As new technology breaks down barriers and opens doors every day, industries of all kinds find themselves racing to keep pace. Florsheim Group Inc., headquartered in downtown Chicago, knows all too well the revolving-door trends of innovations as it has met increasing and altering demands in the shoe industry with laser machining technology.

Founded in 1892, the former Florsheim Shoe Co. began its business in the south Loop area of Chicago and resided there until moving to the core of downtown in December of 1996. After 106 years in the shoe industry, the company has earned a sizable reputation for mens' shoes across the globe. While Florsheim has strived to ensure quality products, it has always been on the lookout for new and better ways to go about its manufacturing process.

One of the most inventive breakthroughs occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s when computer grading was introduced to the shoe industry, replacing the time-consuming grading by a hand-operated machine. Grading refers to the altering of sizes and widths of the many patterns that go into the manufacturing of a shoe. Today at Florsheim, the CAD-operated grading program is linked directly to Florsheim's Jamieson LC2 Laser Center, which is used to cut styrene templates for marking leather at the company's Cape Girardeau, MO, plant. The actual laser is manufactured by Convergent Energy, formerly Coherent.

"The laser machine has been integral to Florsheim's success simply because of demand," said Kevin Kresen, the company's computer grading supervisor in product engineering. "We could not keep up with the hand-operated grading machine Florsheim used to have. We would have had to contract out to other sources. We got into computer grading in 1974 and once we started, we needed something to cut it with. There were different types of cutters at the time and any one of them was quicker than the way we were doing it. It was just a matter of making the big step."

The LC2 is Florsheim's third laser machine, replacing the Coherent Everlace which did not survive the company's move in 1996. "The machine did not fit in the elevator shaft so we had to get rid of a $200,000 laser cutter. We had had it for 12 years, though," said Kresen.

The Jamieson LC2 is the company's first compact laser. It is equipped with a 150-watt diamond-sealed CO2 laser and features a 4-foot by 4-foot and 5-foot by 10-foot fixed table which holds materials stationary. A lightweight gantry with flying optics is capable of moving at speeds up to 2,400 inches per minute and the machine can be equipped with sealed lasers from 50 to 600 watts to cut plastics, woods, steel and other materials. "The laser machine can cut 200 pieces an hour and uses recycled gas. Before, I was using one tank of gas every two weeks," said Kresen.

Designing the Shoes
After the company's designers get an idea of what styles are needed for a particular season, the patterns are manually made and drawn and then introduced to the computer system. "We need to capture every line, every little detail, every little curve, every piece, everything's reflected in," said Kresen. "We will reflect it out on the screen. We have to define each line -- it's point-to-point."

Once digitized, the information is sent to the laser machine through its onboard Pentium computer which figures how much power is to be used for each material due to its thickness. A specific file, corresponding to the piece to be cut, is selected and the laser begins cutting at 300 inches per minute.

"We've entered about 16 different styles to be ready for spring of 1999," said Kresen. "You've always got to be six months ahead of yourself because they have to be finished, in the stores and ready for selling in that season." Florsheim uses the laser to create about 30 new patterns every year for its two big shoe seasons -- spring and fall.

Implementing Laser Technology
"The laser is cutting 200 pieces in an hour where, in the past, it would have taken us two days to do 200 pieces by hand. It's a matter of demand. That's why the laser works for us."

For its templates, Florsheim uses 0.042-inch-thick styrene plastic sheet purchased from Comco Plastics in Chicago. "It's got a good finish to it and doesn't ruin our leather," said Kresen, who buys about 500 pounds of the sheet every year.

"Every one of these templates has to lay on a piece of leather. We've tried different things, but we like this material. It's got a shiny side to it and a little bit duller side to it. When we stack out pieces after these are all cut, there's a little filing that has to be done by hand. The smoother finish makes them slide nice for stacking. They don't get caught against each other. But the most important thing is that it doesn't destroy our leather."

The templates are used to mark the leather patterns which are then sewn together to manufacture the shoe.

"If a sewing machine operator in our factory has two pieces of leather to sew together without them being marked for fitting, he or she would not know where to stitch," said Kresen. "I make the marker piece out of plastic exactly the shape of all the different leather pieces, with fitting marks. Then I take that plastic, lay it on the leather, mark with a silver pen and start sewing the pieces together. This is called pre-fitting in the factory."

In addition to cutting plastic, the laser also cuts various paper products. The papers are sent off to metal die makers to form a cutting die to cut leather, said Kresen.

Plastic is also used to make the last, or the form that the shoe is built around. Florsheim outsources these parts to other companies for routing.

Laser technology has served as the brawn behind the task of the plastic templates and has more than satisfied the production goals of the company. For Florsheim, making the shift to laser technology was just a matter of keeping with the times and upgrading. "We had to keep up with the industry," said Kresen.

Plastics Machining & Fabricating
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