Bridgestone Corporation

Massimo Mangia

Emiliano Sabetti

Renata Erica Morace

Toshiki Nagai

Luca Spiri

A winter tire tread band having: a number of longitudinal and transverse grooves defining a number of blocks, each projecting radially upwards from a base surface of the tread band; and a number of sipes formed in at least some of the blocks, and each of which extends radially inwards of a corresponding block, from a top surface forming the rolling surface of the tread band; each sipe has a wave pattern when the corresponding block is viewed in any one of three planes perpendicular to one another and defined by a longitudinal axis, a transverse axis, and a radial axis.

Winter tyre tread band with three-dimensional sipes

A curing station for curing a tread strip, having a flat curing mold; a gripper which grips a portion of the cured tread strip inside the curing mold; an actuating device which, at the end of the curing process, moves the gripper to gradually extract the cured tread strip from the curing mold; and a guide device which, as the cured tread strip is extracted, is positioned over the curing mold, and has a main roller, about which the extracted part of the cured tread strip winds, and a secondary roller smaller in diameter than, and positioned parallel to and alongside, the main roller.

Tread strip curing station

In the present invention, a carcass () of a pneumatic tire (A) comprises a toroidal-shaped carcass main body () and a carcass folded part () folded at a bead core (). A bead filler () is disposed outward of the bead core () in the tire radial direction. A rubber sheet () is disposed outward of the bead filler () in the tire radial direction. A space (DA) is formed between the tire radial direction outer side end () of the bead filler () and the tire radial direction inner side end () of the rubber sheet ().

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Basiglio, Italy

Massimo Mangia