Toyo Tire Rubber Co., Ltd.

Tetsuo Tatara

Osamu Fujiki

Tomoyuki Takatsuka

Hirokatsu Mizukusa

Shigeo Kudo

Masami Tanabe

Taizo Yamamoto

Yu Hatayama

Mitsuru Hitotsuyanagi

Toshiyuki Tanaka

Yasuhide Ohtake

The invention can surely accomplish lamination without the generation of voids in building a tire constructed to comprise a plurality of rubber members for a tire when a ribbon-shaped rubber strip (R) is spirally wound and laminated, and uses holding rolls () and two sets of stitching rolls (), () arranged in parallel with a center of a rubber strip width (W) therebetween to enable performing of an independent pressing motion, such that the rubber strip (R) is pressed and bonded by the holding rolls () in a position, in which the rubber strip (R) is wound, and the stitching roll () or () positioned fore in an advancing direction of traverse movement, out of the two sets, is caused to perform a pressing motion in a regional part just after the press whereby a fore part of the rubber strip in the advancing direction is pressed and bonded.

Tire building method and rubber strip bonding apparatus

The invention enables a built band (B) in a cylindrical shape to be easily and surely detached by peeling off the band (B) from being brought into close contact with a drum peripheral face in an expandable and contractable band building drum (D) constituted by two kinds of pluralities of segments () () arranged alternately in a peripheral direction, a diameter of one segment () of two kinds of segments () () is contracted, thereafter, the segment () is temporarily returned to a diameter expanding state, a diameter of other segment () is contracted, thereby, the band (B) is peeled off from being brought into close contact with the drum outer peripheral face, thereafter, the band (B) is detached by bringing both of the segments () () into a diameter contracting state.

Band detaching method in band building drum and band building drum

The invention enables a built band (B) in a cylindrical shape to be easily and surely detached by peeling off the band (B) from being brought into close contact with a drum peripheral face in an expandable and contractable band building drum (D) constituted by two kinds of pluralities of segments ()() arranged alternately in a peripheral direction, a diameter of one segment () of two kinds of segments ()() is contracted, thereafter, the segment () is temporarily returned to a diameter expanding state, a diameter of other segment () is contracted, thereby, the band (B) is peeled off from being brought into close contact with the drum outer peripheral face, thereafter, the band (B) is detached by bringing both of the segments ()() into a diameter contracting state.

An object is to reduce a cycle time for fabricating a low rolling resistance pneumatic tire and to provide the same pneumatic tire. As a means therefor, in building a tread portion by winding spirally a rubber strip material whose cross section is divided into a first region made of a conductive rubber and a second region made of a non-conductive rubber in a tire circumferential direction in a partially overlapping fashion by the use of an extruding machine which extrudes continuously the rubber strip material, an area ratio of the first region relative to the cross section of the rubber strip material is made to change in a tire width direction.

Method of fabricating pneumatic tire and pneumatic tire

A tire building method and a tire building facility according to the invention attains reduction of an installation space of the tire building facility and substantially equal building cycles for respective building stages to increase building efficiency and facilitate arrangement switching. For attaining these, a step for building a cylindrical carcass band, a subsequent step for building a cylindrical green case, a step for building a cylindrical belt and tread band, a step for combining the green case and the belt and tread band to build the final shape are divided as first through fourth building stages (S) through (S) having individual building drums (D) through (D) corresponding to the respective steps. Formations in the respective building stages (S) through (S) are simultaneously performed by shifting the carcass band built in the first building stage (S) to the second building stage (S), the green case built in the second building stage (S) to the fourth building stage (S), and the belt and tread band built in the third building stage (S) to the fourth building stage (S).

Tire building method and building facility

The invention can firmly and easily remove a finely divided weft piece without leaving the weft piece by constituting a method and an apparatus of removing weft from a cord fabric for a topping sheet in a calender line for topping rubber on a number of pieces of aligned cords by a calender roll. In the midst of transferring a cord fabric transferred to a calender apparatus, weft is finely divided by passing the cord fabric through weft dividing means, thereafter, a plurality of blades arranged movably in a width direction on an upper face side of the cord fabric are reciprocally moved in the width direction over an entire width thereof to be brought into contact with the cord fabric, and the divided weft piece is wiped off to remove by respectively striking respective cords of the cord fabric by the respective blades.

Method and apparatus of removing weft of cord fabric for topping sheet

The invention can perform building in a process for building a carcass band or a belt/tread band of a tire, in which two drum transfer support bases () supporting building drums (D) are alternately shifted to first and second transfer sections (), (), in which predetermined building positions are set, and a rotational transfer device (A) for rotational transfer of the drum transfer support bases () is mounted between the first transfer section () and the second transfer section ().

Tire building method and rotational transfer device for drum transfer support base in tire building process

When forming a rubber member which is made up of a combination of a plurality of rubber compounds by winding spirally a ribbon-shaped unvulcanized rubber strip material in an overlapping fashion, the number of times of winding is reduced so as to shorten a fabrication cycle time of the rubber member to thereby increase the productivity thereof. As a means therefore, a rubber strip material whose cross section is divided into two or more regions which are made up of different rubber compounds is wound spirally on to a drum in an overlapping fashion so as to build a green tire or a tire rubber member.

Rubber strip material

The invention can perform building in a process for building a carcass band or a belt/tread band of a tire, in which two drum transfer support bases () supporting building drums (D) are alternately shifted to first and second transfer sections (), (), in which predetermined building positions are set, a rotational transfer device (A) for rotational transfer of the drum transfer support bases () is mounted between the first transfer section () and the second transfer section (), which are arranged to get out of position relative to and in parallel to each other, and two pairs of rotational transfer rails (), () are juxtaposed on a rotating table (), which has an axis (O) intermediate between the both transfer sections, to be positioned corresponding to extensions of travel rails (), () arranged on the first and second transfer sections (), () to receive two drum transfer support bases (), (), which enter from portions of the rails (), () of the both transfer sections (), (), to have the same rotationally transferring to the other transfer section () or () at the same time.

The invention provides a radial tire, in which a single rubber coated cord (C) is used to form a carcass layer () without generating any material jointed portion and which is favorable in weight balance, external appearance, and quality and excellent in productivity, the carcass layer () is formed from at least one cord row layer (A) formed by cutting a rubber coated cord (C), which is formed to make an external shape of a cross section elliptical, one by one, to align and bond the same in a tire circumference direction, and the cord row layer is jointed only in a single location on a tire circumference to generate little overlap.

Radial tire and method of manufacturing the same

There is provided a belt member producing method including forming a strip pieceof a predetermined width W by cutting a strip materialincluding a plurality of reinforcement cordsto a regular size, conveying the strip pieceto a transfer conveyorin such a manner that cut sidesof the strip pieceare in parallel with a traveling direction B of the transfer conveyorand overlapping continuously an integral number Nof strip pieceson each other on the transfer conveyorin such a manner that the strip piecesare overlapped on each other by an overlapping amount P along non-cut sidesthereof, so as to produce a belt memberhaving a desired length equal to a predetermined length L of a belt layer of a pneumatic radial tire, the belt member producing method being characterized by including selecting a desired cutting angle &#x3b8;relative to a traveling direction A of the strip materialwhen the strip materialis cut to the regular size, calculating a number Nof strip piecesnecessary for forming a belt memberby the following equation (1), rounding up the number Nso calculated to the integral number Nand calculating an overlapping amount P of the strip piecesby the following equation (2), so as to determine the integral number Nand the overlapping amount P.=()&#xd7;sin &#x3b8;&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)&#xd7;sin &#x3b8;&#x2003;&#x2003;(2)

Belt member producing method

The invention is made to accelerate extrusion forming by reducing a friction between a forming rubber formed to cover a cord or formed to extrude and an inner wall face of a path at inside of a die as the die used for an extrusion forming head, a portion of an upstream portion of a rubber forming path () reaching a front end outlet () from a rubber storing portion () at inside of a die main bodyis provided with a fluid sending inlet () for sending a fluid between an outer peripheral face of a forming rubber (R) at inside of the rubber forming path () and an inner wall face of the path and a resistance of passing the forming rubber (R) on a downstream side is reduced by the fluid.

Die for extrusion forming head

The invention can efficiently provide a carcass member constituting a carcass layer of a radial tire, particularly, a carcass member a direction of a cord of which constitutes an angle of substantially 90&#xb0; relative to a tire circumferential direction, and can easily adjust a length in accordance with a size, one piece of a cord (C) is continuously passed through a rubber coating die () to coat rubber on the cord, the rubber coated cord (C) is shaped such that a sectional outer shape thereof constitutes an elliptical shape, the rubber coated cord (C) is wound around an aligning drum () while adjusting a direction of the elliptical shape by way of an aligning guide () to bond without producing a gap to form a cylinder-like member (A), thereafter, the cylinder-like member (A) is cut in a direction in parallel with the drum axis center to constitute a sheet-like shape.

Method and apparatus of fabricating carcass member for tire

The invention can firmly and easily remove a finely divided weft piece without leaving the weft piece by constituting a method and an apparatus of removing weft from a cord fabric for a topping sheet in a calender line for topping rubber on a number of pieces of aligned cords by a calender roll. In the midst of transferring a cord fabric (F) transferred to a calender apparatus, weft is finely divided by passing the cord fabric (F) through weft dividing means, thereafter, a plurality of blades () arranged movably in a width direction on an upper face side of the cord fabric (F) are reciprocally moved in the width direction over an entire width thereof to be brought into contact with the cord fabric (F), and the divided weft piece (W) is wiped off to remove by respectively striking respective cords (C) of the cord fabric (F) by the respective blades ().

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Osaka, Japan

Tetsuo Tatara