Bridgestone/firestone, Inc.

Other

Gaetan Arbour

Gerardo P Elia

Ivan Z Podobnik

Leonard R Holm

Gilles Lavallee

Margaret N Elia

An extruder head made up of several segments including a first section made up of at least two plates bolted together. At least one plate is hingeably mounted to another plate in the first section to provide access to an extrudate passage defined by the plates. Downstream of the first section is a pair of mating blocks bolted to the first section further defining the extrudate passage. Inserts of hardened steel are provided and held by the plates and blocks forming the extruder head and the inserts define parts of the extrudate passage. A cooling liquid chamber is provided in at least one insert to cool the wall forming the passage. Although the passage is continuously restricted in the downstream direction, to increase the pressure of the elastomeric melt, intermittent portions of a slightly greater cross-sectional area are provided to allow expansion and thus intermittent lower pressure of the melt as it passes through the passage.

Extruder head for elastomeric material

An extruder for elastomeric material has an axial screw in an extruder chamber defined by a cylindrical housing. Two radial planes of vented kneading pins are provided upstream of the extruder housing succeeded by spaced-apart planes of non-vented kneading pins. Each vented kneading pin includes small apertures at the inlet end of the pin which communicate with a stepped bore of gradually increasing crosssectional area from the inlet to the outlet thereof whereby gases within the elastomeric material can be vented through the apertures communicating with the stepped bore to the exterior of the extruder housing.

Vented kneading pin for extruder

A shuttle head which can be translated along a longitudinal axis between an assembly table and a lead-in table, wherein the shuttle head has a vacuum pick-up for picking up a ribbon of uncured elastomeric material. The shuttle head includes a pick-up plate having a plurality of apertures communicating with the source of vacuum. A cutting knife is provided on the edge of the assembly table for cutting the strip of ribbon, and the assembly table and cutting knife can be adjusted angularly with respect to the lead-in table. The pick-up plate has an inverted V-shaped edge at the leading end of the shuttle head immediately adjacent the cutting knife, such as to allow a variety of angular displacements of the assembly table relative to the lead-in table without having to change the pick-up plate.

Apparatus for making a reinforced fabric from a ribbon of uncured

An extrusion head for forming a two-part laminated sheet from a single tubular-shaped extrudate stream emitted from the outlet of a single extruder. The stream flow into an enclosed chamber which diverges the stream in width and converges it in thickness. This stream is split by a wedge divider insert which extends across the outlet end of the chamber into multiple parallel, horizontal streams. Each stream then passes through a breaker plate or screen to remove any foreign particles present in the extrudate. A converging preform die in combination with a triangular preform insert converges the upper and lower streams into a single stream at a final die producing the unitary two-part laminate, preferably symmetrical about the horizontal plane. The extrudate preferably is an elastomer and the resulting laminated sheet is used as a tire innerliner. The combined two streams reduces the chance of a discontinuity in one stream lining up with a discontinuity in another stream thereby producing a laminate of high integrity.

Growing community of inventors

Joliette, Canada

Gaetan Arbour