Int J Adv Manuf Technol (1999) 15:498–502
 1999 Springer-Verlag London Limited
3D Multizone Scaling Method of an NC Program for Sole Mould
Manufacturing
R. T. Lee
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lunghwa Institute of Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan
In shoe manufacture, soles are made by injection moulding or
foam moulding. When making the moulds for soles, it is
necessary to make master models for all soles of every size.
The master model of a sole is manufactured by numerically
controlled (NC) machining. The present method for making 3D
NC part programs for the sole master models is to use a
computer-aided design and a computer-aided manufacturing
(CAD/CAM) system. This is tedious and manpower intensive.
This paper proposes a method for reducing the time and
cost for producing the 3D NC part programs of the sole
master models. In this method, the NC part programs of the
master model for the sample size sole are generated by the
CAD/CAM system. Then, depending on the difference in dimen-
sions between the sample size sole and another size sole, the
scaling (grading) dimensions (values) in each of 3 axes are
used to generate 3D NC part programs for the master model
for another size of sole.
Keywords: CAD/CAM; NC part program; Shoemaking
1. Introduction
Shoes are necessities. Recently, new technology has been
applied to shoemaking, for example the use of air bags, active
air systems, etc. In addition, people participate in sports and
leisure activities so that sportswear is very popular, and fashion
and style are always changing. There is a wide range of types
and shapes of sports shoes. This makes the shape of the
soles increasingly complex and difficult to manufacture. So,
computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacture
(CAM), and numerically controlled (NC) machining are
increasingly used for the design and manufacture of shoes.
The soles of sports shoes are usually made of plastic or
rubber by the injection moulding or foam moulding process.
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Ruey-Tsung Lee, Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Lunghwa Institute of Technology, 10,
Ln 74 Sec 1, Paoyuan Rd, Hsintien, Taipei 23116, Taiwan.
The mould for a sole is a necessary and important require-
ment for sole production. Before making the sole mould,
the master models (which are enlarged to allow for moulding
and casting shrinkage) of soles for all sizes must be prepared.
Then the master model of the sole is used as the pattern
for investment casting (lost wax casting) to make the mould
of the sole. After polishing, bench working and assembly,
the sole mould is ready for production. Thus, the quality of
soles depends on the precision and accuracy of the master
models. The design and manufacture of master models for
soles is one of the most important processes in shoe and
sole mould making. It is equivalent to the design and manu-
facture of a master model for a stamping die for the steel
panel of car body.
2. CAD/CAM and NC in Sole Master
Model Design and Manufacture
Because of the complex shape and accuracy requirement, in
the design and manufacture of the master model of the sole
for high-quality sports shoes, a CAD system has been used to
create a 3D model. Then a CAM system is used to compute
and generate the NC part programs for machining. The pro-
cedure for the design and manufacture of the master model of
a sole using CAD/CAM and NC is as follows:
1. Create 2D geometry from a drawing or template of sole.
2. Modify and smooth the 2D geometry (curves) (Fig. 1).
3. Create 3D profiles (curves) of the sole (Fig. 2).
4. Create 3D surfaces of the sole (Fig. 3).
5. Check 3D surfaces by shading, etc. (Fig. 4).
6. Create a machining process plan.
7. Select tool and cutting conditions.
8. Compute and generate NC part programs.
9. Simulate and check NC part programs.
10. NC machining master model of sole.

Fig. 1. 2D CAD plan curves of sole.
Fig. 2. 3D CAD profile curves of sole.
Fig. 3. 3D CAD surfaces of sole.
Using a CAD/CAM system and an NC machine tool, the
required high accuracy and precision of the master model for
the sole can be obtained. Once one master model has been
made, it is very simple to design and manufacture the corre-
sponding master model of the lefthand or righthand sole by
Fig. 4. Shading CAD model of sole.
3D Multizone Scaling Method 499
using the mirror function of the NC and CAD/CAM systems.
Therefore, the asymmetric problem in handmade master models
of the lefthand and righthand soles can be eliminated by using
CAD/CAM and NC systems.
There are many sizes for identical style shoes. For each
size, there are dimension grade (like scale) increments in
length, width and height (length, width and height grades) i.e.
there are different scales in the X-, Y- and Z-axes. In addition,
it is usual that the dimension grade increments of the front
and rear zones in length are not the same (Fig. 5, Table 1).
Some soles in a range of sizes have the same heel and/or
height (Fig. 6). From know-how and ergonomics, the different
dimensional grades are applied in different zones of a sole by
the shoe makers [1,2] (Fig. 7).
Because of the complex dimension grading and the 3D
shapes, the scaling function of a CAD/CAM system or an NC
controller cannot be applied. CAD/CAM and NC systems
provide only one scale for all 3 axes or one scale for each of
the 3 axes [3–7] and do not support a scaling function requiring
multiscaling in multizones for each of the 3 axes. Thus, the
CAD geometric models for the master models for soles of all
sizes must be produced by the CAD/CAM engineer and then
the NC part programs are computed and generated for machin-
Fig. 5. Different dimension grades in fore and rear zones of sole.
500 R. T. Lee

3.1 Specification and Limitation

According to the length, width and height grades of the sole

Fig. 6. Some soles with the same heel. A (small size) for sizes 5 to
6. B (medium size) for sizes 7 to 8. C (large size) for sizes 9 to 10.
ing. This requires a lot of engineering manpower and
CAD/CAM equipment.
3. A Multizone Scaling Method for 3D NC
Part Programs
Using this multizone scaling method, first the NC part
programs for the master model of the sample size sole are
prepared by using a CAD/CAM system. Then these NC part
programs and the grading dimensions between the sample
size and another size sole are input to this multizone scaling
system to generate the NC part programs for the master
model of another sole. Therefore, engineering manpower and
cost are greatly reduced.
and from experience, the multizone scaling system for the 3D
NC part program is defined in 9 zones for the X-, Y- and
Z-axes. Table 2 shows an example of dimensional grades for
the 3 axes. If any dimension is smaller or greater than the
dimension of the smallest or greatest zone, the dimension will
be scaled according to the scale value of the smallest or
greatest zone.
Positioning, linear and circular interpolation functions (e.g.
G00, G01, G02 and G03) are used in the CAD/CAM and
NC systems when generating the NC part program. This
multizone scaling system processes only positioning and
linear interpolation functions because circular motion will
change to elliptical motion when scaled by this multizone
method, and an NC machine supports circular motion and not
elliptical motion [5]. Another reason for not using circular
interpolation is that most CAD/CAM systems (which can be
preset) generate only positioning and linear interpolation for
3D NC part programs.
3.2 Accuracy and Tolerance
In shoemaking, the tolerance of shoe dimensions is about
2 mm (⫾1 mm). If a fifth of this tolerance (⫾0.2 mm) is

Table 1. Examples of the dimensions of soles for every size.

Size number Rear-zone length Fore-zone length Total length Width Height

4 101.4 132.9 233.3 84.0 23.0

5 106.0 135.8 241.8 86.1 23.0
6 110.6 139.7 250.3 88.2 23.0
*7 115.2 143.6 258.8 90.3 24.5
8 119.8 147.5 267.3 92.4 24.5
9 124.4 151.4 275.8 94.5 24.5
10 129.0 155.3 284.3 96.6 26.0
11 133.6 159.2 292.8 98.7 26.0
12 138.2 163.1 301.3 100.8 26.0

*7 is the sample size. unit: mm.

Rear-zone length grade per size ⫽ 4.6 mm
Fore-zone length grade per size ⫽ 3.9 mm
Width grade per size ⫽ 2.1 mm

Table 2. Grading dimensions for 9-zone in 3 axes.

Number of zones in X-axis 9

Dimension before scaling in X-axis 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90
Dimension after scaling in X-axis 0, 11, 23, 34, 45, 57, 68, 78, 89, 99
Number of zones in Y-axis 3
Dimension before scaling in Y-axis ⫺40.5, ⫺10.0, 5.0, 21.2
Dimension after scaling in Y-axis ⫺50.0, ⫺10.0, 5.3, 24.5
Number of zones in Z-axis 1
Dimension before scaling in Z-axis ⫺5.5, 25.0
Dimension after scaling in Z-axis ⫺6.0, 29.0

The dimensions shall be in ascending order.

The maximum number of zones for each axis is 9.

Fig. 7. Different local dimension grades in sole.
Fig. 8. CAD surfaces for the sole of the sample size 7 and NC tool
paths of sizes 4, 7 and 12.
used as the tolerance for the master model of a sole, the
accuracy of this NC part program multizone scaling method
is acceptable. Usually, the dimensional differences of length
between the greatest (or the smallest) size and the sample
size are no more than 25%. The accuracy for CAD/CAM
generated NC part programs by this method is 0.04 mm for
the inner and outer tolerances of CAD geometric models
(surfaces). Theoretically this accuracy will be increased to
3D Multizone Scaling Method 501
Fig. 9. CAD surfaces for the sole of the sample sized 7 and NC tool
paths of sizes 4, 7 and 12.
0.05 mm for NC part programs of the master model for the
largest sole. In addition, the cutting tool (usually a ball nosed
end mill) is not scaled for a different size sole, so the maximum
error will be produced on a vertical wall. In finish machining,
the radius of the cutting tool is 0.5 mm so the maximum error
is theoretically 0.125 mm. This error can be reduced by skill
in the tool set-up of the NC machine. By final bench working
and polishing of the master model of the sole, the tolerance
will be reduced. Therefore, this 3D multizone NC program
scaling method is acceptable for the accuracy and tolerance
requirement for master model manufacture for the sole.
3.3 Procedure
1. The grading dimensions between the sample size sole and
another size sole are read into the system.
2. The NC part program for the master model of the sample
size are read into the system.
3. Determine X-, Y- and Z-coordinates of the NC program and
then scale up/down these coordinates.
4. Output the NC part program for the master model of the
other size sole.
4. Experimental Results
Experimental results are shown for two examples of soles for
the largest and smallest sizes (12 and 4). From Table 1, size 7
is used as the sample size sole. The grading dimensions
between size 4 (12) and the sample size 7 are shown in Table 3.
Then NC part programs for the master model of size 7 and
the data of Table 3 are input to this 3D multizone NC program
scaling system to scale and generate NC part programs for the
master models for sizes 4 and 12. Figs 8 and 9 illustrate the
tool paths for NC programs and CAD surfaces for sample
502 R. T. Lee

Table 3. Two examples of grading dimensions of soles for multizone in 3 axes.

Grading dimensions in between the sample size 7 and size 4

Number of zones in X-axis 2

Dimension before scaling in X-axis 0.0, 115.2, 258.8
Dimension after scaling in X-axis 0.0, 101.4, 233.3
Number of zones in Y-axis 1
Dimension before scaling in Y-axis 0.0, 90.3
Dimension after scaling in Y-axis 0.0, 84.0
Number of zones in Z-axis 1
Dimension before scaling in Z-axis 0.0, 24.5
Dimension after scaling in Z-axis 0.0, 23.0

Grading dimensions in between the sample size 7 and size 12

Number of zones in X-axis 2

Dimension before scaling in X-axis 0.0, 115.2, 258.8
Dimension after scaling in X-axis 0.0, 138.2, 301.3
Number of zones in Y-axis 1
Dimension before scaling in Y-axis 0.0, 90.3
Dimension after scaling in Y-axis 0.0, 100.8
Number of zones in Z-axis 1
Dimension before scaling in Z-axis 0.0, 24.5
Dimension after scaling in Z-axis 0.0, 26.0

size 7, and the tool paths of NC programs for sizes 4 and bottom surfaces are sometimes not scaled with size. This is
12 scaled and generated by this 3D multizone NC program difficult to handle. In addition, more research effort is required
scaling system. to develop specialised CAD/CAM and NC systems for shoe
design and manufacture.

5. Conclusions and Further Work

References
This 3D multizone scaling system can be applied for the
manufacture of master models of soles in shoemaking and
similar industries. Only the CAD geometric model and NC
part programs of the master model for the sample size must
be created, computed and generated by the engineer using the
CAD/CAM system. The NC part programs of the master
models for all the other sizes of soles can be produced by this
system economically and efficiently.
Owing to the design, type, fashion and style of shoes, there
are still some problems to be solved in the manufacture of the
master model of a sole using CAD/CAM and NC systems.
For instance the logo, mark or pattern on the peripheral and
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