TESTING & DESIGN

Under the major lab projects of the Institute, Design & Fashion Studio will work onSteel Shanks

Steel shanks are provided in between the heel and waist portion of the shoe to increase the rigidity of the shoe and its continuous function. However when the steel shanks are not sufficiently hard and flexible, they tend to break making the shoe not usable. This trend is more obvious in high heel shoes. To test the quality of steel shanks testing devices are available. But they are complicated in design and working under pneumatic pressure principle and also can be tested only on steel shanks and not on whole shoe. The new concept will work on mechanical principle and has the provision to test the whole shoe. Shoes with steel shanks were tested, validated and evaluated. Test results were statistically analysed and reported.

Importance of the proposed project in the context of current status: Fatigue resistance of insole/midsole containing steel shanks is done by  fixing  in the heel area and flexed at the bottom side of the shoe using mechanical provision. This step almost simulates the forepart flexing of the shoe during wear.