Delta Twin-Cylinder Rubber Hot Press Solution Optimizes Outsole Production

Shoes are one of the most representative products of human cultural development and have twofold importance: one is to protect our feet from injuries, and the other is to serve as decorative fashion apparel. Shoes consist of four parts: upper, quarter, insole, and outsole — with the outsole mostly comprised of rubber. Delta’s twin-cylinder rubber hot press plays a key role in outsole production. The first step in the outsole production process is putting the mixed rubber material into a mold and inserting it into the hot press. Through heating, pressurizing, and plasticizing, extremely strong and durable outsoles are produced. The final step of making shoes is stitching up or sticking together the quarter with the sole based on the designs of the shoe manufacturer.

In the sole production process, the heating temperature, time, and pressure are three critical conditions. To detect the current mold temperature of the hot press, a large number of temperature control points are required. However, the temperature control points are scattered, making temperature control and maintenance particularly challenging. If a temperature anomaly cannot be eliminated in time, the production quality might be compromised. In addition, the consumer’s rapid replacement of old shoes with new ones requires shoe factories to accelerate the production line, elevating productivity to meet the growing consumer demand year on year. For this, manufacturers keep expanding device stations and implementing automation solutions into production lines.  

To help its customers upgrade their outsole production, Delta has integrated self-developed products and introduced the Twin-Cylinder Rubber Hot Press Solution, adopting Delta’s Hybrid Energy Saving System HES-C Series to replace traditional oil hydraulic systems. The solution enhances the precision of finished products and saves energy and electricity while enhancing productivity. The control layer leverages the Compact Modular Mid-Range PLC AS Series, which supports the multi-axis CANopen network or pulse control, allowing flexible allocation of stations for the outsole production line. The solution is compatible with the Multi-Loop Modular Temperature Controller DTM Series for monitoring temperature variation, and data transmission to Human Machine Interface DOP-100 Series via Modbus. The user-friendly and intuitive interface helps users control the production process effectively.

Delta’s Twin-Cylinder Rubber Hot Press Solution offers the following benefits:

• Increases or decreases hot press stations flexibly & compatibly

One hot press takes about 2 to 3 minutes to complete the outsole manufacturing process. The number of devices can be increased to enhance the utilization rate according to the project requirements. The multi-station and continuous process integrates multiple industrial automation products and open communication architecture. Through the Modbus protocol, the solution can connect peripheral devices. In addition, it also uses Ethernet for data transmission to meet different industrial communication requirements.
 

• Centralized temperature management with temperature controllers

The Delta Multi-Loop Modular Temperature Controller DTM Series integrates all temperature control points of the production line into HMI, records temperature in real time, monitors the on-site heating situation, and eliminates temperature anomalies without delay for stable production and higher product competitiveness.
 

• High-performance PLC effectively controls the processing

The vulcanization time is critical for the outsole production process by which plastic molecules interact with one another at certain temperatures and pressure. To efficiently allocate the amount of processing time, the solution adopts the Compact Modular Mid-Range PLC AS Series featuring 25ns high-speed calculation and instantaneous multi-processing for accurate manufacturing processes.

The Delta Twin-Cylinder Rubber Hot Press Solution provides a one-stop integrated service with easy implementation. The whole solution adopts Delta’s industrial automation products with outstanding performance and stable operation to help customers fix their pain points and upgrade the shoe-making production line, while looking ahead to a smart manufacturing future.