially interconnected and are capable of connecting to the bottom surface 11 and the top surface 12. The air voids 13 are directly formed due to utilization of the breathable polyurethane (PU) foam material. In this embodiment, the breathable foam material for making the insole body 10 is purchased from HOLISEN ENTERPRISE Co., Ltd., and a raw material number thereof is “P-920/I-960”.
The fabric layer unit 20 includes a fabric layer 21 and a waterproof membrane 22 adhered to a bottom surface of the fabric layer 21. In certain embodiments, the waterproof membrane 22 may be made from a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The waterproof membrane 22 is disposed between the fabric layer 21 and the insole body 10, and is bonded to the top surface 12 of the insole body 10. In a process for manufacturing the insole, the insole body 10, the fabric layer 21, and the waterproof membrane 22 may be integrally formed by having their raw materials respectively injected into multiple flow channels, followed by allowing the raw materials from the multiple flow channels to converge in a mold. In certain embodiments, the fabric layer 21 may have a thickness ranging from 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm, and the waterproof membrane 22 may have a thickness ranging from 0.05 mm to 0.3 mm. After molding of the insole, the waterproof membrane 22 thus obtained can completely isolate the fabric layer 21 from the insole body 10.
The air holes 30 are connected to the fabric layer 21 and the waterproof membrane 22. To be more specific, the air holes 30 pass through the fabric layer 21 and the waterproof membrane 22. Each of the air holes 30 has a hole length in a direction parallel to the stacking axis (Y). The air holes 30 and the air voids 13 are spatially interconnected, so that the air holes 30 and the air voids 13 together form a plurality of air channels. Moreover, each of the air holes 30 has a hole width in a direction perpendicular to the stacking axis (Y) of less than 0.1 mm. In certain embodiments, the hole width in the direction perpendicular to the stacking axis (Y) may range from 0.005 mm to 0.02 mm. In an exemplary embodiment, the hole width in the direction perpendicular to the stacking axis (Y) is 0.01 mm.
The air holes 30 may be formed by either one of two ways described hereinafter. Referring to
Referring to
Due to utilization of the first fine needles 110 or the second fine needles 230, the hole width in the direction perpendicular to the stacking axis (Y) of each of the air holes 30 can be made to be less than 0.1 mm, so that when a wearer wears a sole structure including the insole according to the disclosure, a foot sole of the wearer would not feel a foreign body sensation when walking, thereby increasing the comfortability to the wearer.
Moreover, since the hole width in the direction perpendicular to the stacking axis (Y) of each of the air holes 30 is less than 0.1 mm, the air holes 30 is hence invisible to naked eyes, so that not only can the breathability of the insole be kept, but also the overall aesthetics thereof can be maintained.
Furthermore, referring to
In sum, the insole according to the disclosure has a simplified overall structure, which facilitates the manufacturing process of the insole, thereby achieving the purpose of the disclosure.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiment(s). It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects; such does not mean that every one of these features needs to be practiced with the presence of all the other features. In other words, in any described embodiment, when implementation of one or more features or specific details does not affect implementation of another one or more features or specific details, said one or more features may be singled out and practiced alone without said another one or more features or specific details. It should be further noted that one or more features or specific details from one embodiment may be practiced together with one or more features or specific details from another embodiment, where appropriate, in the practice of the disclosure.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is (are) considered the exemplary embodiment(s), it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment(s) but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 112206804 | Jun 2023 | TW | national |
