Insole

Abstract

The invention relates to an insole (100) for shoes with a base material, which comprises a sole surface (102) facing the shoe and an opposite foot surface facing the foot, wherein a coating (112) is provided on the sole surface (102), which provides the sole surface (102) of the insole (100) with an increased frictional force with respect to the uncoated sole surface (102), characterised in that the coating (112) is formed from a plurality of individual patterns (120) formed from coating lines (114), which are discrete from one another and are arranged in such a way that they cannot be formed by one or more continuous coating lines (114) miming continuously from a first side (122a) of the sole surface (102) to an opposite second side (122b) of the sole surface (102).

Claims

1. An insole (100) for shoes with a base material comprising a sole face (102) facing the shoe and an opposing foot face facing the foot, a coating (112) being provided on the sole face (102) which provides the sole face (102) of the insole (100) with an increased frictional force relative to the uncoated sole face (102), characterized in that the coating (112) consists of a plurality of individual patterns (120) formed by coating lines (114), said patterns being discrete from one another and arranged in such a way that they cannot be formed by one or more continuous coating lines (114) extending continuously from a first side (122a) of the sole face (102) to an opposing second side (122b) of the sole face (102).

2. The insole (100) of claim 1, further comprising wherein for any possible direction in the plane of the sole face (102) there is a corresponding portion of at least one individual pattern (120) that is perpendicular to this direction.

3. The insole (100) of claim 1, further comprising wherein at least one individual pattern (120) is formed as a pattern group (124), which comprises at least two pattern elements (126) formed from coating lines.

4. The insole (100) of claim 3, further comprising wherein a first pattern element (126) encircles a second or further pattern elements (126) at least in places.

5. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein an uncoated outer region (118) surrounding the separate individual patterns (120) has a geometric shape which differs from a geometric shape of the individual pattern (120).

6. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein at least one individual pattern (120) on the sole face (102) is enclosed on all sides by an uncoated outer region.

7. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the plurality of individual patterns (120) cover the sole face (102) substantially over the entire extent thereof.

8. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the sole face (102) exhibits a degree of coverage by the coating lines (114) of at least 6% and at most 50%.

9. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the individual patterns (120) in total occupy a proportion of the surface area of the sole face (102) of at least 20 at most 80%.

10. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the coating lines (114) have a line width of at least 0.2 mm, and at most 2.0 mm.

11. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the coating lines (114) have a length which corresponds to at least 5 times the width of the respective coating line.

12. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the coating lines (114) have a height of at least 0.1 mm, and at most 0.8 mm.

13. The insole (100) of claim 1 further comprising wherein the coating lines are formed by continuous lines and/or lines interrupted at least in places, wherein the interruption is no longer than 10 times, the line width of the line adjacent this interrupted point.

14. The insole (100) of claim 1 wherein the coating has a basis weight of at least 5 g/m.sup.2, and at most 50 g/m.sup.2.

15. The insole (100) of claim 1 wherein the coating is polymer-based and is formed from materials with a Shore A hardness of at least 30 and at most 90.

16. The insole (100) of claim 1 wherein the sole side with the coating has a dynamic coefficient of friction based on ASTM D1894-01 of at least 0.6, and at most 2.0.

17. The insole (100) of claim 1 wherein the insole has a flexural rigidity of at least 500 mN, and at most 3000 mN.

18. The insole (100) of claim 1 wherein the insole (100) has a flexural rigidity of from 15% to 20% greater than an insole without coating lines on the sole face (102).

19. The insole (100) of claim 1 wherein the base material of the insole (100) is of single-layer construction.

20. The insole of claim 1, wherein the base material of the insole (100) is of multilayer construction.

21. The insole of claim 1 which is of a non-woven material.

22. The insole of claim 21, wherein the coating has a Shore A hardness of from 30 to 90.

Description

(1) Further features and details and advantages of the invention are revealed by the drawings and the following description of the shoe sole according to the invention. In the drawings:

(2) FIG. 1 is a representation of a sole face of an insole according to the invention

(3) FIG. 2 shows an insole prior to application of the coating,

(4) FIGS. 3a-e) show various individual coating patterns,

(5) FIGS. 4a-c) show a schematic plan view, not true to scale, of a flexural rigidity gauge with performance of the measurement,

(6) FIG. 4d shows a view of the sample holder in the direction of the arrows D-D in FIG. 4a and

(7) FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation, not true to scale, of a portion of a Shore A hardness tester.

(8) FIG. 1 shows a plan view onto the sole face of an insole 100 according to the invention, wherein, when the insole is applied, the sole face 102 faces an inner sole of a shoe and the opposite face from the sole face is the foot face, facing the foot. The insole 100 consists of a base material of nonwoven materials made from a mixture of natural cellulose-based fibers and synthetic fibers. This base material forms a nonwoven wadding layer and is bonded by calendering with an embossing calender, i.e. it was passed between a heated calender roll with protruding embossing projections and a counter-pressure roll. In this way, the surface texture apparent from FIG. 2 is formed in the case illustrated with dot-shaped and rib-like embossed structures 106. The engraved depth achieved by calendering amounts in the present case to 0.7 mm, but may be adjusted as desired by the person skilled in the art on the basis of his or her specialist knowledge. In the region of the embossing, highly compressed embossed regions 106 are formed next to comparatively less compressed regions 110. The proportion of highly compressed regions 106 compared to the total area amounts in this case to 5-10%.

(9) In the case of a multilayer base material, the layers may be joined together by pressure and temperature using a calender system with two steel rolls, the embossing 106 being applied simultaneously. That is to say, one of the two calender rolls comprises engraving.

(10) The multilayer base material of the insole here comprises a base layer with a grammage of preferably 200-250 g/m.sup.2.

(11) As FIG. 1 shows, a coating 112 of coating lines 114 is provided on the sole face 102 of the insole 100 remote from the sole of the foot and facing the inner sole of a shoe. This serves to prevent the insole 100 from slipping in the shoe and furthermore to improve the flexural rigidity of the sole. The coating lines 114 are polymer-based and preferably consist of EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate). The material preferably has a Shore A hardness of 60-80. The coating lines are applied by means of a gravure method, wherein the insole 100 is passed through between a gravure roll and a counter roll. The width of the coating lines amounts in the present case to 0.5-0.7 mm. The height of the coating lines preferably amounts to 0.2-0.3 mm, such that no uncomfortable tactile effects arise on the foot from the applied coating pattern.

(12) The coating shown in FIG. 1 comprises a plurality of individual patterns 120, which are formed by coating lines 114. In the case illustrated, each individual pattern 120 is preferably formed by groups 124 of patterns, wherein the groups of patterns consist of at least three pattern elements 126, here of concentrically arranged circles and no coating compound is applied between the individual circles of each individual pattern group forming an individual pattern, i.e. an uncoated region 116 is present therein. In this way, a total degree of coverage on the sole face of around 20-25% is achieved by the coating lines 114. In total, a relatively high surface coverage of 80% of the sole face 102 is achieved by the individual elements 120 as such, i.e. the free areas outside the individual patterns 120, i.e. the outer, uncoated regions 118 surrounding the individual patterns, occupy around 20% of the sole face 102. In this way, the flexural rigidity of the insole 100 may advantageously be achieved while simultaneously only slightly impairing the desired characteristics attributed to the base material of the insole, such as for example air permeability and/or breathability, which is not significantly influenced by the coating.

(13) Furthermore, a coating in which the individual patterns 120 may intersect, overlap or form a tangent but each individual pattern remains individually identifiable, and in particular the individual patterns cannot be joined by a continuous line which extends from one side (edge) of the sole 122a to the opposite side (edge) of the sole 122b, offers the advantage of there being no preferential directions. In each case, two opposing edge portions of the sole 100 are considered to be the sides (edges) of the sole 100. In this way, non-slip characteristics may be improved in all directions.

(14) A particularly preferred coating is one in which, due to the configuration of the individual patterns 120, at least one individual pattern 120, preferably at least 20% of the individual patterns 120 on the sole face, particularly preferably each individual pattern 120, comprises a portion or region 128 which extends perpendicular, i.e. at an angle 132 of 90 to any desired direction 130 in the area of the insole 100, as illustrated schematically in FIG. 3a. In this way, each direction of movement has a proportion opposed to it which extends perpendicular to it, so achieving optimum slip prevention for this direction of movement. Such a portion may also be formed in that a notional tangent 134 may be applied which is perpendicular to the respective slip direction.

(15) The optimum expression of the stated advantages is achieved in that the individual patterns 120 are discrete from one another and in particular do not merge with one another in such a way that the individual patterns 120 disappear into the overall pattern, as is the case for example for the individual rhombuses or squares in a grid pattern.

(16) Further preferred individual patterns are shown in FIGS. 3a-3e, wherein both different individual patterns may be combined together, as shown in FIGS. 3a, 3b, 3d and 3e, and moreover the individual patterns may also, with regard to the configuration of the coating lines, exhibit differences with regard to both the height thereof and the width thereof. Furthermore, it is also feasible to make the coating lines not to be continuous but rather interrupted, as shown for example in FIG. 3a, insofar as this does not cause the overall patterns to break up in such a way that the patterns can no longer be recognized as such.

(17) Insofar as an individual pattern 120 is composed as a pattern group 124 of multiple pattern elements 126, these may, as shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b, completely encircle one another with spacing but also encircle one another in such a way as to form points of contact. Furthermore, it is also possible for the individual pattern elements of an individual pattern 120 to be arranged to form touching or intersecting regions, as shown for example in FIG. 3c. The individual patterns according to FIGS. 3a to 3e may also, in a manner similar to FIG. 1, be configured such that the individual patterns intersect or overlap or form tangents to one another.

(18) The dynamic coefficient of friction of the coated sole face amounts, measured on the basis of ASTM D 1894-01, to between 0.8 and 1.4. The flexural rigidity of the coated insole 100 according to the invention preferably amounts to 700-1000 mN, wherein a percentage increase in flexural rigidity is obtained over an uncoated sole of 15-20%. The air permeability of the insole amounts to around 100 mm/s.