The Mechanics and Prototyping Department of the CTCR has developed a process of obtaining special moulds out of which personalized sole prototypes in similar materials to the final ones or in the final materials can be obtained. Footwear manufacturers have hereby access to a quick, reliable and affordable method of creating sole prototypes before finalizing the design process and ordering the final moulds.
When fabricating a prototype of the whole shoe, the sole is the most complicated part to obtain, because it is ideal that the material is as similar as possible to the final one. This makes rigid prototypes unusable, and ordering the moulds for injection and vulcanization is too expensive and takes too long. Therefore, the process developed by the CTCR is ideal, as new flexible prototypes can be obtained to a low cost in a really short time. The process is simple: starting from a 3D design, a first prototype in rigid material, the master (printed in 3D usually in plaster), is made. The rigid prototype is then used to create the mould that will serve to obtain the final prototype in flexible material. Hereby, the prototype in flexible material will show all the details of the design and can be a useful tool for the elaboration of a new shoe line.
