Tire mold and method of molding the tire

A mold for molding the tread for a tire, comprising a plurality of adjacent elements of slight thickness arranged in their molding positions in a circumferential stack about an axis with each element of the stack oriented substantially radially with adjacent opposite faces of the elements being in resilient interfacing relation, means maintaining opposite faces of the elements of the stack in side by side compressed relation while molding the tread for a tire, and molding surfaces defined on the radially inner edges of the elements to mold the tread for a tire, the substantially radially extending resilient interfaces of the elements exerting a force which tends to expand the diameter of the stack and move the elements radially outwardly.

A tire tread mold comprising a circumferential stack of thin, radially extending deflectable plates having inner sculptured edges arranged as a ring about an axis, and which plates cooperate to mold the tire tread, and lateral surfaces which interface with the lateral surfaces of adjacent plates of the circumferential stack, the inner edges being adjacent during the molding operation;

• the lateral interfacing surfaces of the plates having a limited degree of circumferential play against each other to permit increase in the circumference of the ring of inner sculptured edges, and means for moving the plates radially from an open condition of the mold in which the stack is of large diameter to a closed molding condition in which the stack is compressed into a smaller diameter.

A method for molding the tread for a tire, comprising arranging in a circumferential stack about an axis a plurality of adjacent elements of slight thickness having molding surfaces defined on the inner edges of the elements to mold the tread for a tire, the elements being oriented substantially radially about an axis with their opposite faces extending substantially radially, and moving said elements radially from an open condition of the mold in which the stack has a larger diameter to a closed position in which the stack has a smaller diameter and the elements are compressed in resilient interfacing relation and said molding edges are brought into side by side relation.

A method of molding a tire tread comprising arranging a circumferential stack of thin, radially extending deflectable plates around an axis, the plates having inner sculptured edges which cooperate to mold a tire tread, lateral surfaces which interface with the lateral surfaces of adjacent plates of the circumferential stack, and outer edges, the lateral interfacing surfaces of the plates having a limited degree of circumferential play against each other, applying a force against the radially outer edges of the plates to displace the plates radially from an open condition of the mold to a closed condition, compressing the plates so that the inner edges are moved adjacent each other during the molding operation, and removing the force after molding to relax the compressive force so that the circumferential play will displace the plates away from the molded tire and increase the circumference of the inner sculpturing edges after the molding operation.

A tire mold comprising a peripheral ring for molding the outside of the tread, said ring comprising a plurality of adjacent elements of slight thickness arranged in a circumferential stack about an axis of the mold, each element oriented substantially radially to the axis of the mold and having an inner molding edge extending transversely across at least a part of the distance between the axial ends of the peripheral ring, the circumferential stack in molding position being compressed with opposite surfaces of the elements in the molding position being in interfacing relationship and with the molding edges in closed side by side relationship.