Mobile multi-station sole injection molding system and method

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of shoe sole preparation, in particular to a movable multi-station shoe sole injection molding system and method.The movable multi-station shoe sole injection molding system comprises a raw material supply unit, a movable injection molding unit, a plurality of shoe sole molding units and a central control unit; an outlet of the proportional metering pump is connected with the multi-channel dynamic mixer; the raw material storage tanks are used for storing injection molding raw materials with different colors or materials; the proportional metering pump is used for extracting raw materials according to a preset proportion; the multi-channel dynamic mixer is used for uniformly mixing and outputting various raw materials; the movable injection molding unit comprises a ground rail, a mechanical arm body movably arranged on the ground rail, an injection molding device arranged on the mechanical arm body and a material taking gripper. By integrating a mobile robot technology, a dynamic mixing technology, visual identification and central intelligent control, an efficient, flexible and intelligent shoe sole injection molding production platform is constructed.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of shoe sole preparation, in particular to a mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system and method. BACKGROUND

[0002] As a key component of footwear products, the molding quality of shoe soles directly affects the comfort, durability and appearance of shoes. Traditional shoe sole injection production generally adopts a fixed layout of "single machine single mold", that is, each injection molding machine is matched with only one mold for continuous batch production of a single type of shoe sole. Although this mode has certain efficiency in large-scale standardized orders, its inherent rigid production structure is difficult to adapt to the growing demand for personalization, small batch and rapid changeover in the modern market. When changing the style or size of the shoe sole, the mold needs to be replaced, the process parameters need to be reset, and the equipment needs to be debugged, resulting in low utilization rate of the production line, long switching cycle and high comprehensive cost.

[0003] In addition, the raw material processing unit of the traditional injection molding system is usually simple in structure, and relies on manual premixing or fixed proportioning device when multiple raw materials are matched or mixed, which makes it difficult to achieve high-precision and dynamic formula adjustment, affecting the uniformity of product color and material. In the picking process, mechanical hands with fixed trajectories or manual operation are often used, which is difficult to adapt to the position difference of multiple varieties of shoe soles in the mold and the complex curved surface structure, and is prone to picking failure or product surface damage. At the same time, due to the lack of independent temperature control system in each molding unit, the mold temperature control precision is insufficient, which further leads to quality defects such as flow marks and shrinkage in the products.

[0004] Although multi-station injection molding systems have appeared in the prior art, they are mostly fixed injection molding units combined with rotary tables or multi-axis mold shifting mechanisms, which have limited movement range and flexibility, and are difficult to realize flexible operation of multiple independent stations on both sides of the ground rail. The system has low integration and intelligence, poor coordination between units, and cannot realize closed-loop control and quality traceability in the whole process. SUMMARY

[0005] To solve the above problems, the present application integrates mobile robot technology, dynamic mixing technology, visual identification and central intelligent control to build a mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system and method of an efficient, flexible and intelligent shoe sole injection molding production platform.

[0006] The technical scheme adopted by the present application is: a mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system, comprising a raw material supply unit, a mobile injection unit, a plurality of shoe sole molding units and a central control unit, the raw material supply unit comprises at least two independent raw material storage tanks, a proportional metering pump connected with each raw material storage tank and an outlet, and a multi-channel dynamic mixer; each raw material storage tank is used to store injection molding raw materials of different colors or materials; the proportional metering pump is used to extract raw materials according to a preset ratio; the multi-channel dynamic mixer is used to mix multiple raw materials uniformly and output; the mobile injection unit comprises a ground rail, a mechanical hand body movably arranged on the ground rail, an injection device arranged on the mechanical hand body and a material taking gripper; the ground rail is arranged in a straight line; the feeding port of the injection device is connected with the discharging port of the multi-channel dynamic mixer of the raw material supply unit through a flexible heat preservation conveying pipe; the injection device comprises a plasticizing part and an injection part; the material taking gripper has a multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism suitable for different shoe sole shapes and a visual positioning camera; a plurality of shoe sole molding units are arranged symmetrically on both sides of the ground rail; each shoe sole molding unit comprises a mold base device and a mold; the mold base device is used to drive the mold to open and close; the cavities of the molds of each shoe sole molding unit are different from each other, and are used to form shoe soles of different styles, sizes or bottom patterns.

[0007] The central control unit is electrically connected with the raw material supply unit, the mobile injection unit and each shoe sole molding unit respectively; it has built-in production management software, and stores raw material formulas corresponding to each shoe sole model, injection process parameters and mold information of each shoe sole molding unit; the central control unit is configured to: dispatch and control the mobile injection unit to move to a target shoe sole molding unit along the ground rail; control the raw material supply unit to prepare and mix raw materials according to the formula of the current production shoe sole model; control the injection device to complete the injection action; control the mold base device to complete the mold opening and closing action; control the material taking gripper to complete the shoe sole taking action; receive image feedback from the visual positioning camera and perform positioning correction.

[0008] Further improvement of the above scheme is that the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe is a composite hose comprising a heating and heat preservation layer and a metal braid layer, and its length meets the connection requirement of the multi-channel dynamic mixer when the mobile injection unit moves along the ground rail.

[0009] Further improvement of the above scheme is that the raw material supply unit further comprises a raw material dryer and a volumetric metering cylinder; the raw material dryer is arranged on the discharge path of the raw material storage tank; the inlet of the volumetric metering cylinder is connected with the outlet of the multi-channel dynamic mixer, and the outlet is connected with the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe, for metering the mixed melt before conveying to the mobile injection molding unit.

[0010] Further improvement of the above scheme is that the mechanical hand body is a six-axis articulated robot, and the base is connected with the ground rail through a servo-driven walking mechanism; the injection molding device and the material taking gripper are respectively arranged on two different output flanges of the mechanical hand body.

[0011] Further improvement of the above scheme is that the multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism is composed of a plurality of independently controlled flexible driving fingers, and each finger is coated with a high-temperature-resistant silicone layer; the visual positioning camera is a high-resolution CCD camera, assisted by a ring light source, for identifying the position and posture of the formed sole in the mold cavity.

[0012] Further improvement of the above scheme is that each sole forming unit is further provided with an independent mold temperature controller connected with the temperature control channel of the mold through a pipeline, for accurately controlling the working temperature of the mold.

[0013] Further improvement of the above scheme is that it further comprises a finished product conveying unit arranged at the end of the ground rail; the finished product conveying unit comprises a belt conveying line and a visual inspection station arranged above the conveying line; the material taking gripper places the taken sole on the belt conveying line; the visual inspection station is used for quality defect detection of the sole during conveying; The central control unit is connected with the visual inspection station and is further configured to receive the detection results of the visual inspection station.

[0014] A sole forming method based on a mobile multi-station sole injection molding system, which is executed by a central control unit, comprising the following steps: Step S1, the central control unit receives a production order, analyzes the model, quantity and color requirements of the sole to be produced, generates a production queue according to the order requirements and the mold state of each sole forming unit, and allocates a corresponding sole forming unit and raw material formula for each production task; Step S2, mobile injection and raw material preparation: the central control unit controls the mobile injection molding unit to move to the sole forming unit specified by the current production task along the ground rail; at the same time, the raw material supply unit drives the proportional metering pump to work according to the raw material formula required by the task, conveying the raw material to the multi-channel dynamic mixer for mixing, and supplying the raw material to the injection molding device through the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe; Step S3, injection molding: control the mold clamping device of the sole forming unit to clamp; control the injection device of the mobile injection unit to inject the plasticized melt into the mold cavity for molding; Step S4, cooling and taking: after the sole is cooled and shaped, control the mold clamping device to open; control the material taking gripper of the mobile injection unit to move above the mold, accurately position the molded sole through the visual positioning camera, and then drive the multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism to grab the sole; Step S5, control the material taking gripper to place the grabbed sole on the finished product conveying unit for conveying and discharging; the central control unit updates the production progress and schedules the mobile injection unit to execute the next production task.

[0015] Further improvement of the above scheme is that in step S2, when the raw material preparation unit prepares the raw materials, the proportional metering pump adopts weight feedback closed loop control to ensure the accuracy of the raw material ratio; the rotational speed of the multi-channel dynamic mixer is steplessly adjusted according to the viscosity of the raw materials and the mixing requirements.

[0016] Further improvement of the above scheme is that in step S3, the injection process parameters, including injection speed, holding pressure and holding time, are called from the process parameter library by the central control unit according to the current production sole model and are issued to the injection device for execution.

[0017] Further improvement of the above scheme is that in step S4, before the material taking gripper grabs the sole, the visual positioning camera will shoot the mold cavity image, calculate the deviation between the actual position of the sole and the standard position through the image recognition algorithm, and compensate the deviation value to the manipulator body to guide the material taking gripper to grab in the accurate posture.

[0018] The present application has the following advantages: Compared with the existing shoe sole injection molding, the central control unit is used for unified scheduling of the mobile injection unit, so that it can serve multiple different shoe sole molding units on both sides of the ground rail. The traditional single-machine single-mode fixed production mode is broken, so that one production line can adapt to small batch, multi-variety order demand at the same time. The raw material formula and process parameters of each shoe sole are pre-stored in the central control unit, realizing one-key switching of production task, and greatly improving the rapid response ability of the production system to market demand. The working mode of one machine to multiple modes is adopted, and one mobile injection unit can serve multiple molding stations, avoiding the high equipment cost and space occupation brought by configuring a dedicated injection molding machine for each set of mold. When the injection unit serves one station, other stations can perform cooling, part taking and other auxiliary operations at the same time, reducing the idle waiting time of the injection molding machine, thereby greatly improving the overall equipment utilization and production efficiency. The raw material supply unit realizes accurate proportioning of multiple color or material raw materials through independent raw material storage tank and proportional metering pump; combined with a multi-channel dynamic mixer, the uniformity of the mixed material is ensured. The design of flexible heat preservation conveying pipe ensures the temperature stability of the material in the mobile conveying process. The visual positioning camera and multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism integrated with the material taking gripper ensure the accuracy and reliability of the part taking action, effectively avoid product damage, and ensure the high quality and stability of batch products. The mobile injection unit moves along the ground rail accurately and combines visual feedback for positioning correction, realizing high-precision unmanned operation. This design makes it easier to add or replace molding units, providing great flexibility for future upgrading and expansion of the production line. The present application integrates mobile robot technology, dynamic mixing technology, visual identification and central intelligent control, and builds an efficient, flexible and intelligent shoe sole injection production platform, effectively solving the bottleneck of traditional production methods in flexibility, efficiency and cost, especially suitable for the development trend of today's personalized and customized shoe industry.

[0019] The shoe sole forming method based on the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system is executed by a central control unit. The central control unit can analyze production orders and automatically generate a production queue, realizing unmanned decision-making from order receiving to task allocation. By scheduling the mobile injection unit to flow between multiple fixed stations in an orderly manner, a single production line can seamlessly switch between producing shoe soles of different styles, sizes, colors, and even materials. The dynamic production mode of one machine to multiple modes greatly improves the response capability and adaptive flexibility of the production line to multi-variety and small-batch customized orders. The method allows multiple shoe sole forming units to work in parallel, i.e., when one station is performing injection molding, other stations can simultaneously cool, pick up parts, or prepare work, thereby minimizing the idle waiting time of the injection unit and achieving nearly continuous production flow. This improves the daily production capacity and enables a single expensive injection device to serve multiple molds, effectively reducing equipment investment costs and saving valuable production space. The invention ensures precise control of the accuracy of raw material ratio and uniformity of mixing through proportional metering pumps and dynamic mixers; maintains temperature stability during melt delivery using flexible heat preservation delivery pipes to prevent degradation; and, in particular, uses visual positioning cameras for precise positioning and correction before picking up parts, combined with a multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism, to achieve non-destructive and precise grabbing, avoiding scratches or deformation that may occur during manual operation, thereby ensuring high quality and batch consistency of the final product. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 is a perspective view of the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of the present invention; Figure 2 is Figure 1 is a top view of the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of the present invention; Figure 3 is Figure 1 is a perspective view of the raw material supply unit of the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of the present invention; Figure 4 is Figure 1 is a perspective view of the mobile injection unit of the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of the present invention; Figure 5 is Figure 1 is a perspective view of the shoe sole forming unit of the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of the present invention; Figure 6 is Figure 1 is a connection diagram of the central control unit of the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of the present invention; Figure 7 is a flowchart of the shoe sole forming method of the present invention.

[0021] Reference numerals: raw material supply unit 1, raw material storage tank 11, proportional metering pump 12, multi-channel dynamic mixer 13, raw material dryer 14, volumetric metering cylinder 15, mobile injection molding unit 2, ground rail 21, mechanical hand body 22, injection molding device 23, plasticizing part 231, injection part 232, material taking gripper 24, multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241, visual positioning camera 242, flexible heat preservation conveying pipe 25, sole forming unit 3, table mold device 31, mold 32, mold temperature controller 33, central control unit 4, finished product conveying unit 5, belt conveying line 51, visual inspection station 52. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] For the purpose of facilitating the understanding of the present application, a more complete understanding of the present application will be provided in the following with reference to the relevant drawings. The preferred embodiments of the present application are shown in the drawings. However, the present application can be implemented in many different forms, and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. On the contrary, the purpose of providing these embodiments is to make the disclosure of the present application more thorough and comprehensive.

[0023] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed" to another element, it can be directly on the other element or there can be an intervening element. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or there can be an intervening element.

[0024] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present application belongs. The terms used herein in the specification of the present application are only for the purpose of describing the specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present application. As used herein, Figures 1-7As shown, in an embodiment of the present application, a mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system is provided, which comprises a raw material supply unit 1, a mobile injection unit 2, a plurality of shoe sole forming units 3 and a central control unit 4. The raw material supply unit 1 comprises at least two independent raw material storage tanks 11, a proportional metering pump 12 connected with the outlet of each raw material storage tank 11, and a multi-channel dynamic mixer 13. Each raw material storage tank 11 is used to store injection raw materials of different colors or materials. The proportional metering pump 12 is used to extract raw materials according to a preset ratio. The multi-channel dynamic mixer 13 is used to mix and output multiple raw materials uniformly. The mobile injection unit 2 comprises a ground rail 21, a mechanical hand body 22 movably arranged on the ground rail 21, an injection device 23 arranged on the mechanical hand body 22, and a material taking gripper 24. The ground rail 21 is arranged in a straight line. The feeding port of the injection device 23 is connected with the discharging port of the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13 of the raw material supply unit 1 through a flexible heat preservation conveying pipe 25. The injection device 23 comprises a plasticizing part 231 and an injection part 232. The material taking gripper 24 has a multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241 suitable for different shoe sole shapes and a visual positioning camera 242. A plurality of shoe sole forming units 3 are arranged symmetrically on both sides of the ground rail 21 in pairs. Each shoe sole forming unit 3 comprises a table mold device 31 and a mold 32. The table mold device 31 is used to drive the mold 32 to open and close. The cavities of the molds 32 of each shoe sole forming unit 3 are different from each other, and are used to form shoe soles of different styles, sizes or bottom patterns.

[0025] The central control unit 4 is electrically connected with the raw material supply unit 1, the mobile injection unit 2 and each shoe sole forming unit 3 respectively. It has a built-in production management software, which stores the raw material formula corresponding to each shoe sole model, the injection process parameters, and the mold 32 information of each shoe sole forming unit 3. The central control unit 4 is configured to: dispatch and control the mobile injection unit 2 to move along the ground rail 21 to the target shoe sole forming unit 3; control the raw material supply unit 1 to prepare and mix raw materials according to the formula of the current production shoe sole model; control the injection device 23 to complete the injection action; control the table mold device 31 to complete the mold opening and closing action; control the material taking gripper 24 to complete the shoe sole taking action; receive the image feedback of the visual positioning camera 242 and perform positioning correction.

[0026] The embodiment is scheduled by the central control unit 4 to make the mobile injection molding unit 2 serve multiple different sole forming units 3 on both sides of the ground rail 21, breaking the traditional single-machine single-mold fixed production mode, so that one production line can adapt to small batch and multi-variety order demand at the same time. The central control unit 4 pre-stores the raw material formula and process parameters of each sole, realizes one-key switching of production tasks, and greatly improves the rapid response ability of the production system to market demand. The one-machine multi-mold working mode is adopted, and one mobile injection molding unit 2 can serve multiple forming stations, avoiding the high equipment cost and space occupation brought by configuring a dedicated injection molding machine for each set of mold 32. When the injection molding unit serves one station, other stations can perform cooling, part taking and other auxiliary operations at the same time, reducing the idle waiting time of the injection molding machine, thereby greatly improving the overall equipment utilization and production efficiency. The raw material supply unit 1 realizes accurate proportioning of multiple colors or material raw materials through independent raw material storage tank 11 and proportional metering pump 12; combined with the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13, the uniformity of the mixed material is ensured. The design of the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe 25 ensures the temperature stability of the material during the mobile conveying process. The integrated visual positioning camera 242 and multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241 of the material taking gripper 24 ensure the accuracy and reliability of the part taking action, effectively avoid product damage, and ensure the high quality and stability of batch products. The mobile injection molding unit 2 moves along the ground rail 21 accurately and combines visual feedback for positioning correction, realizing high-precision unmanned operation. This design makes it easier to add or replace forming units, providing great flexibility for future upgrading and expansion of the production line. The embodiment integrates mobile robot technology, dynamic mixing technology, visual identification and central intelligent control to build an efficient, flexible and intelligent sole injection molding production platform, effectively solving the bottleneck of traditional production methods in flexibility, efficiency and cost, especially suitable for the development trend of today's personalized and customized shoe industry.

[0027] The flexible heat-preservation material conveying pipe 25 is a composite hose containing a heating and heat-preservation layer and a metal braided layer, and its length meets the connection requirement of the mobile injection molding unit 2 with the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13 during the whole movement of the ground rail 21. In the embodiment, the flexible heat-preservation material conveying pipe 25 is specifically defined as a composite hose containing a heating and heat-preservation layer and a metal braided layer, and its length meets the whole movement requirement, so that the system realizes stable and efficient material conveying under the dynamic state. The heating and heat-preservation layer can continuously and uniformly heat the melt in conveying, effectively prevents the melt viscosity from rising and the flowability from deteriorating or even condensing and solidifying due to heat loss, and ensures the optimal processing state of the melt when reaching the mold 32. The metal braided layer endows the hose with excellent compression resistance, tensile resistance and wear resistance, can withstand the mechanical stress caused by long-term reciprocating movement of the system, and prevents pipeline rupture or deformation. The sufficient length ensures that the mobile injection molding unit 2 can be flexibly moved between any stations on the ground rail 21, and the fixed mixing unit is always reliably connected, solving the core problem of the traditional rigid pipeline limiting the movement range The raw material supply unit 1 further comprises a raw material dryer 14 and a volumetric metering cylinder 15; the raw material dryer 14 is arranged on the discharge path of the raw material storage tank 11; the inlet of the volumetric metering cylinder 15 is connected with the outlet of the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13, and the outlet is connected with the flexible heat-preservation material conveying pipe 25, for metering the mixed melt and then conveying it to the mobile injection molding unit 2. In the embodiment, the raw material dryer 14 and the volumetric metering cylinder 15 are added to the raw material supply unit 1, which improves the accuracy and reliability of raw material processing and conveying from the source. The raw material dryer 14 can effectively remove the moisture contained in the raw material (especially the engineering plastic which is easy to absorb moisture), so as to avoid the surface silver line, bubble and other defects caused by water vaporization in the injection molding process, and improve the appearance quality and internal compactness of the shoe sole. The setting of the volumetric metering cylinder 15 is an important supplement and guarantee for the accuracy of the proportional metering pump 12. The secondary accurate metering of the mixed melt can eliminate the conveying quantity fluctuation caused by pumping pulsation or viscosity change, and ensure the constant volume of the melt injected into each mold 32 cavity.

[0028] The robot body 22 is a six-axis articulated robot, the base of which is connected with the ground rail 21 through a servo-driven walking mechanism; the injection molding device 23 and the material taking gripper 24 are respectively installed on two different output flanges of the robot body 22. In this embodiment, the robot body 22 is specifically defined as a six-axis articulated robot, a servo walking mechanism is arranged, and the injection molding device 23 and the material taking gripper 24 are arranged on two flanges, so that the optimization of system space utilization and motion flexibility is realized. The six-axis articulated robot has very high motion freedom and flexibility, and the dexterous "arm" can easily realize a complex three-dimensional space trajectory, so that the injection nozzle can be aligned with the gate of the mold 32 for injection at the best angle, and the material taking gripper 24 can be guided to approach and take out the sole in an obstacle avoidance path. The servo-driven walking mechanism expands the working range of the robot, so that it can accurately position and serve multiple molding units along the ground rail 21. Integrating the injection molding and material taking functions on the same robot body but different output flanges realizes high integration of functions, saves equipment space and cost, and through unified scheduling of the robot control system, ensures high-speed and seamless connection between the two key processes of injection and material taking, greatly improves the production rhythm.

[0029] The multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241 is composed of a plurality of independently controlled flexible driving fingers, and each finger is coated with a high-temperature-resistant silicone layer; the visual positioning camera 242 is a high-resolution CCD camera, assisted by a ring light source, for identifying the position and posture of the molded sole in the cavity of the mold 32. In this embodiment, the multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241 and the visual positioning camera 242 are specifically defined, which significantly improves the adaptability and accuracy of the material taking operation. The clamping mechanism composed of a plurality of independently controlled flexible driving fingers can simulate the grasping action of human hand, and can adaptively wrap to fit the complex curved surface geometry of the sole, realizing "soft contact" grasping. This effectively avoids the possible scratches, indentations or deformation of the product surface caused by rigid clamps, and is particularly suitable for soles with soft texture or high appearance requirements. The high-temperature-resistant silicone layer on the surface of the fingers provides high friction coefficient and heat protection. The high-resolution CCD camera and the ring light source used in cooperation constitute a stable and reliable visual system, the ring light source can eliminate irregular shadows, ensure that the image features of the sole in the cavity of the mold 32 are clear and have high contrast, so that the image recognition algorithm can quickly and accurately calculate the position and posture deviation of the sole.

[0030] Each of the shoe sole forming units 3 is also equipped with an independent mold temperature controller 33 connected to the temperature control channel of the mold 32 through a pipeline for accurately controlling the working temperature of the mold 32. In this embodiment, by equipping each shoe sole forming unit 3 with an independent mold temperature controller 33, the working temperature of the mold 32 is accurately and independently controlled. The temperature of the mold 32 is a key process parameter affecting the quality of injection molding, which is directly related to the filling flowability of the melt, the cooling rate, the crystallinity, and the internal stress and dimensional stability of the final product. The independent mold temperature controller 33 can set and maintain the optimal mold 32 temperature of each shoe sole model according to the material (such as TPU, EVA, RUBBER, etc.) and structural characteristics of different shoe sole models. For example, shoe soles with high-gloss surfaces require higher mold temperatures to prevent flow marks, while thick-walled shoe soles require more precise cooling control to prevent shrinkage. This design avoids the temperature response lag and mutual interference between molds 32 caused by centralized temperature control systems, ensuring the stability and repeatability of the process conditions of each forming unit.

[0031] The finished product conveying unit 5 is also included, which is arranged at the end of the ground rail 21. The finished product conveying unit 5 includes a belt conveying line 51 and a visual inspection station 52 arranged above the conveying line 51. The material taking gripper 24 places the taken shoe soles on the belt conveying line 51. The visual inspection station 52 is used for quality defect detection of the shoe soles during conveying. Specifically, the central control unit 4 is connected with the visual inspection station 52 and is further configured to receive the detection results of the visual inspection station 52. In this embodiment, by adding the finished product conveying unit 5 and integrating it with the central control unit 4, a complete closed-loop quality control system from production to detection is constructed. The belt conveying line 51 realizes the automatic flow of the formed shoe soles, freeing up manual labor. The visual inspection station 52 arranged thereon uses machine vision technology to conduct online and full-coverage quality defect detection of the shoe soles during conveying, such as material shortage, flash, stains, uneven color, etc., with much higher detection efficiency and consistency than manual visual inspection. Most importantly, the central control unit 4 receives the detection results, enabling the system to have data feedback and processing capabilities.

[0032] Referring to Figures 1-7 The shoe sole forming method based on the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system is executed by the central control unit 4 and includes the following steps: Step S1: The central control unit 4 receives a production order and parses the model, quantity, and color requirements of the shoe soles to be produced. According to the order requirements and the mold 32 state of each shoe sole forming unit 3, a production queue is generated, and each production task is assigned to a corresponding shoe sole forming unit 3 and a raw material formula; Step S2, mobile injection and raw material preparation: the central control unit 4 controls the mobile injection unit 2 to move along the ground rail 21 to the front of the specified sole forming unit 3 of the current production task; at the same time, the raw material supply unit 1 drives the proportional metering pump 12 to work according to the raw material formula required by the task, and transports the raw materials to the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13 for mixing, and then supplies the melt to the injection device 23 through the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe 25; Step S3, injection molding: control the mold device 31 of the sole forming unit 3 to close the mold; control the injection device 23 of the mobile injection unit 2 to inject the plasticized melt into the mold cavity of the mold 32 for molding; Step S4, cooling and taking out: after the sole is cooled and shaped, control the mold device 31 to open the mold; control the material taking gripper 24 of the mobile injection unit 2 to move to the top of the mold 32, accurately position the molded sole through the visual positioning camera 242, and then drive the multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241 to grab the sole; Step S5, control the material taking gripper 24 to place the grabbed sole on the finished product conveying unit 5 for conveying and discharging; the central control unit 4 updates the production progress and schedules the mobile injection unit 2 to execute the next production task.

[0033] In this embodiment, the central control unit 4 can analyze the production order and automatically generate a production queue, realizing unmanned decision-making from order receiving to task allocation. By scheduling the mobile injection unit 2 to orderly flow between multiple fixed stations, a single production line can seamlessly switch between producing soles of different styles, sizes, colors, and even materials. The dynamic production mode of one machine to multiple molds greatly improves the response ability and adaptive flexibility of the production line to multi-variety, small-batch customized orders. The method allows multiple sole forming units 3 to work in parallel, i.e., when one station is performing injection molding, other stations can simultaneously perform cooling, taking out, or preparation work, thereby minimizing the idle waiting time of the injection unit and achieving nearly continuous production flow. This improves the daily production capacity and enables a single expensive injection device 23 to serve multiple molds 32, effectively reducing equipment investment costs and saving valuable production space. The invention ensures precise control of raw material ratio and uniformity of mixing through the proportional metering pump 12 and the dynamic mixer 13; maintains temperature stability during melt conveying through the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe 25 to prevent degradation; and especially, through the visual positioning camera 242 for accurate positioning and correction before taking out, combined with the multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism 241, realizes non-destructive and precise grabbing, avoiding scratches or deformation caused by manual operation, thereby ensuring the high quality and batch consistency of the final product.

[0034] In step S2, the raw material preparation unit 1, the proportioning pump 12 adopts weight feedback closed loop control to ensure the accuracy of the raw material ratio; the speed of the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13 is steplessly adjusted according to the viscosity of the raw material and the mixing requirement. The embodiment introduces weight feedback closed loop control and stepless adjustment of the mixer speed in step S2, which improves the process control accuracy and product quality of the system. Specifically, the proportioning pump 12 adopts weight feedback closed loop control, which can monitor and dynamically compensate the slight deviation in the raw material conveying process in real time, ensure that multiple raw materials (especially raw materials of different colors or characteristics) are accurately matched according to the preset formula, and fundamentally eliminate defects such as color difference and uneven performance caused by ratio error. At the same time, the multi-channel dynamic mixer 13 steplessly adjusts the speed according to the viscosity of the raw material and the process requirement, which can actively optimize the shear force and mixing intensity for different formulas, so that the components are uniformly distributed at the molecular level in the melt, thereby further improving the color consistency, structural compactness and mechanical properties of the sole.

[0035] In step S3, the injection molding process parameters, including injection speed, holding pressure, holding time, are called from the process parameter library by the central control unit 4 according to the current production sole model and sent to the injection molding device 23 for execution. The embodiment automatically calls and sends the injection molding process parameters according to the sole model by the central control unit 4 in step S3, which significantly improves the accuracy of the injection molding process and the intelligent level of production. Specifically, through the pre-stored process parameter library, the optimal injection speed, holding pressure and holding time and other core parameters can be accurately matched for soles of different styles, sizes and materials, completely avoiding errors and inconsistencies caused by manual setting. It ensures that the melt is stable and sufficient in the filling process in the mold 32 cavity, effectively preventing defects such as underfill, flash or shrinkage; on the other hand, by accurately controlling the holding stage, the compactness and dimensional stability of the sole molecules are ensured, thereby significantly improving the mechanical properties and appearance quality of the product.

[0036] In step S4, before the material grabbing gripper 24 grabs the sole, the visual positioning camera 242 will shoot the mold 32 cavity image, calculate the deviation between the actual position and the standard position of the sole through image recognition algorithm, and compensate the deviation value to the manipulator body 22, guiding the material grabbing gripper 24 to grab with accurate posture. The embodiment introduces visual positioning and deviation compensation mechanism in step S4, which effectively solves the problem of position deviation caused by mold 32 thermal deformation, mechanical cumulative error and other factors. Specifically, the visual positioning camera 242 shoots the mold 32 cavity image in real time before grabbing, accurately calculates the coordinate deviation between the actual position and the theoretical position of the formed sole through image recognition algorithm, and feeds back the deviation value to the manipulator control system in real time for motion trajectory compensation.

[0037] The above embodiments only express several implementation manners of the present application, the description is more specific and detailed, but it cannot be understood as the limitation of the patent scope of the present application. It should be pointed out that for ordinary skilled in the art, without departing from the concept of the present application, several modifications and improvements can be made, which belong to the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the patent of the present application should be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. A mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system, characterized by: The injection molding system comprises a raw material supply unit, a mobile injection molding unit, a plurality of shoe sole forming units, and a central control unit. The raw material supply unit comprises at least two independent raw material storage tanks, a proportional metering pump connected with each raw material storage tank, and a multi-channel dynamic mixer. The mobile injection molding unit comprises a ground rail, a robot body movably arranged on the ground rail, an injection molding device arranged on the robot body, and a material taking gripper. The ground rail extends linearly. The feeding port of the injection molding device is connected with the discharging port of the multi-channel dynamic mixer of the raw material supply unit through a flexible heat preservation conveying pipe. The injection molding device comprises a plasticizing part and an injection part. The material taking gripper has a multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism adaptable to different shoe sole shapes and a visual positioning camera. The plurality of shoe sole forming units are arranged symmetrically on both sides of the ground rail. Each shoe sole forming unit comprises a shoe sole mold device and a mold. The molds of the shoe sole forming units are different from each other and are used for forming shoe soles of different styles, sizes, or bottom patterns. The central control unit is electrically connected with the raw material supply unit, the mobile injection molding unit, and each shoe sole forming unit. The central control unit is configured to:

2. The mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of claim 1, wherein: schedule and control the mobile injection molding unit to move to a target shoe sole forming unit along the ground rail; 3. The mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of claim 1, wherein: control the raw material supply unit to prepare and mix raw materials according to the formula of the current production shoe sole model; 4. The mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of claim 1, wherein: control the injection molding device to complete the injection molding action; 5. The mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of claim 1, wherein: control the shoe sole mold device to complete the mold opening and closing action; control the material taking gripper to complete the shoe sole taking action; receive image feedback from the visual positioning camera and perform positioning correction. The flexible heat preservation conveying pipe is a composite flexible pipe comprising a heating and heat preservation layer and a metal braid layer. The length of the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe meets the connection requirement of the multi-channel dynamic mixer when the mobile injection molding unit moves along the entire ground rail. The raw material supply unit further comprises a raw material dryer and a volumetric metering cylinder. The volumetric metering cylinder is connected with the outlet of the multi-channel dynamic mixer and the flexible heat preservation conveying pipe. The robot body is a six-axis articulated robot. The injection molding device and the material taking gripper are respectively installed on two different output flanges of the robot body. The multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism is composed of a plurality of independently controlled flexible driving fingers. The visual positioning camera is a high-resolution CCD camera assisted by a ring light source. The visual positioning camera is used to identify the position and posture of the formed shoe sole in the mold cavity.

6. The mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of claim 1, wherein: Each of the shoe sole forming units is also equipped with an independent mold temperature controller connected to the temperature control channel of the mold through a pipeline for accurately controlling the working temperature of the mold.

7. The mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system of claim 1, wherein: The finished product conveying unit is arranged at the end of the ground rail, and includes a belt conveying line and a visual inspection station arranged above the conveying line. The central control unit is connected with the visual inspection station and is further configured to receive the detection results of the visual inspection station.

8. A shoe sole forming method based on the mobile multi-station shoe sole injection molding system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, The execution dominated by the central control unit includes the following steps: In step S1, the central control unit receives a production order, parses the model, quantity, and color requirements of the shoe sole to be produced, generates a production queue according to the order requirements and the mold state of each shoe sole forming unit, and allocates a corresponding shoe sole forming unit and raw material formula for each production task. In step S2, the mobile injection unit is controlled by the central control unit to move along the ground rail to the front of the shoe sole forming unit specified in the current production task, and the raw material supply unit is controlled to drive the proportional metering pump to work according to the raw material formula required by the task, to mix the raw materials in the multi-channel dynamic mixer and supply the raw materials to the injection device through the flexible heat preservation material conveying pipe. In step S3, the mold clamping device of the shoe sole forming unit is controlled, and the injection device of the mobile injection unit is controlled to inject the plasticized melt into the mold cavity for molding. In step S4, after the shoe sole is cooled and shaped, the mold clamping device is controlled to open the mold, the material taking gripper of the mobile injection unit is controlled to move to the top of the mold, the visual positioning camera is used to accurately position the molded shoe sole, and then the multi-finger flexible clamping mechanism is driven to grab the shoe sole. In step S5, the material taking gripper is controlled to place the grabbed shoe sole on the finished product conveying unit for conveying and discharging, the central control unit updates the production progress, and the mobile injection unit is dispatched to execute the next production task.

9. The shoe sole forming method according to claim 8, wherein: In step S2, when the raw material supply unit prepares the raw materials, the proportional metering pump adopts weight feedback closed-loop control to ensure the accuracy of the raw material ratio, and the rotating speed of the multi-channel dynamic mixer is steplessly adjusted according to the viscosity and mixing requirements of the raw materials.

10. The shoe sole forming method according to claim 8, wherein: In step S3, the injection process parameters, including injection speed, holding pressure, and holding time, are called from the process parameter library by the central control unit according to the model of the shoe sole being produced and are sent to the injection device for execution. In step S4, before the material taking gripper grabs the shoe sole, the visual positioning camera captures the mold cavity image, calculates the deviation between the actual position of the shoe sole and the standard position through image recognition algorithm, and compensates the deviation value to the manipulator body to guide the material taking gripper to grab accurately.

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