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Industry 4.0 for Sustainable Production in Footwear Industry
Abstract
Technological advancements as part of fourth industrial revolution occurring every day have changed the way or the process that various products are created from concept to the final product. In this way by contributing even to a sustainable production in various industries. Due to the fact that footwear industry is the one classified as the fifth regarding negative impact on environment among various sectors of industry, sustainable production is required. The aim of this paper is to present some evidence related with footwear consumption and its negative impact on the environment. Moreover by focusing on the role of sustainable materials an analysis conducted from other works regarding the implementation of sustainable production in footwear industry. As Industry 4.0 is well known to support sustainable production, the presented work will reveal through cases of its implementation, the contribution of Industry 4.0 within this scope, and the role of additive manufacturing as an enabler to support the sustainable production in footwear industry.
... And the industry continues to supply high-quality products on the premise of reducing carbon [6]. Therefore, combined with the concepts of smart manufacturing and circular economy (CE) under Industry 4.0, changing production methods and developing environmentally friendly products are the keys to maintaining a competitive advantage in the shoe industry [5,[7][8][9]. This study could be of interest to scholars and practitioners alike because it integrates two widely used management theories of ABC and the TOC to offer possible solutions to contemporary environmental challenges [10]. ...
... In addition, MES can detect the actual production, quality, and machine operation in real time and allow managers to successfully achieve production planning goals [7,9]. There are many pieces of equipment that use a lot of energy in the shoemaking process [8]. ...
... In addition, Industry 4.0 automated woven shoe upper technology is the most important innovative smart manufacturing technology in the footwear industry in recent years [5]. The upper weaving technology automates the production process, which can greatly reduce labor costs, and the one-piece woven upper can reduce the waste generated by tailoring [9]. The appearance, weaving texture, and yarn mix and match of the woven upper can be designed through computer software and then handed over to the knitting machine to make a one-piece seamless woven upper. ...
The world produces more than 20 billion pairs of shoes every year, and the greenhouse gas emissions of the shoe industry account for 1.4% of the world. This research, taking the knitted footwear industry as an example, combines the concepts of mathematical programming and carbon emissions to discuss the impact of a circular economy sustainable decision-making model (including four carbon tax functions) to achieve net zero emissions under Industry 4.0 on company profits and product structure. The findings suggest that using activity-based costing to measure the attribution of various costs during process improvement allows companies to more accurately capture the carbon cost of producing each pair of shoes. In addition, under the trend of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, if the price of carbon taxes or carbon rights is not enough to affect companies’ profits, companies will not pay attention to the impact of carbon emissions. To ensure a sustainable production model, the shoe industry should work with brand customers to reduce the effects of products on the environment, coordinate with brand customers’ sustainable development milestones, and formulate a carbon reduction path to achieve zero carbon emission growth goals. Future research can apply these research models, incorporating the carbon tax and carbon rights proposed by this paper to the other industries. In addition, the research also can be extended to explore the consumer behavior for the newly developed knitted footwear.
A great deal of practitioners in the product design and manufacturing area considers using artificial intelligence (AI) tools with an aim to provide unusual ideas in a shorter period of time. The present paper is using a series of case studies in order to provide a considerable experience in using a text-based AI platform and highlight the advantages and difficulties that is needed to be overcome in the future. The new role for the AI tools within the product development cycle is stressed, while their use together with the design methodologies and the technological tools became clear. The output of these tools is mainly images that cannot be parametrically controlled and further substantial work is needed for creating the 3D models of these proposals.
Advances in cleaner technologies have a critical role in reaching Europe’s climate and environmental goals. More precisely, in the case of the footwear bonding process its environmental impact is mainly related to the VOCs emissions resulting from the use of organic solvents in the most common adhesives used, as well as during the application of some surface treatments such as halogenation. Moreover, the use of raw materials of fossil origin also contributes to its carbon footprint. The aim of this work is to deploy cleaner technologies to minimise the environmental footprint of the footwear bonding process through several approaches at different steps of the process life cycle, also to contribute to footwear circularity. This work focuses on the synthesis and application of reactive hot melt polyurethanes from CO 2 -based polyols as biobased adhesives, and the study of plasma-based surface treatments (low-pressure plasma and atmospheric pressure plasma) to improve adhesion properties, using styrene-butadiene vulcanised (SBR) rubber as a representative footwear soling material. The influence of CO 2 -based polyols on the polyurethane structure and the physicochemical effects of the plasma treatments on the rubber surface, as well as the final adhesion properties have been evaluated by means of different experimental techniques. The results showed that the values obtained for the T-peel strength of the adhesive joints studied, with the combination of the application of the plasma surface treatments and the biobased reactive hotmelt, exceed the minimum quality requirements for footwear according to the standardised tests. As a result, the deployment of such cleaner technologies regarding adhesives and surface treatments in the footwear bonding process will contribute to improving footwear carbon footprint and its circularity.
Surface treatment is essential to ensure the resistance and durability of adhesive upper-to-sole joints for footwear. This study investigates robotised atmospheric pressure plasma technology to increase adhesion on styrene-butadiene vulcanised (SBR) and styrene-butadiene-styrene thermoplastic (SBS) rubbers, which constitutes a more sustainable surface treatment as an alternative to solvent-based chemical treatments (i.e., halogenation). In this work, the different parameters such as application speed and distance of the nozzle of the atmospheric plasma system have been optimised and the effects of the plasma treatment on the physicochemical properties in the materials’ surface, roughness, wettability, as well as the adhesion properties have been evaluated by means of different experimental techniques: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Field Emission Scanning Electron (FESEM), Contact Angles (CA) and Surface Free Energy (SFE) measurements and T-peel strength tests. The results show that the values obtained for the T-peel strength of the reactive hot melt polyurethane adhesive (HMPUR) joints studied exceed the minimum quality requirements for footwear according to standardised tests. In consequence, the optimisation and validation of operating plasma conditions and adhesion properties of rubbers could consolidate atmospheric plasma as a solvent-free alternative for the preparation of footwear soling materials. The great advantage of this technology is its introduction into the production line by fully automating the bonding process with the use of robots.
Process reengineering is a very useful tool, specifically in industrial engineering where technological advances, information systems, customer requirements, and more have led to the need for radical change in some or all areas of an organization. The objective of this work is to show the usefulness of applying reengineering in the case of the footwear industry to make a proposal to change the problem area and the production decoration line as well as compare it with the current process using models of simulation performed in the Arena™ software. The proposal consisted of merging two production lines and comparing the current design with the proposal as well as comparing different parameters such as the use of resources and the production rate. The results indicated that the production rate increases by approximately 29% with the new design, using the same resources. In addition, using the OptQuest tool of the Arena™ software, it was found that with the new process, the production rate could be increased by up to 41% compared to the current process.
In every aspect of human life, there are many various wanted and unwanted materials manufactured or generated. Then later, they are discarded in the environment just because they are considered as waste. This chapter deals with the various processes that are involved in waste generation from the footwear and leather industry sectors. It also enlists the most conventional types of wastes generated from the footwear manufacturing plant and leather industry. The waste generated can be from a specific product or a group of products, and can also be from a particular production technology applied or from the whole production industry. The nature of the wastes are produced daily mostly dependable on the manufacturing process and the materials and methods used for footwear production. Leather is majorly consumed by the footwear sector, which is around 60–65%. Footwear industries are producing the most significant quantity of leather wastes such as leather trimmings, shavings and leather dust. In today’s world, there are more than 21 billion pairs of footwear manufactured annually globally. This creates a humungous amount of waste generation from footwear and leather sectors. The maximum percentage of footwear waste is generated from the post-consumer footwear waste, i.e. end of life of footwear which mainly goes into the landfills. In this chapter, the waste hierarchy from the footwear and leather industry is discussed and how it can be implemented to reduce, reuse and recycle the wastes that are generated from these footwear and leather sectors.
In the area of fashion and luxury industry, there is a growing trend in consumer awareness when it comes to leather sustainability. The current chapter aims to understand and discuss for major leather users what is considered to be the major criteria for sustainable leather consumption. For example, vegan consumers refrain from buying animal-based leather but might indulge in using PU or PVC leather or other alternatives which could be ranking low in the sustainability criteria. The current chapter uses the primary data with an interview and secondary data from the industry assessments and industry cases which highlights what could be misleading for the buyers and producers. In addition, what are the perspectives of the manufacturers to develop newer sustainable methods of leather production, recycling needs and wastage are also discussed.
Purpose
This paper aims to unveil how sustainability is integrated into the courses/programmes of higher education institutions. The research question addressed is: how do academics representing different disciplines cooperate and engage in the work of integrating sustainability into their teaching programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws upon the notions of practise variation and institutional work from institutional theory and empirically focusses on the case of Kristianstad University (Sweden). This case is based on an autoethnographic approach and illustrates the experiences shared by six colleagues, representing different disciplines, engaged in implementing sustainability in their courses/programmes.
Findings
The findings highlight how academics representing different disciplines, with specific traditions and characteristics, face the sustainability challenge. Despite being bound by similar sustainable development goals, differences across disciplines need to be acknowledged and used as an asset if trans-disciplinarity is the ultimate goal.
Research limitations/implications
Although the intrinsic motivation of individuals to work with sustainability might be a strong driver, the implementation of sustainability within courses/programmes and across disciplines requires joint efforts and collective institutional work.
Practical implications
By highlighting how academics engage in the work of integrating sustainability, this study emphasizes that managers of higher education institutions need to account for the time and additional resources needed to ensure that academics effectively cope with sustainability. Intrinsic motivation may not last if organizational structures and leadership are not supportive on a practical level and in the long run.
Social implications
With the successful implementation of a holistic approach to sustainability, students will have better insights and understanding of both themselves and the surrounding society, laying the ground for an inclusive future society.
Originality/value
This paper emphasizes the gradual approach to be followed when sustainability becomes part of an organization-wide discourse. Dialogues within and across disciplines are needed to overcome silo thinking and stimulate cooperation within a trans-disciplinary approach.
Approximately 40 different materials can be used in the manufacturing of one shoe. While the major pollutants in the footwear industry are leather, synthetic materials and textiles. The paper deals with the current topic of sustainable behavior and materials in footwear manufacturing. The aim of the paper is to map out the various materials used in shoe production, also to demonstrate design of sustainable manufacturing including the economic background. The case study shows the possibilities of using modern biodegradable materials and technologies, calculates costs and suggests possibilities for sustainable production.
The fashion industry is the second largest industrial polluter after aviation, accounting for up to 10% of global pollution. Despite the widely publicized environmental impacts, however, the industry continues to grow, in part due to the rise of fast fashion, which relies on cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption and short-lived garment use. In this Review, we identify the environmental impacts at critical points in the textile and fashion value chain, from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, CO2 emissions and textile waste. Impacts from the fashion industry include over 92 million tonnes of waste produced per year and 1.5 trillion litres of water consumed. On the basis of these environmental impacts, we outline the need for fundamental changes in the fashion business model, including a deceleration of manufacturing and the introduction of sustainable practices throughout the supply chain, as well a shift in consumer behaviour — namely, decreasing clothing purchases and increasing garment lifetimes. These changes stress the need for an urgent transition back to ‘slow’ fashion, minimizing and mitigating the detrimental environmental impacts, so as to improve the long-term sustainability of the fashion supply chain.
Industry 4.0 is a new era of industrial revolution in which textile and apparel (T&A) companies are adopting and integrating advanced technologies to achieve sustainability and a competitive edge. Previous studies have just focused on the perspective of big data utilization in Industry 4.0 and neglected the role of business intelligence systems (BIS), especially in the T&A industry. The current study is one of the first to investigate the determinants of BIS adoption with an eye towards understanding how BIS can resolve sustainability issues in T&A companies with Industry 4.0 technologies. Methodology: A qualitative research approach is applied with 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews from 12 of the world’s high-end T&A companies. The snowball and purposeful sampling strategy is used to select the participants. The qualitative content analysis technique is used to analyze the interview data. Results: The findings revealed various themes, such as sustainability issues in T&A companies, improved value creation processes with leading BI solutions, and perceived difficulties in the adoption of BIS. Major improvements are perceived in the apparel retail business because apparel companies are more prone to adopt the Industry 4.0 technologies with advanced business intelligence (BI) solutions. The results prove the pivotal role of economic sustainability in the adoption of BIS and Industry 4.0 technologies in T&A companies.
It is well recognized globally that the footwear industry contributes to a large waste stream throughout its life cycle. This article reviews the literature pertaining to the life cycle of footwear products and their End-of-Life (EoL) management strategies. The review discusses critical aspects of the footwear industry, commencing with a background on the growth and consumption of footwear products across the globe. The review provides an overview of the environmental impacts of different footwear materials across their life cycles. In this regard, leather materials are given intense focus due to their poor environmental performance. The review further examines proactive and reactive approaches to footwear waste management, whilst additionally exploring the challenges facing EoL footwear recovery. Finally, pyrolysis is examined as a thermochemical treatment process with value due to its potential to recover materials from post-consumer footwear. The significant findings in this review paper are as follows: (a) leather footwear materials have the most detrimental environmental impacts across their life cycle; (b) there is limited scientific literature on thermochemical processes (particularly pyrolysis) as waste recovery options for post-consumer footwear; and (c) several challenges face the recovery of post-consumer footwear products, including inefficient reverse logistics, mixed product recycling and difficulties establishing a value recovery chain. This review paper recommends further research on pyrolysis as a potential post-consumer footwear recovery option. Exploring the viability of new avenues for footwear waste recovery is significant due to its potential to divert this waste stream from landfills and allow a progression toward a more circular economy.
There are more and more talks in the community of scientists and business practitioners about new challenges for industry in connection with the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 is the result of the development of cyber-physical generation systems as part of the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 sets new areas of change in the sphere of production and management but also exerts an impact on various aspects of society’s life. It is a transformational challenge for enterprises of the present age. Industry 4.0 is present in economic studies at the macroeconomic level and business at the microeconomic level. Scientists discuss the essence of change, and specialized research centers and consulting companies carry out research on various aspects of this industrial revolution. The article presents the range of expectations and changes in society towards the development of the concept of Industry 4.0. The work was based on a literature study and direct research in the field of social change in the Industry 4.0 era. The aim of the article is to identify social expectations of development changes related to the implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept. The article devotes a lot of attention to customization because it is one of the keys of Industry 4.0, leading to a change of the paradigm from mass production to personalized production. This simple change will affect customers, producers, and employees. Based on the synthesis of literature and secondary research, authors identify opportunities and threats to the broadly understood society functioning in the Industry 4.0 environment. Social conditions were analyzed from the point of view of the consumer, producer, and employee. In the cited direct studies, the basic area of analysis was product personalization and pre-recognition of the opinions of potential consumers about customization in Industry 4.0. The limitation of the research area to the consumer segment resulted from the importance of product personalization in Industry 4.0 and its impact on producer behavior and effects for employees.
The fashion industry has to play an important role in the path towards sustainability and the circular economy. Indeed, the fashion industry is a sector with a high environmental impact; it involves a very long and complicated supply chain, which is associated with large consumption of water and energy, use of chemical substances, water and air pollution, waste production and finally microplastic generation. In particular, textiles and clothing waste has become a huge global concern. Against this background, this paper aims at analysing the existing EU measures that have an impact on the development of sustainable practices and the transition to a circular economy in the fashion industry, with a particular focus on the EU revised legislative framework on waste adopted within the Circular Economy Action Plan of 2015.
The main goal of this paper was to analyse the hygienic properties of textile packages used for the construction of shoe uppers. Distance fabrics with varied hygienic properties were the basis of these packages. The discomfort indexes, which describe changes in footwear microclimate, were calculated according to the moisture absorbance capacity and temperature changes in the immediate surrounding of the foot skin surface. The experiment was done for a group of grain leather uppers, where the Grubbs test (a = 0.05) gave positive information about the outliers, describing such parameters as the water vapour permeability and water vapour coefficient. The phase changes of the shoe microclimate were detected via temperature and relative humidity sensors during simulation of the shoes used via an elliptical trainer for a group of 7 men. Statistically significant differences between the packages’ upper – lining confirmed the possibility of monitoring the circulation of biophysical mediums inside a footwear volume. The appropriate choice of package materials could raise the comfort conditions for users. For certain material configurations the microclimate conditions described by the discomfort index were improved.
Manufacturing industries and investors are always seeking to improve techniques to lower cost, energy and expand their capability. Additive manufacturing, started in the 1960s, has since had a rapid and continuous growth, bringing to light novel techniques to expand manufacturing capability and reinvent the wheel. At this stage, research and industry interest lie in determining where AM can replace or create new manufacturing systems. Traditional manufacturing refers to subtractive and long-established manufacturing methods, quality assured and implemented in the commercial space.
This paper reviews the capability of AM and its current development to compete or add to established traditional manufacturing regions. Literature reveals the capability of AM to fit into established manufacturing regions for low and high production volume products. The paper comparison focuses on the similarities, differences, advantages and disadvantages found in AM vs SM studying the economic and quality management status of the industry today.
Footwear prototyping is constrained by significant volume of "sampling", time to market pressures, cost implications and the failure of the industry to attract and develop high quality professionals mastering modern computer-aided product development. Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) and material selection are becoming increasingly important transforming factors of this process raising the question of how to best integrate them into the design function considering not only infrastructure issues but also human resources and financing. Their role in footwear development is presented in this paper, based on the view of design as a multistage process subject to Concurrent Engineering. Proposed interventions to the design process for exploiting modern CAE and material selection tools are discussed, taking into account the business Value Chain Model and modern Cloud Service approaches. Innovative approaches to harness the processing power of modern CAE tools are identified and related to business practices, considering, also, the role of product development professionals and financing constraints. In particular, the application of the cloud service model of managing Software as a Service is discussed along with relevant opportunities and limitations. The paper concludes with an overall assessment of the impact that this model may have on the footwear industry.
Shoe patterns and a sole made of BC, baby shoe made of BC and, on the right BC material dyed in red. (prototype made by www.patent-shoes.com). image
In 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Agenda 2030 which counts 17 indivisible and self-sustaining goals. These so-called Sustainable Development Goals are intended to serve as a foundation for a transformation of the global economies towards a sustainable development. This transformation process should be built on an economic development in accordance with social equality and within ecological boundaries. As essential stakeholders for a global sustainable development, industrial organizations have to shift towards a novel paradigm which puts an emphasis on sustainable value creation. Industrial value creation has gone through radical changes during the last years. Since the 2010s, the so-called fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) can be observed. The state of the art in research and technology for Industry 4.0 and sustainability is outlined. The potential for sustainable value creation in Industry 4.0 is qualitatively assessed for a macro and micro perspective based on a literature review and expert interviews. The assessment unfolds that the value creation might positively contribute to a sustainable development in many cases. Critical areas with expected negative contributions related to the quantity of materials used, primary energy consumption, and working conditions are identified and elaborated in more detail. A demonstrator for an intelligent cube production is investigated in order to verify the results of the assessment. This demonstrator is currently set up in China as part of a Sino-German Research Institute.
This paper aims to describe the scenario of the contemporary footwear sector, giving a perspective to the product design methodological approaches in the context of the so called 4.0 Industry standards.
To do this the text proposes the description of practical experimentations carried out focusing on cad-cam design and cnc production methods.
The digital design and manufacturing processes (from the 3d scanning of the foot to the shoe last definition, from the style concept to the virtual parametric prototype of the shoes, from the definition of all the components to the final production) address from the one hand the advanced production methods supported by the enabling technology, from the other hand the renew of the traditional hand made production for the small and custom made series. Tradition and innovation aims to enable new cultural approaches to the made in Italy standards and new competitiveness keys for the footwear industry.
The paper explores the evolution of Design for Sustainability (DfS). Following a quasi-chronological pattern, our exploration provides an overview of the DfS field, categorising the design approaches developed in the past decades under four innovation levels: Product, Product-Service System, Spatio-Social and Socio-Technical System. As a result, we propose an evolutionary framework and map the reviewed DfS approaches onto this framework. The proposed framework synthesizes the evolution of the DfS field, showing how it has progressively expanded from a technical and product-centric focus towards large scale system level changes in which sustainability is understood as a socio-technical challenge. The framework also shows how the various DfS approaches contribute to particular sustainability aspects and visualises linkages, overlaps and complementarities between these approaches.
The traditional manufacturing sectors (footwear, textiles and clothing, furniture and toys, among others) are based on small and medium enterprises with limited capacity on investing in modern production technologies. Although these sectors rely heavily on product customization and short manufacturing cycles, they are still not able to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 surfaced to address the current challenges of shorter product life-cycles, highly customized products and stiff global competition. The new manufacturing paradigm supports the development of modular factory structures within a computerized Internet of Things environment. With Industry 4.0, rigid planning and production processes can be revolutionized. However, the computerization of manufacturing has a high degree of complexity and its implementation tends to be expensive, which goes against the reality of SMEs that power the traditional sectors. This paper reviews the main scientific-technological advances that have been developed in recent years in traditional sectors with the aim of facilitating the transition to the new industry standard.
In this paper INESCOP proposes the improvement of the bonding of footwear soling materials using the low-pressure plasma surface treatment as a non-polluting and resource-efficient technology by means of adhesive bonds, with a reactive hot melt polyurethane adhesive, as a more sustainable alternative to current chemical surface treatments such as halogenation. More precisely, low-pressure plasma is capable of cleaning and removing all impurities, such as oxides, oils and fats on material surface. Then, it is activated by producing new chemicals species on the top layer of the substrate. Thus, the materials’ surface acquires new surface functionalities, improving the compatibility adhesive-substrate and, therefore their adhesion properties. Furthermore, in this work the surface modifications produced in these materials of different polymeric nature have been optimised to increase their roughness, wettability, adhesive properties, etc., and have been validated through various experimental characterisation techniques. As a result, the samples treated with plasma meet the adhesion requirements for footwear materials. As a result, low-pressure plasma treatment has desmonstrated to be a green, alternative, and sustainable technology in line with European policies on circular economy, which enhances material surface properties by improving the adhesion bonding process.
There is a growing need to automate the footwear industry by introducing new methods and tools to improve footwear production. The use of CAD tools for the design of shoes and their components is increasingly common, but it is a sector in permanent adaptation to socio-economic changes where it is therefore complicated to incorporate high-tech machinery. The introduction of improvements in
production is a necessity, so the use of technologies that allow the adaptation of old machinery with the latest technologies in the area of CAD/CAM would be an important advantage for the sector.
So far, each component is designed and manufactured separately. In this way, the real dependence that exists between the different components required for manufacturing footwear means that a change in any of these elements implies a redesign (CAD level) of the rest of the elements. This fact increases the manufacturing cost. It is also necessary to modify the way of manufacturing the product (CAM level), which is a complex manual process in many cases. The introduction of changes in an industrial environment with limited resources means a very slow implementation. In this paper, a platform based on STEP-NC is defined to show the advantages that its implementation in footwear sector would imply, by relating all the elements involved in footwear manufacturing: CAD tools that generate the geometries of the components, CAM tools that define the paths for their machining, and the different machines that manufacture these components. Furthermore, additional advantages would be incorporated, such as process control, supervision, inspection, allowing information to flow in all directions.
The key to sustainable development in the footwear industry through the principles of circular economy lies in taking care of the design, as well as the introduction of innovative and more resource efficient materials and processes to reduce or avoid the use of water, energy, hazardous chemicals and to minimise emissions and waste. In fact, the environmental footprint is already being considered as another requirement of the footwear through eco-design. In this sense, previous studies carried out by INESCOP regarding its environmental impact in terms of carbon footprint showed that 15% of it corresponds to the assembly processes, mainly by adhesive joints, due to their content on organic solvents, hazardous chemicals and polymers from fossil origin.
Therefore, this paper focuses on recent developments carried out by INESCOP on more sustainable adhesives and adhesion processes for the upper-to-sole assembly in the footwear manufacturing process, through different approaches. Firstly, bio-based reactive polyurethane hot melt adhesives have been synthesised using polyols from different renewable sources. Secondly, the use of the low-pressure plasma surface treatment to improve the adhesion of polymeric materials used as soling materials was assessed in order to reduce volatile organic compounds emissions, as well as the use of hazardous chemicals for total automation of the bonding process.
Cross-contamination by people movement is a serious problem in food and health environments. This is caused by the need for workers to move around different areas of the workspace, carrying bacterial agents in their shoes from one place to another. The disinfection methods commonly used do not completely eliminate the microorganisms, mainly due to the porous structure of the outsole of the footwear used. This document presents a new prototype of functional footwear for these environments, whose outsole design has been functionalised in such a way that it is presented through two independent fundamental elements: a main body made of EVA by injection; and a footprint, in direct contact with the pavement, which can be exchanged for another pathogen-free footprint when deemed necessary, avoiding the transfer of microorganisms when the user moves from one place to another. This footprint is manufactured by fused-filament 3D printing, using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material additivated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which give it antimicrobial properties. The industrial design of these two elements has been carried out with the aim of guaranteeing a solid attachment between them, but at the same time allowing the replacement of footprints in a simple and fast way, and without requiring the use of additional auxiliary elements. Through the experimentation phase, the antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of the developed footprint have been analysed, and the physical-mechanical properties of the footprint as a whole have been evaluated according to various standards.
This research aims to reduce solid waste, resource depletion, and material toxicity in the footwear industry. Mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, binds together substrate materials as it grows, offering opportunities for composite development. Mycelium composites were developed using edible mushroom species alongside other natural materials. The 4 × 2 experiment tested four mushroom species (reishi, oyster, king oyster, and yellow oyster) and two fabric levels (with or without a natural fabric mat). Scanning electron microscopy images confirmed mycelium growth within the composite and around the substrates. Two-way analysis of variance tests found that both species and fabric significantly affected the density, and the species significantly affected the compressive strength. A positive and significant linear relationship was found between density and compressive strength, with higher density leading to higher compressive strength. The compressive strength of the mycelium composites, especially those made from king oyster mycelium, provides opportunities for renewable and biodegradable footwear inputs.
The central objective of this research is the development of a footwear line, combining ergonomics and design, and subsequently resulting in its application to new proposals for recyclable and sustainable materials in the footwear sector. An objective analysis applying a mixed methodology focused on two areas, the non-interventionist when we study and analyse the starting point and what exists in the market, and the interventionist methodology exploring and developing materials with ergonomic studies. Thus, the intention is to stimulate and innovate with ergonomic and functional shapes, later being tested by a focus group. With the application of the design methodology the following hypothesis was formulated: Will it be possible to apply and test recyclable and existing raw materials in the footwear sector, creating an innovative and ergonomic product? In order to test the hypothesis, we resorted to an action-research methodology that allows us to answer the initial question.
In the footwear sector, automation is often performed by robotic arms due to the inherent adaptive requirements of some of its tasks. With the Industry 4.0 revolution, automation is even less human dependent than before. The fact that fewer people interact with machinery during the manufacturing process has led to a rising need for production monitoring. The interconnection of machines present in 4.0 environments makes monitoring possible at a low investment cost. In this paper, a common communication layer is proposed to enable homogeneous status data retrieval of robotic arms from several different robot manufacturers. This layer is then attached to a 3D simulator software as a client, responsible for the monitoring process. Experiments proved the feasibility of the proposed method in a test bench scenario applying the required constraints of time, cost, bandwidth and disk space.
The purpose of this study was to develop a biodegradable material that could be used as a leather alternative material for the footwear industry, leading to reduce the negative environmental impact. Using an experimental research design, the researchers developed a multilayered cellulosic material (MCM) by bonding nonwoven cellulosic fiber mat, denim fabric, and hemp fabric and examined its properties compared with those of two-layered leathers, consisting of calf and pigskins (multilayered calf and pigskin leather [MCPL]), often used in the footwear industry. We hypothesized these two materials would have similar properties. No significant mean differences were found between MCM and MCPL in total heat loss and break force. The values of air permeability, evaporative potential, and permeability index of MCM were higher than those of MCPL. The findings of this study confirm the effectiveness of MCM for use as a leather alternative material when developing sustainable shoes and provide insights to the footwear industry.
Footwear manufacturing is basically a process of transformation and assembly of various components made up of several materials where different adhesives play a key role, because without them, the shoe would lack shape and structure. This paper aims to understand the importance of adhesives in the footwear industry. It is necessary to identify the different processes in a shoemaking where adhesives are involved and the different adhesive joints produced, as well as their technical requirements. The adhesive joint performance will depend on the different adherends’ nature used as footwear materials, the joint design, the surface treatments, the adhesive properties which depend on their formulation, and so on. Adhesive joints in a shoe act under different stress types (peel, shear, tensile, etc.). The most disfavourable are the peel stress. For that reason, the peel strength test is one of the most common to evaluate adhesive joints’ performance. When heat resistance is an important adhesive requirements, a creep test is carried out. Furthermore, aging tests are undertaken in order to evaluate durability. This methodology is described in this paper.
In the literature, one can find several papers on adhesives, specifically on their mechanical properties. However, there is little research related to footwear applications, including not only the mechanical properties that this industry demands, but also the composition of the adhesives. Therefore, this paper aims to connect the important mechanical properties for the footwear industry with the constituents of the adhesives. However, other properties are also important, such as viscosity, wettability, compatibility, etc., depending on the materials and the adhesive joint type.
Carbon dioxide could no longer be regarded as a pollutant or a waste but a resource that can be used as sustainable feedstock for new polymeric materials. CO2 is a low cost and abundant renewable resource offering a distinct sustainability advantage as well as high-value product. Polymers obtained from carbon dioxide are a new generation of future materials which bring about economic, environmental and technical advantages. Specifically, polyurethane adhesives based on CO2 as feedstock for application in the footwear sector mark the beginning of a new trend.
The use of polyols derived from carbon dioxide for the synthesis of thermoplastic polyurethane adhesives represents a sustainable alternative in the footwear industry. In this sense, sustainable polyurethane adhesives were synthesised from macroglycol mixtures of polyadipate of 1,4-butanediol and a CO2-based polyol, with 1,4-butanediol as a chain extender and 4,4’-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI).
The ecodesign of a product implies that different potential environmental impacts of diverse nature must be taken into account considering its whole life cycle, apart from the general design criteria (i.e. technical, functional, ergonomic, aesthetic or economic). In this sense, a sustainability assessment methodology, ecological footprint (EF), and environmental risk assessment (ERA), were combined for the first time to derive complementary criteria for the ecodesign of footwear. Four models of children's shoes were analyzed and compared. The synthetic shoes obtained a smaller EF (6.5 gm(2)) when compared to the leather shoes (11.1 gm(2)). However, high concentrations of hazardous substances were detected in the former, even making the Hazard Quotient (HQ) and the Cancer Risk (CR) exceed the recommended safety limits for one of the synthetic models analyzed. Risk criteria were prioritized in this case and, consequently, the design proposal was discarded. For the other cases, the perspective provided by the indicators of different nature was balanced to accomplish a fairest evaluation. The selection of fibers produced under sustainable criteria and the reduction of the materials consumption was recommended, since the area requirements would be minimized and the absence of hazardous compounds would ensure safety conditions during the use stage.
Analysis of footwear development from the design
- E G Ashton
- EG Ashton
Apparel and footwear sector science-based targets guidance
- M Sadowski
- C Yan
- C Cummis
- N Aden
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- J Chu
Analysis of footwear development from the design. Strategic Design Res
- E G Ashton
Manufacturing-focused emissions reductions in footwear production
- L Cheah
- N D Ciceri
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- S Matsumura
- D Forterre
- R Roth
- R Kirchain