Bridgestone Corporation

Bridgestone Tire Company Limited

Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone

Yusuke Araki

Makito Mukae

Tsuginori Oshima

Taizo Ito

A tire manufacturing apparatus and a tire manufacturing method capable of efficiently manufacturing quality tire by uniformly expanding the diameter of an annular tread and mounting the tread on a base tire without axial deviation. The tire manufacturing apparatus for mounting an annular tread on the outer periphery of a base tire includes a drum for securing a base tire, a plurality of holding means each having a holding surface for holding the outer periphery of the annular tread, a moving means for moving the holding means along the central axis of the base tire, a sealing means for sealing the opening on one side of the annular tread, and an air supplying means for supplying air into a space surrounded by the annular tread and the sealing means.

Tire manufacturing apparatus and tire manufacturing method

A tire manufacturing apparatus for precisely mounting an annular tread on a base tire with the width center of the base tire aligned with the width center of the annular tread. The tire manufacturing apparatus includes a drum to which a base tire is secured, a holding means for holding the annular tread by its inner periphery, and a moving means for having the holding means approach or separate from the drum along the rotation axis of the drum. The holding means is provided with a conveying means to have the annular tread, which is held by the holding means, approach or separate from the base tire. And the conveying means mounts the annular tread on the outer periphery of the base tire by conveying the annular tread in the approaching direction at a conveyance speed which is equal to the travel speed of the holding means in the separating direction.

Tire manufacturing apparatus

A tire manufacturing apparatus capable of precisely mounting an annular tread on a base tire with the width center of the base tire aligned accurately with the width center of the annular tread without causing the tread to wave or the tread edges to turn up or deform. The tire manufacturing apparatus includes a drum to which a base tire is secured, a plurality of holding means extending in the width direction of the annular tread for holding the inner periphery of the annular tread, and a detecting means for detecting the amount of displacement of the annular tread relative to a predetermined position of each of the holding means. The holding means are each provided with a conveying means for moving the position of the annular tread held by the holding means. Each of the conveying means positions the annular tread at the predetermined position of each of the holding means based on the amount of displacement detected by the detecting means.

A method of applying a looped rubber member on a tire building drum having grooves formed in the periphery thereof, comprising the steps of inserting at least two pairs of retaining members into the looped rubber member in a first direction; retaining the looped rubber member on the retaining members; rotating the retaining members with the looped rubber member retained thereon toward the tire building drum to a second direction which is opposite to the first direction; forming the looped rubber member on the retaining members into a substantially circular configuration; transferring the substantially circular looped rubber member toward the tire building drum into a first position in which the center of the looped rubber member is in axial alignment with the longitudinal center axis of the tire building drum; further transferring the substantially circular looped rubber member from the first position into a second position in which the looped rubber member surrounds the periphery of the tire building drum radially contracted; receiving the retaining members in the grooves in the periphery of the tire building drum; applying the substantially circular looped rubber member on the periphery of collapsible tire building drum; and withdrawing the retaining members from the grooves in the periphery of the tire building drum.

Method of and apparatus for applying looped rubber member onto tire

A radial tire forming blank supply apparatus for use in a radial tire building machine comprises a column rotatable about a vertical axis spaced from the rotating axis of a forming drum, a pair of cantilever beams one above the other provided on the column, and two pairs of bar-like clamps. Each the pair of bar-like clamps are secured to each the cantilever beam and movable radially toward and away from each other to clamp and release a green case therebetween. According to the invention the main carriage serving to fit a green case onto the forming drum does not interfere with any process steps to which the green case on the forming drum is subjected, during the interval from the time when the main carriage leaves the forming drum to the time when the main carriage is ready for receiving the next green case, so that the loss of time in transferring and handling the green case is completely eliminated in spite that the guide rails for the main carriage are commonly used for supplying tread bands, thereby remarkably improving the efficiency in production process of radial tires and contributing to saving space occupied by tire producing installations.

Radial tire forming blank supply apparatus

A method of and an apparatus for separating a bead core from a plurality of looped bead cores arranged in the form of a tube with the adjacent bead cores endwise sticking to one another, wherein the tube of the bead cores are wrapped round a radially collapsible feed drum whereupon the bead feed unit is driven for movement from a first predetermined position to a second predetermined position in a first predetermined direction parallel with the center axis of the feed drum. The tube of the bead cores is then pressed on the feed drum toward one axial end of the feed drum until the foremost one of the bead cores on the feed drum departs from the feed drum. The foremost one of the bead cores is on a bead receiver unit positioned close to the axial end of the feed drum and thereafter the bead receiver unit is driven for movement in a second predetermined direction perpendicular to the first direction for thereby forcing the bead core received on the bead receiver unit to separate from the tube of the remaining bead cores on the feed drum.

Method of and apparatus for transferring bead cores

A method of forming a closed loop of a flexible strip, comprising conveying an elongated flexible strip in a predetermined longitudinal direction to a predetermined position on a predetermined conveyance plane, detecting the locations and geometry of end portions of the strip while the strip is being conveyed toward the predetermined position thereof, driving two carrier members to move into positions determined with respect to the end portions of the strip in the predetermined position on the conveyance plane on the basis of the detected locations and geometry of the end portions of the strip, transferring the end portions of the strip to the carrier members, respectively, from the conveyance plane, further driving the carrier members to move along paths determined to cause the strip to be gradually deformed into loop form so that the end portions of the strip have respective edges slightly spaced apart in parallel from each other, correcting the positions of the carrier members with respect to each other while the strip is being deformed into the loop form, and joining the end portions of the strip together along the edges thereof after the strip is deformed into the loop form.

Method of forming a closed loop of a flexible strip

Herein disclosed is a splicing apparatus for splicing together the leading end face of one of cord ply segments and the trailing end face of another cord ply segment positioned in front of one of the cord ply segments. The apparatus comprises a first conveyor having a first surface, a second conveyor fixed with respect to the first conveyor and having a second surface spaced apart from and in face-to-face relationship to the first surface of the first conveyor and for conveying the cord ply segments on the second surface thereof in a second conveyance direction substantially in parallel with the first conveyance direction of the first conveyor, and transfer members for transferring each of the cord ply segments on the first surface of the first conveyor to the second surface of the second conveyor. The cord ply segments are transferred from the first conveyor to the second conveyor to splice together the leading end face of one of cord ply segments and the trailing end face of another cord ply segment positioned in front of one of the cord ply segments already transferred on the second conveyor.

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Kodaira, Japan

Yusuke Araki