Apparatus and method for assembling, disassembling and storing a tire building core

• Main Authors: LUNDELL DENNIS ALAN, CURRIE WILLIAM DUDLEY, HENTHORNE DAVID ALAN, DOMBROSKY MARY BETH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 14.02.2012
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS B29C, RELATING TO PARTICULARARTICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PRODUCING PARTICULAR ARTICLES FROM PLASTICS OR FROM SUBSTANCESIN A PLASTIC STATE; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

Apparatus and method for disassembling, assembling and using a toroidally shaped segmented core configured to carry a tire during a curing process includes: a transport mechanism operatively moving the segmented core between a plurality of stations in a tire curing line; one or more segment removal devices for removing a plurality of core segments individually from a cured tire and from around a core central axis and placing the core segments individually in respective spaced apart storage locations; and one or more core segment assembly devices for removing the core segments individually from the storage locations and placing the core segments individually in respective core locations to form an assembled segmented core. The apparatus and method operatively sequences to place and remove differently structured core segments individually into and from the assembled core configuration.