Leak detection method with time delay for detecting a leak that affects a tire curing membrane or the inflation circuit thereof

A leak detection method for detecting a leak within a curing facility for curing tires, said facility comprising:

• a mold, which is arranged to alternately assume a closed configuration, in which the inner wall of said mold, which corresponds to the negative impression of the tire, delimits a molding cavity and allows an operation for curing said tire, and an open configuration, which allows a cured tire to be extracted from said mold after the curing operation and to be replaced with a green tire;
• a curing membrane, the inner surface of which delimits an inflation chamber for inflating the curing membrane, and the outer surface of which is arranged, during the curing operation and under the action of a curing pressure that is applied in the inflation chamber, to come into abutment against the inner surface of the tire in order to press the tire against the inner wall of the mold;
• an inflation circuit, which comprises at least one intake valve for introducing a pressurised inflation fluid into the curing membrane, in the inflation chamber, in order to inflate the curing membrane;
• a pressure measurement device arranged to measure an internal pressure that prevails inside the curing membrane, in the inflation chamber;
• said method comprising:
• a step (S100) of opening the mold, during which step, after having deflated the curing membrane, the mold is placed in the open configuration;
• a testing step (S200), which comprises:
• a partial reinflation sub-step (S201), during which, while the mold is in the open configuration, the opening of the intake valve is controlled in order to introduce inflation fluid into the inflation chamber so as to increase the internal pressure that prevails in said inflation chamber and thus cause the curing membrane to reinflate, while measuring said internal pressure prevailing in said inflation chamber by means of the pressure measurement device;
• then a stabilisation sub-step (S202), which is triggered when the internal pressure prevailing in the inflation chamber reaches a predetermined threshold, called “test pressure” (P_test), which is selected so as to be lower than the curing pressure (P_cur), and according to which, on the one hand, the inflation chamber is isolated by controlling the closure of the intake valve, and, on the other hand, a time delay period with a predetermined duration is applied, and, at the end of said time delay period, a reference pressure of the internal pressure that prevails in the inflation chamber is measured;
• then an observation sub-step (S203), which involves observing how the internal pressure prevailing in the inflation chamber evolves over an observation period, in order to identify an evolution of the internal pressure, relative to the reference pressure which represents a leakage situation.