Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited

Tadahiko Tamura

Masao Takami

Satoru Kinuhata

Eiji Shibata

Seiki Yamada

Masakazu Arita

Toru Nagahata

Eigi Shibata

Tire grooving apparatus

A method and an apparatus for compensating a radial deflection and/or a lateral deflection in tire grooving wherein a cutter movement is controlled by a plurality of operating shafts and a desired pattern grooves are formed in a tire surface, wherein the radial deflection in a direction along diameter of the tire, which is supported by a tire supporting shaft, and/or the lateral deflection in a direction along diameter of the tire are detected before or during tire grooving, an a radially driving member, which moves a cutter in a direction along diameter of the tire, and/or a laterally driving member, which moves a cutter in a direction along width of the tire, are actuated in accordance with a reference program, and concurrently a movement of the radially driving member and/or a movement of the laterally driving member are adjusted in accordance with a correction program based on the detected deflection value in order to follow the radial deflection and/or the lateral deflection. The method and apparatus forms a groove having a desired constant depth and a desired constant width at a desired constant position from the tire tread center and simplifies the structure of the program to allow a smaller size of the apparatus.

Method for correcting type deflection in tire grooving and apparatus

A cutter supporting unit for a tire grooving apparatus having a tire supporting shaft and a cutter supporting unit which brings a cutter in or out of contact with a tire held by the tire supporting shaft, wherein that said cutter supporting unit includes a cutter holder which holds the cutter and a cutter supporting frame to which the cutter holder is releasably connected. The unit largely reduces time and labor necessary for the cutter replacement and improves tire grooving productivity.

Cutter supporting unit for tire grooving apparatus

Method for correcting tire deflection in tire grooving and apparatus

An apparatus for grooving a tire which comprises a tire support shaft for rotatably supporting the tire and a support frame having a cutter device mounted thereon. The cutter device and the tire support shaft are movable relative to each other in a transverse direction parallel with the tire support shaft and perpendicular to the tire support shaft. The cutter is supportable at a desired angle with the tread surface, and the cutter blade is rotatable in the direction of the groove to be formed. The cutting position of the cutter is on the axis of an arm support shaft and is controllable by the combination of orthogonal coordinates to simplify the control program for the apparatus. When required, the cutter is swingably attached to a cutter holder to enable the cutter to cut the tire rubber and to be released therefrom with ease without the need to heat the cutter. When the cutter is provided with a heater, the cutter heating temperature and operation speed are so controlled that the temperature of rubber around the cutter is maintained at a predetermined constant level.

Apparatus for grooving tires

Growing community of inventors

Kitakyushu, Japan

Tadahiko Tamura