Process and apparatus for manufacturing a reinforcing structure of a tyre for vehicle wheels

A process for manufacturing a reinforcing structure of a tyre for a vehicle wheel, on a toroidal support comprising an outer surface, by means of at least one laying element, said laying element comprising a laying surface adapted to act on a portion of a rubberized strip-like element for laying the rubberized strip-like element on the outer surface of the toroidal support, wherein:

• said reinforcing structure comprises at least first and second radially superimposed reinforcing layers,
• each reinforcing layer comprises reinforcing thread-like elements, and
• said reinforcing layers are arranged so that the reinforcing thread-like elements of the first reinforcing layer are oriented obliquely with respect to an equatorial plane of the tyre, and the reinforcing thread-like elements of the second reinforcing layer also have an oblique orientation, crossed with respect to the thread-like elements of the first layer;
• comprising:
• a) providing at least one rubberized strip-like element capable of being laid on the outer surface of the toroidal support, said at least one rubberized strip-like element comprising said reinforcing thread-like elements arranged along a longitudinal direction of a same rubberized strip-like element;
• b) predetermining for each rubberized strip-like element to be laid at least one laying path on the outer surface of the toroidal support, said laying path being defined by a sequence of predetermined points selected on as many positioning polygons, said laying path being associated with a positioning sequence of said positioning polygons, the positioning of each positioning polygon in said sequence being defined by an orientation of said positioning polygon with respect to a frame of reference and by a coordinate triad of the predetermined point thereof in said frame of reference;
• c) moving said at least one laying element together with the rubberized strip-like element to be laid toward the toroidal support until at least a portion of the rubberized strip-like element to be laid contacts the outer surface of the toroidal support;
• d) laying said rubberized strip-like element by moving said laying element along the outer surface of the toroidal support, controlling the orientation and position of said laying element, so as to substantially match a sequence of positions and orientations of said laying surface of the laying element with said positioning sequence of said positioning polygons associated with said predetermined laying path;
• e) rotating the toroidal support by a predetermined angular pitch, for making said toroidal support ready for laying a new rubberized strip-like element;
• and
• f) repeating steps a) to e) for the new strip-like element.

An apparatus for manufacturing a reinforcing structure of a tyre for a vehicle wheel,

• said tyre for a vehicle wheel comprising an equatorial plane,
• said reinforcing structure comprising at least a first and a second radially superimposed reinforcing layers obtained from a plurality of rubberized strip-like elements,
• each reinforcing layer comprising reinforcing thread-like elements,
• said layers being arranged so that the reinforcing thread-like elements of the first reinforcing layer are oriented obliquely with respect to the equatorial plane of the tyre, and the reinforcing thread-like elements of the second layer also have an oblique orientation, crossed with respect to thread-like elements of the first layer,
• comprising:
• at least one toroidal support comprising an outer surface;
• at least one laying element comprising a laying surface capable of being adapted to act on a portion of a rubberized strip-like element for laying the same on the outer surface of the toroidal support, the space position of said laying element being definable by means of a coordinate triad in a frame of reference of a point of said laying element and by a space orientation of said laying element;
• at least one motion device of said laying element adapted to change in a controlled way said space position of a point of said laying element and said space orientation of said laying element;
• and
• at least one control device of the motion device of said laying element.