History

Primitive shoes Ancient shoes Greek/Roman Middle Ages Baroque Era Early American Victorian Era Sneaker Era

Sneaker Era
Sneaker is traditionally defined a shoe consisting of a solid rubber sole attached to an upper made, usually, of canvas. The word "sneaker" started by Henry Nelson McKinney, an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son, because the rubber sole made the shoe stealthy or quiet . While rubber soled shoes had been in use for some time for aristocratic lawn sports and King Henry VIII was reported to have worn a sneaker-like shoe for playing tennis True life of the sneaker did not begin until American inventor Charles Goodyear patented the process for vulcanization of rubber.

First Rubber Soled Shoes

Called plimsolls Developed & manufactured in US, 1800s. Role of vulcanization Charles Goodyear January 24, 1899Humphrey OSullivan received 1st patent for rubber heel for shoes

Builtup Allrubber

DIP
Rubber Footwear

DVP

Plimsolls

RUBBER FORMULATION
FOOTWEAR SOLE

INGREDIENTS
SBR IR High Styrene Resin MB Aluminium Silicate Zinc Oxide Stearic Acid Process Oil Antioxidant Coumarone Oil Si-69 DOTG MBTS Sulphur

PPHR
(MEDIUM GRADE SOLE, INJECTION MOULDED) 50 30 20 50 5 2 10 1 3 3 1 1.5 2

Raw Materials
Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) It is a type of copolymer - 71 % butadiene, 29 % styrene High resistance on silicone oil, alcohol and alkaline. Lower crystallinity due to the presence of styrene Addition of fillers such as carbon black and silica reinforcement purpose It can replace NR for general use It has various grades ,such as standard emulsion polymerizes SBR, oilextended SBR Polyisoprene (IR) Rubber It has the synthetic chemical equivalent to NR It is used in the product that the formulation requires high purity Molecular weight and its distribution can be controlled for processing properties

Compounding
Type of curatives Zinc oxide Function Activator

Aluminium silicate
Stearic acid Process oil Antioxidant

Non-carbon black filler

Activator Plasticizer-lubricant Resistance to oxidizing agents

Coumarone resin
Si-69 Colour pigment MBTS

Processing aid
Coupling agent Impart desired colour Accelerator

DOTG
Sulphur
*

Accelerator
Curing agent

Abbreviations MBTS= Mercaptobenzolhiazole disulfide HAF black = high abrasion furnace black DOTG=di-o-tolylguanidine

Compounding
Non Black Compound
Reinforcing siliceous fillers Good reinforcing agent for IR and SBR

Zinc Oxide & Stearic Acid

Activator (improve acceleration by activating accelerator)

Process Oil
Lubricant Improve processing characteristics especially during mixing & moulding Modify properties of rubber

Antioxidant
Provide protection against oxidizing agents

Compounding
Coumarone Resin
Processing aid Soften and tackify the rubber (easy uniform mixing)

Coupling Agent
To improved adhesion between filler and rubber

Pigment
Impart certain colour

Accelerator
Increase rate of vulcanisation, shorter vulcanisation time

Sulphur
Vulcanising agent to promote cross-linking

Compounding
Employ internal mixer to mix rubbers, activators (ZnO, Stearic acid), Filler(s) and coupling agent (if any), processing oil, antioxidant, coumarone resin. Mixing time is 6-7 minutes. The master batch recharged from the internal mixer is then mixed in the two-roll mill. The accelerators, sulphur and colored pigment are added to the rubber compound and mixed for 4-6 minutes (or until getting a uniformly dispersed rubber compound). The rubber compound is then sheeted ready for next processing step. For a newly designed compound, cure rheometer test is done by using MDR or ODR to determine the cure characteristics of the rubber compound (cure temperature and cure time)

Manufacturing & Processing

Shoe Sole Production Flow Chart

Manufacturing Technique

Injection-molded shoes sole

Low capital investment require unskilled workers Involves the injection of outsole substance into a closed mold Flash- soling material that escapes through the joined mold part. The process is carried out in external pressure machines, either pneumatically or hydraulically. Thermoplastic rubber, PVC, polyurethane, ethyl vinyl chloride are normally used as outsole material in the injection molding process.

Process of direct-attached injection outsole

1. Injection molded unit soles

Components The base plate contoured to the shape of the sole

Movable side plates, which can open and close automatically

The last, which contain the upper, fits exactly on the cavity when the base and side mold are closed

The sole plate, side mold and lasts are filled with electrical elements

The operation
1. The side moulds are closed tightly around the upper. 2. The sole is injected in a closed mold but not directly attached to shoe upper 3. The sole plate is then forced up, acting as a ram until it reaches a set position to give required finished gauge of outsole. 4. Time control is set to the required cure time. 5. The press is automatically open 6. The footwear is stripped off the last and allowed to cool. 7. The spew is trimmed off.

outsole

2. Direct-attached injection outsoles

Footwear made by the direct injection of the outsole onto the upper whether is canvas or leather Require a mold that has side ring and soleplate

There will be a remarkable seam, as the left and right mold side rings come together to form the sole.
Presence of the seam characteristic of the direct-attached injection molding process.

seam

Direct-attached injection outsole has 2 systems: One-component direct-attach system Two or more direct-attach system

One-component direct-attach system Involve the injection of the soling material into the mold assembly Only 1 component sole is molded directly on the shoe upper

Flash can be formed when the material seeps between the mold side ring and other component.
Sprue is formed at the injection point of the sole that is cut off Two types of one-component direct attach system : Injection on heel Injection on bottom

Sprue

Two or more component direct attach system

can consist of different materials and colors In this process, a multiple station machine rotate (like merry-go-round) and the operator is stationary Outsole/ first injection port

Second injection port

Stages
1. The outsole is injected by using a smooth dummy last in place of the shoe upper. 2. The dummy last is rotated out of position when the outsole is formed. The outsole formed remains in mold cavity. 3. The shoe upper is lowered into the mold assembly and rest on the top of the already formed outsole. 4. The side rings of the mold assembly close tightly. 5. The midsole is injected through a second injection port, which will attach the previously injected outsole and the shoe upper.

Manufacturing Technique

Compression Moulding

The molder must design in shut-off region with hardened inserts Consistent and precise machining by the moldmaker is a prepequisite for the resulting product quality. Two-piece molds - top half and bottom half that are mounted opposite each other in the compression molding machine. The compression-molding process is an open-mold This means that the mold is open when the premixed into the mold cavity. The mold close as it is placed under considerable heat and pressure for several minutes.

 The outsole materials enable them to conform to the size and shape of the mold. Excess material (flash) escape from the side where the two halve of the mold meet and trimmed away later. The compression method may be linked to be waffle, where the batter is placed on the bottom waffles iron. The batter is placed on the bottom waffles iron, the top half on the waffle iron is closed and the excess batter leaks out the side.

Compression molded outsole can also be made with 2 or more colours using a 3 or 4 section. This 4 sections are: 1. A section that contains the outsole design 2. A section that is a cover plate that will fit over the top of the first section 3. A section that represents the side walls of the outsole-midsole area. 4. A section that represent the top part of the mold.

 The mold is removed from the compression molding press, the cover plate is taken off, and the section with the sidewalls of the mold (contain the design of the midsole area) is added. The white biscuit of the rubber, which will be formed into the midsole, is placed on top of the already melted blue outsole.

 Then the fourth mold section is placed on top of the biscuit and section three. Section one, three and four, still containing the already formed blue outsole and now containing the white biscuit material, are then placed back into the compression-molding machine for the duration of the molding process. The white biscuit is melt and covered around the mid-sole and adheres to the already formed blue outsole. When the mold is opened , a two colored molded outsole can be removed. The process will produce the flash at the point where mold halves meet. The flash will be trim away from the shoe sole.

Requirements of shoe solings

In order to provide adequate service during wear, it is necessary for a soling to have the following basic properties: * Good adhesion to the upper part of the shoe; * adequate wear resistance; * resistance to flex cracking; and * high coefficient of friction

IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL TESTING OF RUBBER VULCANIZED

To trace out the short falls in processing methods To control and maintain quality of the products For research and development work, testing of the vulcanized is done to understand the behavior, nature and effect on the properties of the compounding ingredients. The evaluation of such test results, new polymer or compounding ingredients which may be less costly or having better properties may be evolved To evaluate their service life

Normal tests: Tensile, elongation at break, Tensile modulus M100, M300 Important tests: Abrasion resistance (ASTM D1630), hardness and resilience. (Source: Rubber Technology by Maurice Morton, third edition, 1987)
Parameter Soft shoe sole Hardness (Shore A) Tensile strength, MPa Elongation at break, % 300% Modulus, Mpa NBS abrasion index 55 - 65 10 - 15 450 - 650 4.0 6.0 40 - 60 value Hard shoe sole 80 - 95 15 - 20 500 - 600 6.0-7.0 60 - 80

Hardness tests

Stress strain test

BASIC TEST
Ageing test

Tear tests

Tensile Test ASTM D 412

Testing the ability of rubber specimen to resist the force that may cause it to fail The tensile properties of vulcanized rubber is determined by stretching standard test pieces at a constant rate using tensile machine Three parameters obtained at a time are : a. tensile strength the force per unit area of original cross section of the sample, required to stretch the original cross section of the sample, required to stretch the rubber test piece to its breaking point. b. elongation at break Elongation at break is the maximum elongation, expressed as the percentage of the original length, prior to the rupture of the sample. c. modulus at a particular elongation of the sample Modulus is the tensile stress required to stretch a rubber test piece to a predetermined elongation.

There are different types of machines used can be either in dumb bell shaped (commonly used) or ring shaped.

Procedure:
I.
II.

The test pieces are cut from the vulcanized test

The test piece is then clamped in the testing machine and constant rate. stretched under

III.

From the stress strain graph obtained the tensile strength modulus and elongation at break can be calculated knowing the original thickness and width of the test piece.

IV.

The average value of four of five test values of the same sample is taken as the actual value.

V.

The tensile test results can be used to evaluate the strength of the vulcanized and the degree of cure of the vulcanized.

SHORE (DUROMETER) HARDNESS TEST ASTM D 624

Shore hardness measures the hardness of a cured rubber

specimen quickly from the penetration of a special indenter

Tested with an instrument called Durometer- measured hardness is determined by the penetration depth of the indenter under the load

Hardness of rubber is usually measured by Shore scales. Two types

of shore scale are:
I. Shore A scale : Testing soft elastomers (rubbers)

II.

Shore D scale : Testing Hardness of hard elastomers

Figure: Durometer hardness test. Two different indenter shapes and two different spring loads are used for two Shore scales (A and D).

Digital shore instrument

Analog shore instrument

Tear resistance ASTM D 624

Tear properties- force required to pull a rubber test piece apart using a tensile testing instrument under controlled condition given in ASTM D 624. Sometimes a special cut is applied to the specimen.

Testing is performed by pulling specimens apart using a tensile test

machine.. The maximum force required to tear a test specimen is used to calculate the tear strength of the Die A, B, and C specimens .

Tear tests give an indication of the behavior of the vulcanized in tear initiation and tear propagation.

Die A

Die B

Die D Die A is a smaller crescent not used as frequently as the other test pieces. The force acts along the major axis, perpendicular to the nick and measures tear propagation Die B is a crescent-shaped test piece with large ends for better gripping in a tensile tester. This specimen is nicked with razor blade to a specified depth to help initiate a tear. Die C test piece has an angle to help initiate a tear and does not necessarily require a cut neck Die D, T Trouser tear specimen is separated by a ashear force from the tension applied in opposite to each leg at right angles to the plane of the test piece.
**The tear strength (Ts) is reported as kilonewtons/meter of thickness from the formula **Grip separation 500mm/min

Die C

Ageing Tests
The natural deterioration of the Vulcanized under the action of heat, light, oxygen, ozone etc. is termed as 'ageing'. The service life of a product is too long to wait for getting information regarding the performance of the product under the influence of the above mentioned agents. Accelerated ageing tests magnify the influence of one or more of the above agents which affect the service life of the products.

The testing is done usually, by keeping the test samples under the influence of
temperature, oxygen or ozone for a specified period and then determining the physical properties like tensile strength or noting the visual appeal. The fall in properties from the initial value or the change in appearance gives an indication of the

resistance of the rubber vulcanized to that particular factor.

Flexing tests

Abrasion test

Performance test

Abrasion resistance ASTM D 2228/1630

The Pico, Din and Akron Abrader measures the abrasion resistance of a cured rubber test piece to a pair of rotating tungsten carbide knives under standard conditions noted in ASTM D 2228.

The parameter measured is usually weight loss. It is amount of material lost

which matters, so weight loss is convert to vollume loss by dividing by the density

Volume loss is expressed as the loss per unit destance travelled over the abradant Abrasion resistance index defined as

Akron

FLEXING TEST
Shoe soles are subjected to repeated flexing during service. This repeated flexing may gradually lead to failure of the product. This is because, repeated flexing of a rubber vulcanized causes cracks to develop in that part of the surface where tension

stress is set up during flexing or if that part contains a crack or cut. Causes the crack
to extend in the direction perpendicular to the stress. Machine likes Bennewart Flex tester are commonly used to determine the resistance of a component of material during repeated flexing. This instrument is used to

determine the physical properties of sole.

Number of test specimens tested 2 for sole, 6 for cut test specimens Angle of flexing 90 Diameter of bending mandrel 30mm Frequency of operation 125 to 150 cycle/minute Counter Six digit pre-set type digital type

Bennewart Flex Tester

Resistance to flex cracking is composed of two parts i.e. resistance to crack initiation resistance to crack growth

In crack growth testing, a crack is initiated purposely by means of a especially shaped tool and the rate of growth of the cut is measured during flexing.

In the case of flex resistance, the result is evaluated by comparing with a graded set of standards are resenting increased stages of cracking from

0(no crack) to 10 (complete Cracking).

THANK YOU

References
1. John S. Dick Basic rubber testing: selecting methods for a rubber test

program
2. Ciullo, P. A. & Hewitt, N. (1999). The Rubber Formulary, William Andrew Inc. 3. Rodgers, B. (2004) Rubber Compounding : Chemistry And Applications, CRC Press. 4. Bodziak, W. J. (1999) Footwear Impression Evidence : Detection, Recovery and Examination, CRC Press 5. Bhowmick, A. K. (1994). Rubber Products Manufacturing Technology, Marcel Dekker, Inc.