Patent Application
20170105491
1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates to a milling head for shaping a shoe support from an unfinished block of support material. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a milling head that comprises multiple cutting/grinding surfaces that can shape the shoe support on all surfaces requiring shaping, including the top, perimeter and medial arch area of the perimeter surface, without moving the support material from a vacuum vise or other device holding it. The present disclosure also relates to a method of using the disclosed milling head to shape the unfinished block of support material.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacture of custom shoe supports, there are a number of surfaces that must be customized to produce a finished support from an unfinished block of support material. These surfaces include a contoured top surface, a perimeter surface and a medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material.
The contoured top surface supports the foot itself. It is generally designed for contouring using a digitized set of contour data that represent the shape of the foot, including possible corrections/edits to that contour data that may be desired for the final finished support. This contoured top surface is generally machined into an oversized unfinished block of support material using a semi-spherical grinding or milling tool under computer control. This is known in the art as CNC-type technology. Generally, this provides the desired customized top surface of the support.
However, at the present time, the CNC-type technology is the only automation generally employed to customize a shoe support, with the balance of the required surface customization (i.e., the perimeter surface shape and the shape of the medial arch area of the perimeter surface) generally performed by hand. Customizing the perimeter surface and medial arch area of the perimeter surface by hand is time consuming, fraught with the potential for errors and, in any case, requires a skilled manual laborer to successfully complete the custom support.
Attempts to use the semi-spherical grinding or milling tool to also grind the perimeter surface of the oversized unfinished block of support material provides at best a marginal solution. The reason for this is that the semi-spherical grinding/milling tool has a ball-shaped (i.e., semi-spherically curved) end that will not produce a clean angled or vertical perimeter surface on the oversized unfinished block of support material. A possible solution to this problem could be to provide a tool changer that would allow the perimeter surface to be shaped using a milling head that has a squared-off milling profile. This could provide a clean perimeter surface but it will not shape the perimeter surface all the way to the medial arch area of the unfinished block of support material because, in the present state of the art, all support materials that require customization are either adhered to or held under vacuum to the milling machine surface. This makes shaping the perimeter surface through the cross-sectional depth of the unfinished block of support material impractical. Further, it is generally desirable (if not necessary) for the perimeter surface of the customized shoe support to have an undercut of typically about 7-12 degrees (7°-12°) so as to facilitate a better and easier fit for the shoe support into the shoe. In theory, a specialized milling tool might make this possible using a tool changer to replace the semi-spherical grinding/milling tool with the specialized tool but, again, it is not possible to cut through the entire cross-sectional depth of the unfinished block of support material, resulting in making additional hand sanding a necessary operation.
Lastly, there is presently no solution as to how to remove excess material from the medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material in the arch region. Removing the partly finished block of support material from the vacuum vise and turning it over to expose the arch area followed by machining the medial arch area of the perimeter surface will not work because the top surface has already been machined and has an uneven surface, making for firm gripping by the vacuum vise highly problematic. Moreover, the remaining partly finished support is highly flexible, making securing the partly finished block of support material difficult and making additional automated machining impractical. Further, even if the issue of fixing the highly flexible material could be solved, there remains the problem of having an operator manually turning over the material and locating it precisely in the vacuum vise so that machining the medial arch area of the perimeter surface can be performed in precisely the right location. It could also be possible to use a simple ball end milling head by affixing the unfinished block of support material to a mechanism to tilt the insole or spindle to grind the side angles for the medial arch area. However, this would entail a complex mechanism for tilting and precise control of the tilt angle which, in any event would likely not produce the correct undercut angle and, in addition, would still be less than desirable from a finished product point of view since the ball milling end curvature would not produce the necessary uniform undercut.
The foregoing problems can in theory be resolved by maintaining the unfinished block of support material fixed to the milling machine surface and performing all perimeter and undercut operations from the top. Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a device and method that can perform all perimeter surface and medial arch area of the perimeter surface milling operations from the top. The method and device of the present disclosure satisfies those needs.
It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a device and method that can shape the perimeter surface of an unfinished block of support material through the cross-sectional depth to the medial arch area of the perimeter surface thereof without requiring moving the material from a known position in the vacuum vise, on the milling machine surface, or in another holding device.
It is another object of the present disclosure to provide a device and method that can shape the medial arch area of the perimeter surface in the arch area of an unfinished block of support material without requiring moving the material from position in the vacuum vise, on the milling machine surface, or in another holding device.
It is also an object of the present disclosure to provide a device and method that can fully automate the manufacture of a customized shoe support.
These and other objects are provided by a milling head according to the present disclosure.
In one embodiment, the present disclosure provides a milling head having a plurality of milling surfaces for forming a shoe support from an unfinished block of support material, the plurality of milling surfaces comprising at least a first angled undercutting surface; and a curved surface, wherein each of the at least a first angled undercutting surface and curved surface is provided with a cutting surface, wherein the at least first angled undercutting surface is configured to perform milling a milling operation on a perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material, and wherein the curved surface is configured to perform milling on a top surface of the unfinished block of support material.
In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a milling head having a plurality of milling surfaces for forming a shoe support from an unfinished block of support material, the plurality of milling surfaces comprising at least a first angled undercutting surface, at least a second angled undercutting surface, and a curved surface, wherein each of the at least first angled surface, the at least second angled undercutting surface and the curved surface has a cutting surface, wherein the first angled undercutting surface is configured to perform milling on a perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material, wherein the second angled undercutting surface is configured to perform milling on a medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material, and wherein the curved surface is configured to perform milling on a top surface of the unfinished block of support material.
Preferably, the milling head further comprises a chuck shaft configured for insertion into a drill chuck, wherein the curved surface is disposed distal the chuck shaft and wherein the first and second angled undercutting surfaces are disposed between the chuck shaft and the curved surface. Also preferably, the plurality of milling surfaces and, optionally, the chuck shaft, are of a unitary structure, although one or more of each milling surface may be releasably connectable to one or more other milling surface(s) and/or the chuck shaft, such as by threading, spring clip, set screws, spring loaded locking pin or similar attachment elements known to those of skill in the art. The milling head is preferably configured to perform the milling of the perimeter surface, medial arch area of the perimeter surface and top surface by rotation, preferably high speed rotation, by the use of computer guided drill assembly, but may also be configured to perform the milling of the perimeter surface, medial arch area of the perimeter surface and top surface of the unfinished block of support material by oscillation or vibration, as is known to those of skill in the art. As will be understood by those of skill in the art, where the milling head performs milling by rotation, each of the first and second cutting surfaces and the curved surface will preferably have a substantially circular cross-section through a longitudinal axis of the milling head running along the length of the milling head. As will also be understood by those of skill in the art, where the milling head performs cutting by oscillation, each of the first and second cutting surfaces and the curved surface will preferably have a substantially planar configuration.
As used herein, the “first” and “second” angled surfaces and/or the “curved” surface need not necessarily be distinct or separate. These surfaces (and especially the “first” and “second” angled surfaces) can be provided by, for example, a continuously curved surface in a parabolic-type configuration proceeding from one end of the milling head to the other. In this configuration, the “angle” of any point on the surface would be defined by the angle between a longitudinal axis passing through the length of the milling head and a tangent to the continuously curved surface that is being considered. Those of skill in the art will also appreciate that the angled surfaces may be reversed, i.e., the “angled” surface configured to perform milling on a perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material may be disposed in reverse order on the milling head in relation to the “angled” undercutting surface configured to perform milling on a medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material. In other words, the “angled” undercutting surface configured to perform milling on a medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material could be disposed further from the chuck shaft end of the milling head than the “angled” surface configured to perform milling on a perimeter surface of the unfinished block of support material. In practice, this configuration is less preferred because, given the increased angle generally needed to perform the undercutting on the medial arch area of the perimeter surface, the greater the mass of that portion of the milling head. This configuration would place a higher mass further from the chuck shaft end which, in turn, could reduce the stability/efficiency of the milling head.
In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a milling head having a plurality of milling surfaces for forming a shoe support from an unfinished block of support material, the milling head comprising a chuck shaft end and a top surface milling end, at least two undercutting milling surfaces disposed between the chuck shaft end and the top surface milling end, wherein each of the top surface and at least two undercutting surfaces has a cutting surface, wherein the top surface milling end comprises a semi-spherical milling surface, wherein the at least two undercutting milling surfaces comprise at least a first conical milling surface for milling a perimeter surface of the unfinished block of shoe support material and at least a second conical milling surface for milling a medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of shoe support material. Preferably, the at least first conical milling surface is disposed adjacent the semi-spherical top surface milling end and the at least second conical milling surface is disposed adjacent the chuck shaft end. Also preferably, the plurality of miffing surfaces and, optionally, the chuck shaft, are of a unitary structure, although one or more of each milling surface may be connectable to one or more other milling surface and/or the chuck shaft, such as by threading, spring clip, set screws, spring loaded locking pin or similar attachment elements known to those of skill in the art. The milling head is preferably configured to perform milling of the perimeter surface, medial arch area of the perimeter surface and top surface by rotation, preferably high speed rotation, by use of a computer guided drill assembly, but may also be configured to perform the milling of the perimeter surface, medial arch area of the perimeter surface and top surface of the unfinished block of support material by oscillation or vibration, as is known to those of skill in the art. As will be understood by those of skill in the art, where the milling head performs milling by rotation, each of the first and second cutting surfaces and the curved surface will preferably have a substantially circular cross-section through a longitudinal axis of the milling head running along the length of the milling head. As also will be understood by those of skill in the art, where the milling head performs cutting by oscillation, each of the first and second cutting surfaces and the curved surface will preferably have a substantially planar configuration.
The cutting surface is preferably an abrasive surface, but can be a knife-like cutting surface as in a standard drill bit, or can be in the configuration of saw teeth. When an abrasive surface is used, it is generally preferred to use an abrasive having a relatively coarse grit, such as 40-100 grit, preferably 40-80 grit, and more preferably 60-80 grit. A more coarse grit is preferred since the unfinished block of support material is, generally, relatively rigid and hard. However, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that a less coarse grit may be used, it being understood that a less coarse grit will entail a longer cutting/shaping time and is, therefore, less efficient.
In a further embodiment, the present disclosure provides a method of forming a shoe support from an unfinished block of support material, the method comprising: (1) providing a milling head comprising a first angled undercutting surface, a second angled undercutting surface and a curved surface, wherein each surface is coated with an abrasive, (2) placing an unfinished block of shoe support material in a position on a support for the unfinished block of shoe support material, wherein the unfinished block of shoe support material has a top surface, a perimeter surface and a medial surface, (3) shaping the top surface with the curved surface, (4) undercutting the perimeter surface with the first angled undercutting surface, and (5) undercutting the medial arch area of the perimeter surface with the second angled undercutting surface, wherein the shaping of the top surface, the undercutting of the perimeter surface and the undercutting of the medial surface is performed by moving the milling head in any combination of an X direction, a Y direction and a Z direction, and wherein the undercutting of the perimeter surface and the undercutting of the medial arch area of the perimeter surface are performed without removing the shoe support material from position on the support.
Preferably, the support is a vacuum vise (as shown in the accompanying Figures), but can be any support that holds the unfinished block of shoe support material firmly in place and provides for exposing the perimeter and medial arch surfaces sufficiently to the action of the milling head. Other possibilities for the support include a pedestal to which the unfinished block of support material is adhered with a temporary but strong adhesive, or providing a keying mechanism on the support material that cooperates with a reciprocal keying mechanism on the support. In this last-mentioned embodiment, the unfinished block of support material can be “locked” into place for milling and “unlocked” once milling is complete. Other possible methods of supporting the unfinished block of support material for milling will be apparent to those of skill in the art. As used herein “holds firmly in place” means that the unfinished block of shoe support material will remain in position and not shift on the support during the milling operation.
Also, as will be understood by those of skill in the art, although the steps in the above method have been referred to using numerical values, the method steps need not be performed in any particular sequence.
In a still further embodiment, the present disclosure provides a method of forming a shoe support from an unfinished block of support material, the method comprising: (1) providing a milling head having a chuck shaft end, a semi-spherical milling surface, a first conical milling surface, and a second conical milling surface, wherein the semi-spherical milling surface is disposed distal to the chuck shaft end, wherein the first and second conical milling surfaces are disposed between the chuck shaft end and the semi-spherical milling surface, wherein each of the semi-spherical milling surface, first conical milling surface and second conical milling surface is coated with an abrasive; (2) placing an unfinished block of shoe support material in a position on a vacuum vise to support the shoe support material, wherein the unfinished block of shoe support material has a top surface, a perimeter surface and a medial surface, (3) shaping the top surface with the semi-spherical milling surface curved surface, (4) undercutting the perimeter surface with the first conical milling surface, and (5) undercutting the medial arch area of the perimeter surface with the second conical milling surface, wherein the shaping of the top surface, the undercutting of the perimeter surface and the undercutting of the medial arch area of the perimeter surface is performed by moving the milling head in any combination of an X direction, a Y direction and a Z direction, and wherein the undercutting of the perimeter surface and the undercutting of the medial arch area of the perimeter surface are performed without removing the shoe support material from position on the vacuum vise.
Each of the at least first angled undercutting surface and the at east second angled undercutting surface is provided with cutting surfaces having angles that are desired for shaping the perimeter surface and medial arch area of the perimeter surface of the unfinished block of material, respectively. The angled cutting surface for providing the desired perimeter surface typically provides an undercut angle to the shoe support material of from about 5° to about 20°, preferably from about 7° to about 15°, more preferably from about 8° to about 12° and most preferably about 10°. It will be understood by those of skill in the art that the recited angles are merely exemplary in nature and that the configuration of the angled surface for providing the desired perimeter surface can vary greatly and, in any event, is defined by the shape of the shoe support for a particular end user. The angled cutting surface for providing the desired medial arch area of the perimeter surface may have an angle similar to that provided for the milling surface for providing the perimeter surface but, in general, has a greater maximum angle that can be greater than 20°, preferably from about 20° to about 45°, more preferably from about 25° to about 40° and most preferably from about 30° to about 40°. A difference between the at least one angled milling surface for providing the perimeter surface and the at least one angled milling surface for providing the medial arch area of the perimeter surface is that the depth of the angled milling surface (measured, for example, by the distance from a longitudinal axis of the milling head passing through the length of the milling head from the, e.g., chuck shaft end to the semi-spherical milling surface) for undercutting the medial arch area of the perimeter surface is greater than the angled milling surface for providing the perimeter surface. By this configuration, the undercutting angled milling surface for providing the medial arch area of the perimeter surface can be run along the perimeter surface of the shoe support material and be driven inwards (i.e., toward the interior of the shoe support material) of the perimeter surface to undercut the arch area of the finished shoe support. The depth of this cut may be determined by the desired shape of the final shoe support and/or the arch height of the subject foot that the shoe support is for. The latter is desired as feet have widely varying arch heights. The undercut for a low arch for instance will in many cases be different than that for a high arch.
With respect to the at least one conical milling surfaces, as is known in geometry, a conical surface can be defined as the unbounded surface formed by the union of all the straight lines passing through a fixed point (the apex) and any point of some fixed space circle a distance from the apex. Stated otherwise, the angle of the conical milling surfaces can be defined as sweeping a line that defines a profile of the edge of the conical surface disposed away from the center of a longitudinal axis through 360 degrees. The angles that were described above can be applied to the conical milling surfaces in terms of angles disposed away from perpendicularity to the straight line connecting the apex and the center of the circle that defines the conical surface. Other than the geometric rules applying to conical surfaces, the description above with respect to the angled surfaces applies equally to the conical surfaces.
With respect to the curved surface and semi-spherical milling surface, the curvature of each can be described in terms of the diameter of the circle that would be formed by the curved surface, and the diameter of the sphere that would be formed by the semi-spherical milling surface. Of course, as will be understood by those of skill in the art, the particular diameter being selected for the curved and/or semi-spherical surface is a matter of design choice and depends upon the top surface that is to be formed on the unfinished block of shoe support material. By way of example, the diameter may be anywhere from ½ inch to 4 inches, preferably ½ inch to 2 inches and, more preferably, 1-2 inches. In the embodiment shown in the Figures, the semi-spherical surface is approximately ½ inch radius.
The device and method according to the present disclosure will be more fully understood by reference to the following Figures in which like elements are referred to by like numerals throughout.
As used herein, the terms “first”, “second”, “top” and “medial” are used merely for descriptive purposes and to provide for an understanding of the relative configuration of the embodiments of the present disclosure. The use of such terms is neither intended to nor necessary for the practice of the embodiments set forth in the present disclosure.
Although the present disclosure describes in detail certain embodiments, it is understood that variations and modifications exist known to those skilled in the art that are within the disclosure. Accordingly, the present disclosure is intended to encompass all such alternatives, modifications and variations that are within the scope of the disclosure as set forth in the disclosure.
This application is a related, and claims priority, to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/242,038 filed on Oct. 15, 2015 that is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference thereto.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62242038 | Oct 2015 | US |
