Method of displaying characteristic parameters in a tire manufacturing cell

Abstract

A self-contained tire-manufacturing cell (100) has linked build, cure, and force-measurement equipment. Each tire is tagged (personalized), such as with a bar code, so that it can be traced through the system, including which one of a number of build drums it was built upon, which one of a number of mold cavities it was cured in and which one of a number of force variation testing machines it was tested on. The system performs force, measurements upon each tire after curing, in near real time after the tire is produced, and displays this information in a graphical symbolic format (300), from which process variations can readily be ascertained by the operator. In an exemplary embodiment, the force measurements are presented to the operator in the form of a polar plot (300), each circular band or ring of which is associated with an individual tire. The visual appearance of the band varies in shading, color, or the like, as a function of force-measurement data at various circumferential positions on the tire, each distinct shading, coloring, or the like representing a predetermined range of data (i.e., within a first range, within a second range, within a third range, etc.).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.