The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Michael James Buckley

Paul Bryan Maxwell

Brian David Digman

Hans-Peter Guevara Leocadio

Nicholas Thomas Schoeppner

Christopher Byron Davis

Michael James Hogan

Ryan Eugene Zimmerman

Mark Alan Csepe

David Mark Frantz

William Frederick Niessen

Michael Liam McBride

Casey McCutcheon Brooke

Justin Barker

Jason Michael Balsar

Jared Bradley Umstot

Tire

An annular mold for curing an annular ring tread is disclosed. The annular mold has a plurality of radially movable and outwardly expandable inner segments for forming the inner surface of the tread and a plurality of radially movable and inwardly contracting outer segments for forming the tread outer surface. The radially outer segments are parallelograms. Each outer segment when in a closed molding position spans across one full radially inner segment and portions of two adjacent inner segments. The radially outer segments have inclined laterally extending edges relative to the axial direction of the mold while the circumferentially extending axially outer edges are perpendicular to the axial direction of the mold. The inclined laterally extending edges are inclined at least 5&#xb0;, preferably about 10&#xb0; relative to the axial direction. In the preferred embodiment the mold has 12 outer segments, each segment being of an arc length of about 30&#xb0;.

Mold and method of molding annular tread

Growing community of inventors

Kent, OH, United States of America

Michael James Buckley