Process and apparatus for building tyres for vehicle wheels
AssigneePirelli Tyre S.p.A.
InventorDavide Conti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to a process and an apparatus for cutting a continuous rubber-covered belt in a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels, wherein the apparatus comprises a cutting group, in turn comprising: a knife formed by a first half-part and a second half-part and movable along a cutting direction that is tilted with respect to a supply direction of a rubber-covered belt placed beneath the knife. The process comprises: lifting a lifting element placed below the continuous rubber-covered belt and at the cutting zone, until a portion of rubber-covered belt is lifted, and lowering the single first-half part of the knife, making it slide with respect to the second half-part.
Claims23
An apparatus for cutting a continuous rubber-covered belt in a process for building a tyre for vehicle wheels, comprising:
- a conveyor defining an abutment surface for a continuous rubber-covered belt extended along a supply direction;
- a lifting element extended along a direction transverse to the supply direction and vertically movable between a position that is lowered and a position that is lifted with respect to the abutment surface;
- and
- a cutting group, wherein the cutting group comprises:
- a knife movable along a cutting direction that is tilted with respect to the supply direction, said knife comprising a first half-part and a second half-part;
- movement devices configured for moving the knife between at least the following configurations:
- A. wherein the first half-part and the second half-part are side-by-side and mutually joined on a plane of symmetry of the knife orthogonal to the cutting direction, lying in a lifted position with respect to the conveyor and substantially centered with respect to said conveyor;
- B. wherein the first half-part is lowered toward the conveyor while the second half-part remains lifted;
- C. wherein the first half-part and the second half-part are side-by-side and mutually joined on said symmetry plane, lying in a lowered position toward the conveyor and centered with respect to the center of the conveyor;
- and
- D. wherein the first half-part and the second half-part are spaced from each other along said cutting direction and lie in the lowered position and at opposite edges of the conveyor;
- and
- wherein when the knife is in configuration B and the lifting element is in the lifted position, the rubber-covered belt forms a bump at a cutting zone and the first half-part is lowered in an offset position with respect to a center of the rubber-covered belt and the first half-part cuts the rubber-covered belt on a tilted portion of said bump;
- wherein the tilted portion is tilted with respect to a horizontal plane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.