A revolution in shoes made with air
Another Taichung-based firm with outstanding shoe manufacturing technology is AP Plasma Corporation, a start-up that prides itself on “making shoes with air.” In the display area of the AI Robotics Hub at the Central Taiwan Science Park, company founder Jango Chang points to a machine and says, “Come and feel it for yourselves.” Installed inside the machine is an “Aurora Jet,” which is a plasma gun shaped like the tail of a rocket, named for the aurora or polar lights visible in the Earth’s atmosphere due to ionization of particles caused by the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetic field. When the device is turned on it immediately emits a ring of what appears to be flame, through which Chang moves his hand without fear of injury.
“The ‘flame’ produced by this device is an artificial aurora, and using this technology we can bond different materials together without traditional adhesives.” Chang, who sports an Einstein-like shock of curly hair, has developed the “3D Air Aurora” system (ATM-3), controlled by artificial intelligence, which uses a plasma jet generated by the ionization of air to prepare shoe sole elements for bonding, replacing the mechanical buffing and toxic organic adhesives used in the traditional manufacturing process. This innovative invention can reduce the average time for buffing and bonding each pair of shoes from one minute to ten seconds, and eliminates the need for toxic chemical primers and adhesives. For this it won an Energy Globe National Award in 2020.
AP Plasma vice-president Raymond Lin leads us to an ATM-3 machine, where we see the machine’s robotic arm moving rapidly as it directs the plasma onto the shoe sole components on the conveyor belt. The shoe soles come in different shapes and colors, and the plasma jet takes only a few seconds to complete its task, moving across the entire surface of each workpiece at astonishing speed.
Lin explains the principle behind the process. Traditionally in footwear manufacturing, shoe sole components are buffed with abrasive wheels, treated with chemical agents, pickled with acid, washed with alkali and coated with primer before adhesive is applied to bond the layers together. AP Plasma’s Air Aurora technology replaces these complex preparatory processes, reducing them to a few seconds’ work, and allows the soles to then be bonded with a water-based cement. The procedure produces no pollution, and uses only air as a raw material; it really shows the power of intelligent manufacturing.
AP Plasma founder Jango Chang is quick-thinking and very knowledgeable, and has won an R&D 100 Award (from the US-based R&D World magazine) and a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award.
This patented “Air Aurora” technology, with its AI-guided “Aurora Jet,” replaces many steps in the traditional footwear manufacturing process. Besides greatly reducing production time, the process produces zero pollution and improves shoe sole bonding.