The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Bruce Thomas Choate

Arun Kumar Byatarayanapura Gopala

Donald Chester Kubinski

Michael W Smith

Steven J Portalupi

Richard C Houck

Jeffrey Mckay West

A rotatable cutting wheel is used to heat a polymer substrate as it is being cut. The cutting wheel has a heater and a thermocouple associated therewith, which are used to heat and control the temperature of the cutting wheel. The heat softens the substrate, making it easier to cut and reducing distortion caused by cutting. A cleaner cut also makes it more likely that polymer will be retained on reinforcement when the substrate is a reinforced polymer. A method of the invention comprises the steps of heating the cutting wheel and traversing the substrate with the heated cutting wheel.

Heated cutting wheel

Forming a tubular tire ply from a flat sheet of wire reinforced material, cutting the ply to length and applying the ply to a drum.

Forming and application of tire ply

A sheet member is transported over a knife anvil by a feed conveyor movable from a first position adjacent the knife anvil to a second position overlapping the knife anvil. The feed conveyor has a moving belt which is driven in a forward direction for transporting the sheet member over the anvil and to a takeaway conveyor. The belt is driven in an opposite direction to pull the cut leading edge of the sheet material away from the end of the feed conveyor after cutting of the sheet material and during movement of the feed conveyor to the overlapping position over the anvil. A rotary knife is moved along the knife anvil and is mounted for rocking of the knife in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the knife to provide a positive shear point.

Sheet cutting and transporting system

Air spring components and the completed air spring are carried by an air spring unloader, an end cap holder and a tubular member loader of a shuttle mechanism along a track member adjacent an air spring assembly apparatus. The shuttle mechanism is movable to three positions controlled by stop members so that the air spring can be transferred to the unloader, the end cap can be inserted in a recess of the assembly apparatus and the tubular member positioned for processing by the assembly apparatus. Simultaneously with some of these operations the air spring is transferred to a conveyor and the end cap is transferred from a loading support to the end cap holder. The loader and unloader each have a vertically movable cradle with an overarm clamp for supporting and releasing the tubular member and air spring. The end cap holder has a resiliently mounted chuck on a sliding support for transferring an end cap from a recess in the loading support and inserting the end cap in a recess of the assembly apparatus.

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Wadsworth, OH, United States of America

Bruce Thomas Choate