Abstract A tire building machine comprising an expansible drum on which tires are built. The drum includes a pair of sets of segments movable radially of the drum axis and which are covered with a rubber sleeve and are disposed between two sets of fingers which are also movable radially of the drum axis. The fingers are designed to hold a pair of wire beads concentrically of the longitudinal axis of the building drum in equidistant spaced relation from the centerplane of the drum. The segments are movable radially outwardly of the drum to form shoulders in the carcass plies on which the beads may be seated, after which the turn-up of the plies and tie-in of the wire beads are made, and tread and sidewall are applied to complete the uncured tire. The fingers and segments have rigid material engaging surfaces. The center section of the building drum intermediate the segments has a substantially rigid material supporting surface and, together with the segments, provides a firm working surface for building the tire. The foregoing abstract is not to be taken as limiting the invention of this application, and in order to understand the full nature and extent of the technical disclosure of this application, reference must be made to the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description.
A method of building a pneumatic tire utilizing a tire building drum having at each end thereof means for radially expanding the ends of the drum and including a generally annular surface disposed concentrically of the drum and facing generally axially outwardly of the drum, disposing at least one layer of tire building material about the drum with the ends of at least one layer of said material about the drum with the ends of at least one layer of said material extending beyond the drum at each end thereof, locating a tire bead concentrically of the drum at each end thereof in radially outwardly spaced relation to said tire building material and spaced axially outwardly of said annular surface a distance no greater than the thickness of the tire building material disposed between the bead and the end of the drum, clampingly engaging with the inner periphery of the bead the tire material in registry with the inner periphery of the bead, and subsequently clampingly engaging said annular surfaces and the respectively associated beads by radially expanding each end of the drum to a diameter at least equal to the outer diameter of the next adjacent bead while at the same time axially contracting the drum and simultaneously moving said beads toward each other a distance equal to the axial contraction of said drum.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
225 words
A method of building a pneumatic tire utilizing a tire building drum having at each end thereof means for radially expanding the ends of the drum and including a generally annular surface disposed concentrically of the drum and facing generally axially outwardly of the drum, disposing at least one layer of tire building material about the drum with the ends of at least one layer of said material about the drum with the ends of at least one layer of said material extending beyond the drum at each end thereof, locating a tire bead concentrically of the drum at each end thereof in radially outwardly spaced relation to said tire building material and spaced axially outwardly of said annular surface a distance no greater than the thickness of the tire building material disposed between the bead and the end of the drum, clampingly engaging with the inner periphery of the bead the tire material in registry with the inner periphery of the bead, and subsequently clampingly engaging said annular surfaces and the respectively associated beads by radially expanding each end of the drum to a diameter at least equal to the outer diameter of the next adjacent bead while at the same time axially contracting the drum and simultaneously moving said beads toward each other a distance equal to the axial contraction of said drum.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
40 words
A method of building a pneumatic tire as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bead is spaced axially outwardly of the drum a distance less than the thickness of the tire building material disposed between the bead and the drum.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method of building a pneumatic tire as claimed in claim 2, further comprising turning about the beads the portions of the tire building material extending beyond the beads while the tire building material remains clampingly engaged with the inner periphery of the beads.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
40 words
A method of building a pneumatic tire as claimed in claim 3, further comprising subsequently forming said tire building material into a generally toroidal shape while maintaining said tire building material clampingly engaged with the inner periphery of the beads.