Bridgestone Tire Company Limited

Shinji Kawaida

Kazunari Ikeda

Chiaki Ozawa

Yusaku Azuma

Yoshifumi Kitayama

Yoshio Okitsu

A strip deforming apparatus for deforming a flexible strip into a looped endless band, comprising a first conveyor assembly comprising an endless belt having an upper travelling path, a second conveyor assembly positioned below the first conveyor assembly and comprising an endless belt having an upper travelling path parallel with and spaced apart downwardly from the belt of the first conveyor assembly, and a third conveyor assembly positoned between the first and second conveyor assemblies and comprising a pair of conveyor rolls elongated in longitudinal directions of the apparatus and each rotatable about the center axis thereof. At least one of the first and second conveyor assemblies is movable toward and away from the other conveyor assembly and the conveyor rolls are spaced apart in parallel from each other in a lateral direction of the apparatus. The belt of the first conveyor assembly is driven to travel in a lateral direction of the apparatus and the belt of the second conveyor assembly is driven to travel in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the belt of the first conveyor assembly. The third conveyor assembly is driven to move vertically between the first and second conveyor assemblies and the conveyor rolls of the third conveyor assembly are driven to move toward and away from each other in a lateral direction of the apparatus.

Strip deforming apparatus

A tire molding apparatus having a hollow rotary shaft, a plurality of first drum segments are arranged substantially in the form of a cylinder around the front end portion of said rotary shaft. The second drum segments are paried with the first drum segments, thus forming a molding drum. A diameter changing mechanism is provided between the rotary shaft and the first and second drum segments for transmitting rotation of said rotary shaft to the first and second drum segments and additionally for moving the first and second drum segments radially. A plurality of threaded shafts, each having both end portions threaded in the opposite directions, are screwed respectively into the first and second drum segments thus paired. Rotation of the threaded shafts causes the first and second drum segments to move towards each other or to move away from each other to change the width of the molding drum. A drive shaft inserted into said rotary shaft allows the drive shaft to rotate separately from the rotary shaft and a supporting member is coupled to the front end of the rotary shaft in such a manner that the supporting member can turn together with the rotary shaft. A plurality of rotating shafts are supported on the supporting member with the rotating shafts being synchronously turned through an angle by the drive shaft. A plurality of transmission members transmit rotation of the rotating shafts to the threaded shafts, respectively.

Tire molding apparatus

A ply-turning device for use in tire-building is disclosed herein which is adapted to turnup a surplus portion of a carcass ply around a bead core in the manufacture of large size tires each having a pair of axially protruding side portions. The device comprises a plurality of ply-turning vanes being arranged concentrically to a first drum for the formation of a green case and circumferentially in the form of a cylinder at a collapsed position and being movable from the collapsed position to an opened position of a frustoconical shape in opposition to each axially protruding side edge portion of the drum by means of link means, a hydraulically driving means moving toward and away from the drum, and a retractably moving means for moving all the ply-turning vanes together with the link means.

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Shimonoseki, Japan

Shinji Kawaida