Patent Application
20240138510
The present invention relates to a shoe cover, and more particularly to a disposable shoe cover including two elastic cords on the center of the bottom sole of the shoe cover sole folding edge, and the shoe cover sole folding edge is contacted with the floor and creates the folding shape, groove, and wrinkle area to increase slip resistance.
Various kinds of typical polyethylene waterproof shoe covers have been developed and provided for being used in a sterile environment, such as the agriculture field, gardener, industrial area, home & interior decoration, carpenter, carpeting, plumbing, ceramic tiling, HVAC-air conditioning & servicing, automotive, motorcycling & bicycling, hiking, sports, etc., to prevent the mud, dirt, water away from the shoes, and the shoe covers are inexpensive enough to be considered to be disposable after a single use.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,922 to Ericson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,021 to Theodorsen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,485 to Joe, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,428 to Leger, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,429 to Alcala, U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,215 to Bayer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,227 to Swango, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,903 to Swango, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 11,344,082 to Evans disclose several of the typical disposable shoe covers which are normally required die cutting of particular shapes incident to manufacture, and this produces scrap and waste, and therefore increases cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,856 to Brunson et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 11,116,276 to Su et al. disclose other typical disposable shoe covers each including two elastic cords that are on the wearer's shoe cover's left and right sides, or located on both sides of the shoes that do not have a seam on the bottom of the shoe cover in contact with the sole of a wearer's shoe and floor, the sole bottom areas of the shoe covers are smoothly contacted with the floor without any seam or elastic cords.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional disposable shoe covers.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a disposable shoe cover including two elastic cords on the center of the bottom sole of the shoe cover sole folding edge, and the shoe cover sole folding edge is contacted with the floor and creates the folding shape, groove, and wrinkle area to increase slip resistance.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a shoe cover comprising a shoe cover upper and a shoe cover sole formed by a fabric, a shoe cover opening formed at a top of the shoe cover upper, the shoe cover opening being provided with an elastic cord, the shoe cover sole including a center line L, the shoe cover include a first and a second elastic cords provided and engaged in the shoe cover sole to create a folding shape and a wrinkle area and to increase a slip resistance.
The first and the second elastic cords are provided and engaged and located at two sides of the center line L.
Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to the drawings, and initially to
In accordance with the present invention, the shoe cover fabric is preferably made of PE-Polyethylene and, more particularly, is related to Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) which is a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene, and the shoe cover is made for waterproof circumstances, the shoe cover may be assembled by an automation machine and processes that will be described hereinafter and that may include six primary steps for the manufacturing processes.
First, a single roll of a flat sheet or fabric 5 (
Second, as shown in
Third, after sealing the four elastic cords 51, 52, 53, 54, the rectangular flat sheet 5 material continuous feeding through a triangle guide tooling jig (not illustrated), and the flat sheet 5 of material will be folded in half right in the middle dividing from the center line L of the flat sheet material 5 (
Fourth, after folding precisely symmetrical in half from the center line L of the flat sheet material 5 by thermo-roller seal or ultrasonic welding, as shown in
Fifth, after adhering to & secure the four-edge corner 55, 56, 57, 58 of the shoe cover, by thermo-roller seal or ultrasonic welding, adhere & seal the front edge 59 and the rear edge 60 of the shoe cover.
Sixth, after attaching and/or sealing the front edge 59 and the rear edge 60 of the shoe cover, a calculated roller cutter (not illustrated) will cut the folding sheet to the size we have set, approximately 14″˜18″ (36 cm˜46 cm).
It is to be noted that the bottom first and second elastic cords 52, 53 on the shoe cover keep the shoe cover in place at the bottom of the wearer's shoes 80, therefore, and to prevent the shoe cover from shifting side by side. The first and second elastic cords 52, 53 are disposed or engaged in the first and second sides of the center line L (
It is to be noted that, if only one elastic cord is on the sole bottom area, the shoe cover will shift side by side, in addition, it is hard to keep balance if only one elastic cord exists. Right in the center line folding is critical to keep the continuously running & feeding material precisely symmetrical in half for the following process. To do so, the bottom first and second elastic cords 52, 53 in mounted parallel side by side minimum of approximately 9/16″˜2⅜″ (1.5 cm˜6.0 cm) wide of the center of the bottom of the shoe cover sole folding edge.
It is further to be noted that the present application shoe cover may be formed or made without any glue or adhesive required. The shoe cover with the bottom sole first and second elastic cords 52, 53 on the shoe cover sole 3 enables the shoe cover to be one size fits all shoes. It will fit man and woman shoes from size approximately from USA size 7 to size 15 (EUR size 38˜size 50). It is stretchable and easy to put on and remove from the wearer's shoes. In addition, the shoe cover with the bottom sole first and second elastic cords 52, 53 on the shoe cover sole 3 creates the folding shape, groove, and wrinkle area to increase a slip resistance, and to create the folding shape or wrinkle area to gather more material on the bottom sole to increase the usage life cycle of the shoe cover. A high-efficiency automation assembly machine (not illustrated) may be used to make the polyethylene shoe cover with double elastic cords sole in about 60˜80 pieces per minutes.
It is further to be noted that the present application automation machine (not illustrated) and processes are only designed to use polyethylene (PE) or similar material. It is not intended for using the polypropylene (PP)/non-woven synthetic material. The shoe cover of the present application is not made of polypropylene (PP) or similar non-woven synthetic material and is not designed for hospital, surgical, etc., medical environments usages.
Accordingly, the disposable shoe cover in accordance with the present invention includes first and second elastic cords on the center of the bottom sole of the shoe cover sole folding edge, and the shoe cover sole folding edge is contacted with the floor and creates the folding shape, groove, and wrinkle area to increase slip resistance.
Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made by way of example only and that numerous changes in the detailed construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.
