Methods of forming a retreaded tire using a degassing operation

A retreaded tire prepared by the process comprising the steps of:

• providing an unbonded retreaded tire, which is preassembled and comprises a pre-cured tread arranged annularly around an outer circumference of an annular tire carcass with a bonding layer comprising an uncured bonding material arranged between the pre-cured tread and the annular tire carcass, the unbonded retreaded tire having a thickness extending between an inner and an outer side of the unbonded retreaded tire, where the annular tire carcass comprises a pair of sidewalls spaced apart in an axial direction of the unbonded retreaded tire, each of the pair of sidewalls extending radially inward from an undertread portion to a bead portion;
• forming a degassing assembly comprising a flexible degassing membrane at least partially arranged around an outer circumference of the unbonded retreaded tire to form one or more vacuum chambers that as a collective substantially surround the inner and outer sides of the unbonded retreaded tire;
• placing each of the one or more vacuum chambers under at least partial vacuum pressure;
• performing a degassing operation by pressurizing a degassing chamber while each of the one or more vacuum chambers in the degassing assembly are at least under partial vacuum pressure, the degassing chamber being pressurized to a pressure sufficient to remove gas from within the unbonded retreaded tire such that the unbonded retreaded tire is substantially free of gas to provide an unbonded degassed tire;
• disassembling the degassing assembly by separating the unbonded degassed tire from the flexible degassing membrane;
• and
• bonding the unbonded degassed tire to form a bonded retreaded tire by pressurizing a curing chamber and sufficiently heating the curing chamber to cure the bonding layer of the unbonded degassed tire.