Off-drum Manufacture Of Tire Fabric Or Ply Patents (Class 156/906)
  • Patent number: 7811400
    Abstract: The invention resides in enabling high-mix low-volume production by a compact apparatus for a rubber sheet reinforced with a cord of a belt material for a tire, a body-ply material, etc. variously changing a cord material, cord arrangement angle, width of sheet, etc. and relates to manufacturing apparatus and method for a rubber sheet reinforced with a cord according to wrapping around a rubber coated cord group continuously on a surface of a pair of a cylindrical rotating body rotating in the same direction or on a surface of a cylindrical rotating body disposed small diameter roller groups of plural number on a side surface of a cylinder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2010
    Assignees: Fuji Seiko Co. Ltd., Fuji Shoji Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Sigemasa Takagi, Tosiaki Morisaki, Hikaru Yamada
  • Patent number: 7449083
    Abstract: A cord-reinforced tire structural member is formed by successively arranging strips of a predetermined width w of about ? in. and bonding together edge parts of adjacent strips 3. The number of cords included in each of the strips 3 is determined for the type of the cords. A tire structural member 4 is formed by successively arranging a number of the strips 3, equal to a tire size in inch in a direction parallel to the width of the strips and bonding together edge parts of adjacent strips 3. Thus, the number of cords to be included in the tire structural member 4 for one tire can be easily fixed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventor: Nobuyuki Suda
  • Patent number: 7445687
    Abstract: A tire component is fabricated by the steps of forming a narrow belt by arranging a plurality of cords and embedding the cords in a rubber layer, cutting the belt into strips of a predetermined length, and successively arranging and joining a necessary number of the strips such that edge parts of adjacent strips overlap each other with the outermost cord in the edge part of one of the adjacent strips overlying the outermost cord in the edge part of the other strip. The strips can be surely joined without requiring advanced techniques, without wasting materials and without increasing weight. Thus a desired annular tire component can be accurately formed in a desired circumference. The cords are arranged in each strip in a width equal to a length shorter than a length equal to an integral division of the predetermined circumference of a tire by a length corresponding to an increase in the diameter of the tire component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2008
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Suda, Akira Kubota
  • Patent number: 7426950
    Abstract: A radial pneumatic tire includes a body ply and two belts. Each of the body ply and the belts has ribbon pieces that are arranged along the circumferential direction of the tire. Each ribbon piece is joined with the adjacent ribbon pieces at the lateral sides. Each ribbon piece has parallel cords coated with rubber. The cords are arranged at a predetermined first cord interval. The cords at the joined ends of the adjacent ribbon pieces, or the cords with the joint in between, are arranged at a predetermined second cord interval. As a result, a tire having a high consistency and an improved weight balance is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2008
    Assignee: Fuji Seiko Co. Ltd.
    Inventor: Shigemasa Takagi
  • Patent number: 7353852
    Abstract: A carcass ply producing apparatus for producing a carcass ply constituting a carcass layer of a tire includes a supply head for supplying one or a plurality of ply cords, a head driving mechanism for reciprocating the supply head along a widthwise direction of the carcass ply, a sticking body having a sticking surface to which the ply cord supplied by the supply head is stuck, a sticking body driving mechanism for moving the sticking surface of the sticking body along a longitudinal direction of the carcass ply, and a moving amount controlling mechanism capable of controlling a moving amount of the sticking surface with respect to a moving amount of the supply head. When the ply cord is supplied along the widthwise direction of the carcass ply, a disposition angle of the ply cord with respect to the longitudinal direction can be changed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2008
    Assignee: Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsuru Hitotsuyanagi, Katsuhiro Nakatani
  • Patent number: 7314533
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a tire reinforcing material for achieving uniformity in stiffness at a joint of a ply of a cord fabric and improving dynamic uniformity of a tire shaped and vulcanized, the cord fabric constructed of warp cords arranged in parallel with each other and wefts arranged substantially orthogonally to the warp cords, includes: a topping step for coating with rubber the cord fabric having the wefts folded back at respective warp cords at opposing ends of the cord fabric to produce a ply; a cutting step for cutting the ply into ply pieces each having a predetermined length; a joint forming step for removing one to five cords at each of opposing ends of the ply to form a joint; and a joining step for joining together the joint of one of the ply pieces and the joint of another ply piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2008
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Gaku Tanaka
  • Patent number: 7235147
    Abstract: There is provided a tire structural member forming method capable of forming a structural member of a tire for a vehicle at a low cost, using a simple mechanism satisfactory in space efficiency and capable of setting a band-shaped member of a predetermined length on a forming drum in a high setting accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventor: Nobuyuki Suda
  • Patent number: 7073552
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a continuous preparation ply of the type used to make vehicle tires from preparation ply sections having nonmetallic cords. An infeed conveyor successively feeds the preparation ply sections to a butt splicing machine that joins the ends of the two preparation ply sections to form a butt joint. A gum strip applier receives the continuous preparation ply from an outfeed conveyor and applies a gum strip over the butt joint. A method is provided for forming a continuous preparation ply by first automatically forming a butt joint, and thereafter automatically placing a gum strip on the butt joint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2006
    Assignee: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
    Inventors: Christopher David Dyrlund, Donald Chester Kubinski, Jeffrey Ford Bull, Frank A. Edwards
  • Patent number: 7025104
    Abstract: A rubber-coated fabric 10 for a tire, obtained by rubber-coating a rattan blind woven stuff 14 in which wefts 11 and warps 12 made of tire cords 13 are woven into a rattan blind form. The wefts 11 have a break elongation of 4 to 30% and a break strength of 3 to 15 N.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2006
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Ikuji Ikeda
  • Patent number: 6849146
    Abstract: A carcass ply producing apparatus for producing a carcass ply constituting a carcass layer of a tire comprises a supply head for supplying one or a plurality of ply cords, a head driving mechanism for reciprocating the supply head along a widthwise direction of the carcass ply, a sticking body having a sticking surface to which the ply cord supplied by the supply head is stuck, a sticking body driving mechanism for moving the sticking surface of the sticking body along a longitudinal direction of the carcass ply, and a moving amount controlling mechanism capable of controlling a moving amount of the sticking surface with respect to a moving amount of the supply head, wherein when the ply cord is supplied along the widthwise direction of the carcass ply, a disposition angle of the ply cord with respect to the longitudinal direction can be changed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2005
    Assignee: Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsuru Hitotsuyanagi, Katsuhiro Nakatani, Kenji Nakakura, Kietsu Maeda
  • Publication number: 20040118513
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a continuous preparation ply of the type used to make vehicle tires from preparation ply sections having nonmetallic cords. An infeed conveyor successively feeds the preparation ply sections to a butt splicing machine that joins the ends of the two preparation ply sections to form a butt joint. A gum strip applier receives the continuous preparation ply from an outfeed conveyor and applies a gum strip over the butt joint. A method is provided for forming a continuous preparation ply by first automatically forming a butt joint, and thereafter automatically placing a gum strip on the butt joint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2002
    Publication date: June 24, 2004
    Applicants: The Steelastic Company LLC, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
    Inventors: Christopher David Dyrlund, Donald Chester Kubinski, Jeffrey Ford Bull, Frank A. Edwards
  • Patent number: 6616783
    Abstract: A tire carcass is produced by a method in which a narrow carcass ply member including a plurality of cords coated by, and embedded in a rubber material is extruded from an extruder, and an inner liner member is simultaneously extruded from the extruder integrally with the carcass ply member. A narrow band-shaped laminated body is thereby efficiently formed, in which the inner liner member is integral with the carcass ply member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2003
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Senbokuya, Nobuyuki Suda
  • Publication number: 20030051794
    Abstract: A tire structural member manufacturing method forms a tire structural member from a narrow continuous strip by small, inexpensive equipment capable of being directly combined with a tire structural member forming machine, and a tire structural member manufacturing system carries out the tire structural member manufacturing method. The tire structural member manufacturing methods consists of a small number of steps and can be carried out by an efficient, simple, inexpensive tire structural member manufacturing system. The tire structural member manufacturing method forms a tire structural member by the steps of continuously forming a continuous strip of a width including that of a joint lap, cutting the continuous strip into successive cut strips of a length substantially equal to the section width of a tire, and successively laying and joining a predetermined number of the cut strips.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2002
    Publication date: March 20, 2003
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Suda, Takashi Senbokuya, Kenji Ogawa
  • Publication number: 20030051793
    Abstract: A cutting segment for a False Drum (100,200,300) having a cylindrical outer surface (202,306) comprises a slot (204,224,330) extending generally axially from end-to-end of the cylindrical surface, a door panel (322) having substantially the same size and shape as the slot; and a mechanism (320) for opening and closing the door panel. The mechanism for selectively opening and closing the door panel includes an elongate lever (324), one end of which supports the door panel, the other end of which is pivotally attached to a stationary portion (point) of the drum, a spring (326) extending between an inner surface of the door panel and another stationary portion of the drum; and an inflatable pneumatic tube (328) disposed between the lever and yet another stationary portion of the drum. There is thereby provided a method of supporting material overlying the cutting slot of the False Drum, by opening the slot when cutting the material, and closing the slot when not cutting the material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2001
    Publication date: March 20, 2003
    Inventors: Marie-Laure Benedicte Josette Cavalotti, John Kolbjoern Roedseth
  • Patent number: 5709760
    Abstract: A thin gauge, fine diameter steel cord reinforced tire ply fabric 2 is lap spliced. The steel cord 1 has one or more filaments 9, and each filament has a percent elongation of over 2.5% and tensile strength of at least (-2000D+4400 MPa).times.95%, where D is the diameter of the filament in millimeters. For passenger and lightly loaded trucks the fabric 2 is manufactured using a preferred cord 1 which is a 1+5.times.0.18 mm cord spaced 14 ends per inch, and for heavier loaded vehicles such as light trucks load rated E or greater the number of cords 1 is increased to 28 ends per inch. The fabric 2 has a gauge thickness g in the range of the cord diameter C+0.22 mm to C+1.25 mm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 1995
    Date of Patent: January 20, 1998
    Assignee: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
    Inventors: Amit Prakash, William James Head, Gary Edwin Tubb, Terry Kenneth Woods
  • Patent number: 5609705
    Abstract: A process and apparatus for arranging cut lengths of reinforcement cords in parallel on a moving rubber surface by feeding the cord into successive cord receiving receptacles on a rotor, cutting predetermined lengths of the cords introduced into the receptacles, removing the cords from the receptacles by a comb which intermeshes with the rotor and advancing and guiding the parallel cords onto the moving rubber surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 11, 1997
    Assignee: Sedepro
    Inventors: Daniel Laurent, Miguel Torres Castellano
  • Patent number: 4411724
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1982
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1983
    Assignee: Bridgestone Tire Company Limited
    Inventors: Taizo Ito, Yusuke Araki