Automated Footwear Lace Cable Tensioner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current footwear lacing systems, especially those with motorized engines, struggle to provide consistent fit and comfort due to uneven tightening and lack of tactile feedback, making it difficult to conform to the shape of the foot effectively.
Innovation Solution
A modular footwear platform with a motorized or non-motorized lacing engine and lacing architectures that include lace guides made from various materials, such as tubular plastic, metal clips, fabric loops, or channels, to distribute lace tension evenly across the foot, allowing for adjustable fit and comfort through centralized lace tightening mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a motorized lacing engine is used to automate the lacing system, then the ease of operation is improved, but the tactile feedback and fit adjustment capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces tactile feedback elements as intermediaries between the motorized lacing engine and the wearer's foot. These elements transmit mechanical sensations and pressure information back to the wearer, allowing them to感知 the fit and tension adjustments made by the automated system, thereby compensating for the loss of direct tactile feedback from manual lacing.
2Manufacturing precision
If a traditional fixed-dimension upper is used, then the manufacturing precision is improved, but the adaptability to different foot shapes deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic lacing architectures with multiple lace guides and tensioning points that allow the upper to adapt its shape and tension distribution. The lacing system can be adjusted to create different tension patterns across the foot, enabling a single fixed-dimension upper to conform to various foot shapes and sizes through reconfigurable lacing patterns.
3Force
If lace tension is concentrated at a single point, then the force application is simplified, but the uniformity of tension distribution deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the lacing system into multiple segments with individual lace guides distributed across the upper. Each lace guide creates a localized tensioning point, and the cumulative effect of multiple segments distributes the overall lace tension uniformly across the foot. This segmentation approach maintains simple force application at each individual guide while achieving uniform tension distribution system-wide.
Data Source
AI summary
A footwear assembly can comprise, an upper, a lace cable, a plurality of lace guides and a tensioner. The tensioner can comprise a tensioning member secured to a side of the upper proximate a toe box and the lace cable, and a floating overlay attached to a side of the upper proximate a toe box and the lace cable. The tensioning members can comprise an elastic member. The tensioning members can be configured to provide a stiff lockout zone and an elastic stretch zone.