Method for producing webs for reinforcement ply of a tire by butt-joining straight-wire strips

A method for manufacturing webs that are intended to be involved in the makeup of a reinforcing ply for a tire, said method comprises the following steps:

• (i) a preparation step (a), during which a plurality of separate reels are prepared, each containing a strip, known as a “straight-thread strip”, which is formed of a plurality of continuous reinforcing threads that are embedded in at least one layer of rubber and extend parallel to one another in a longitudinal direction of said strip, each of said straight-thread strips having, perpendicularly to its reinforcing threads, a predetermined width known as the “frontal width”;
• then
• (ii) a butt-joining step (b), during which the straight-thread strips contained on said plurality of separate reels are unwound simultaneously, and said straight-thread strips are butt-joined in pairs in one and the same common longitudinal direction, so as to combine all of said straight-thread strips into a straight-thread ply, the reinforcing threads of which extend in the common longitudinal direction, and which has, perpendicularly to said reinforcing threads, a straight-thread ply frontal width that is greater than the individual frontal width of each straight-thread strip;
• then
• (iii) a cutting step (c), during which the straight-thread ply is inserted into a cutter that has a given maximum cutting capacity, known as the “cutter inlet width”, which corresponds to the largest frontal width of a straight-thread ply that can be inserted into the inlet of said cutter, then, by means of said cutter, the straight-thread ply is severed transversely, several times over, in a cutting direction that is secant to the direction of the reinforcing threads, so as to form portions of straight-thread ply known as “webs” of predetermined length;
• and wherein the frontal width of the straight-thread ply that is produced during the butt-joining step (b) and then inserted into the cutter during the cutting step (c) is equal to or greater than 50% of the cutter inlet width, whereas the widest frontal width of the straight-thread strips that are butt-joined to make said straight-thread ply is less than or equal to 50% of said cutter inlet width.