Tire mold

A method of manufacturing a tire, using a mold comprising a laminated peripheral ring for molding the outside of the tread, said laminated peripheral ring being defined by a stack in the circumferential direction of a number of thin adjacent elements mounted on a support, said elements being oriented substantially radially and arranged to provide elastic repulsion between elements, said elastic repulsion being contained by a hoop, the axial movement of which controls the radial movement of said elements, said tread being molded by the radially inner edge faces of said elements, said radially inner edge faces having the desired profile, wherein said elements comprise standard elements and intermediate elements different from the standard elements which follow on from one another circumferentially, and wherein the mold further comprises alignment means interacting with said intermediate elements and not with said standard elements in order to maintain said intermediate elements oriented substantially radially as all of the elements are moved radially bv the hoop between outer open condition and inner molding condition, the intermediate molding elements maintaining the radial alignment of the standard elements interposed between the intermediate elements, said method including venting the mold by means of the spaces between elements.

A mold for a tire tread comprising a laminated peripheral ring defined by a circumferential stack of thin adjacent molding elements oriented substantially radially and having elastic repulsion between the elements, the radially inner edge faces of the elements having the desired profile to mold the tread when the elements are moved from an outer position to a radially inner molding position and the stack is compressed in opposition to the elastic repulsion, the stack comprising standard elements and intermediate elements interposed between groups of standard elements, actuating means for moving the elements between an outer open condition of the mold and an inner closed molding condition, means interacting between the actuating means and the standard elements and not the intermediate elements to move the standard elements from molding condition to open condition, and alignment means interacting with the intermediate elements and not the standard elements for maintaining the intermediate elements oriented substantially radially when the elements are moved between open and closed conditions of the mold.