Bridgestone Corporation

Shigeru Tada

Yoshihiro Fukamachi

Koji Okuyama

Jun Nagano

An apparatus for building tires includes belt ply supply devices, first and second tread supply devices, first and second band forming drums rotatable and expansible and contractible, a taking-out device for alternately removing formed bands from the band forming drums, a first moving device for successively moving the first forming drum to the supply positions of the respective belt ply supply devices and the first tread supply device and a taking-out position of the taking-out device to successively wind belt plies and a tread around the first band forming drum and to remove a formed band from the first band forming drum, and second moving device for successively moving the second band forming drum to the supply positions of the respective belt ply supply devices and the second tread supply device and the taking-out position of the taking-out device to successively wind belt plies and a tread around the second band forming drum and to remove a formed band from the second band forming drum. The apparatus is operated so that the winding of the belt plies and the tread around one band forming drum and the removal of the band from the other band forming drum are performed simultaneously.

Tire building method and apparatus

The belt-shaped member supplying method and apparatus are used for cutting a long material paid out of a winding roll into a belt-shaped member of a predetermined length and supplying the belt-shaped member onto a winding drum by means of a transfer device. The method includes steps of modifying an extending direction of a front edge of a long material, whose initial front end portion has been cut off, into a desired direction by applying an external force upon a front end portion of the long material, holding the front end portion of the long material, paying out the long material of a predetermined length, cutting the paid long material to form a belt-shaped member, modifying an extending direction of a rear edge of the belt-shaped member into a desired direction by applying an external force upon a rear end portion of the belt-shaped member, holding the rear end portion of the belt-shaped member, transferring the entire belt-shaped member to a predetermined position, taking up any slack of the belt-shaped member, holding the belt-shaped member against a plate-shaped transfer device, and moving the plate-shaped transfer device together with the belt-shaped member to the winding drum.

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Tokyo, Japan

Shigeru Tada