The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Ikechukwu Joel Okoye

Ching-Chih Lee

Susan Lynn Ashton

Yang Wang

Alfonso Quijano

An expandable bladder for shaping a pneumatic tire to be mounted inside a tire curing press has a pair of opposing annular beads and an expansion portion located between the pair of annular beads. The expansion portion of the bladder has a central portion, shoulder portions, and sidewall portions. When the bladder is in a mounted but uninflated mode, the shoulder portions have a radius of curvature less than infinity. At a distance (x) from each end of the central portion, the bladder has an increased thickness in the shoulder and upper sidewall portions.

Tire curing bladder

An expandable, toroidal shaped bladder for use in a tire curing press has a pair of opposing annular beads and an expansion portion location between the pair of annular beads. The expansion portion of the bladder has a central portion, shoulder portions, and sidewall portions. When the bladder is in a mounted but uninflated mode, the shoulder portions of the bladder have a radius of curvature Rsignificantly less than a radius of curvature Rc of the central portion. The shoulder portions have a bubble or square-like configuration.

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Akron, OH, United States of America

Ikechukwu Joel Okoye