The invention relates to tire building machinery, and more particularly, to tire building drums, and a method of manufacturing a sleeveless drum.
Prior art tire building drums 10 such as shown in
The invention provides in a first aspect a method of converting a tire building drum having a sleeve into a sleeveless tire building drum. The method comprising the steps of providing a tire building drum having a center sleeve, removing the center sleeve, providing a plurality of cover plates and a plurality of segments located underneath the coverplates, the segments connected to radially oriented pistons for radial movement of the center section; Providing a plurality of holes on said coverplates, connected the holes to a fluid manifold, and connecting the manifold to a vacuum source.
The invention provides in a second aspect, a sleeveless tire building drum which includes a rotatable drum comprising a left and right section and a center section. The center section is radially expandable, and the left and right sections are axially movable. The center section has a plurality of coverplates mounted on the circumference of the center section, the coverplates having an outer surface having a plurality of holes, and a inner surface having a manifold connected to the plurality of holes, said manifold connected to a vacuum source, wherein the center section of the tire building drum does not have an outer sleeve.
“Aspect Ratio” means the ratio of a tire's section height to its section width.
“Axial” and “axially” means the lines or directions that are parallel to the axis of rotation of the tire.
Bead” or “Bead Core” means generally that part of the tire comprising an annular tensile member, the radially inner beads are associated with holding the tire to the rim being wrapped by ply cords and shaped, with or without other reinforcement elements such as flippers, chippers, apexes or fillers, toe guards and chafers.
“Belt Structure” or “Reinforcing Belts” means at least two annular layers or plies of parallel cords, woven or unwoven, underlying the tread, unanchored to the bead, and having both left and right cord angles in the range from 17° to 27° with respect to the equatorial plane of the tire.
“Bias Ply Tire” means that the reinforcing cords in the carcass ply extend diagonally across the tire from bead-to-bead at about 25-65° angle with respect to the equatorial plane of the tire, the ply cords running at opposite angles in alternate layers
“Breakers” or “Tire Breakers” means the same as belt or belt structure or reinforcement belts.
“Carcass” means a laminate of tire ply material and other tire components cut to length suitable for splicing, or already spliced, into a cylindrical or toroidal shape. Additional components may be added to the carcass prior to its being vulcanized to create the molded tire.
“Circumferential” means lines or directions extending along the perimeter of the surface of the annular tread perpendicular to the axial direction; it can also refer to the direction of the sets of adjacent circular curves whose radii define the axial curvature of the tread as viewed in cross section.
“Cord” means one of the reinforcement strands, including fibers, which are used to reinforce the plies.
“Inner Liner” means the layer or layers of elastomer or other material that form the inside surface of a tubeless tire and that contain the inflating fluid within the tire.
“Inserts” means the reinforcement typically used to reinforce the sidewalls of runflat-type tires; it also refers to the elastomeric insert that underlies the tread.
“Ply” means a cord-reinforced layer of elastomer-coated, radially deployed or otherwise parallel cords.
“Radial” and “radially” mean directions radially toward or away from the axis of rotation of the tire.
“Radial Ply Structure” means the one or more carcass plies or which at least one ply has reinforcing cords oriented at an angle of between 65° and 90° with respect to the equatorial plane of the tire.
“Radial Ply Tire” means a belted or circumferentially-restricted pneumatic tire in which the ply cords which extend from bead to bead are laid at cord angles between 65° and 90° with respect to the equatorial plane of the tire.
“Sidewall” means a portion of a tire between the tread and the bead.
The invention will be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
a illustrates a close up view of the piston flanges located on the center section without a filler ring;
A first embodiment of a sleeveless tire building drum 100 is shown in
As shown in
In order to alter a conventional tire building drum with a center sleeve to a sleeveless drum, the first step is to remove the center sleeve from the center section 120 (not shown). When the sleeve is removed, a plurality of coverplates 180 are exposed. The coverplates are generally rectangular and are arranged about the center portion of the drum circumferentially. The lateral edges 182 of the coverplates are in abutting relationship about the circumference of the drum. As shown in
Next, filler rings 200 are added to the center section, one the left and right side, adjacent left and right flanges 202,204 that house pistons 190,192.
Next, the coverplates 180 are modified such that there are a plurality of small holes on the front face of the plate for the purpose of supplying a vacuum.
Next, the lateral segments 186,188 were modified as shown in
The order of the above method steps need not be performed in the order described. The above steps may also be utilized when building a sleeveless building drum.
Variations in the present invention are possible in light of the description of it provided herein. While certain representative embodiments and details have been shown for the purpose of illustrating the subject invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in this art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the scope of the subject invention. It is, therefore, to be understood that changes can be made in the particular embodiments described which will be within the full intended scope of the invention as defined by the following appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of, and incorporates by reference U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/014,553 filed Dec. 18, 2007.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 61014553 | Dec 2007 | US |
Child | 12255729 | US |