Automatic sidewall servicer

Abstract

A servicer is described for supplying two cut-to-length strips of sidewall simultaneously to a tire building drum without handling by the tire builder, thereby eliminating any stretching of the sidewalls or distortion of the shape of the sidewalls which can happen when the sidewalls are physically handled by the tire builder. The servicer employs twin cassettes which contain two spools of spirally wound sidewall which is separated by a comparatively rigid, U-shaped protective liner. The servicer has an indexing table for moving twin cassettes from a standby position to a let-off position to a take-up position and, lastly, to a removal position where the cassette is removed for rewinding with new material. A robotic grabber is provided to engage the leading edges of liners on a let-off cassette and move them to the rear of the servicer where the operator threads the liners onto a take-up cassette and the sidewall onto a pair of overhead belt-type conveyors for transportation to a discharge tray which is mounted on the front end of the servicer for rotation to and from an adjacent tire building drum. The discharge tray carries a mechanism for cutting the sidewall, to length, and a device for finally aligning the cut sidewall for passage from the tray onto the sidewall area of an unvulcanized tire carcass being built on the drum.