Tire mold

A method of manufacturing a tire, using a mold for a tire tread, said mold comprising a laminated peripheral crown for molding an exterior of the tire tread, said laminated peripheral crown comprising a stack in a circumferential direction of a plurality of molding elements each having a radially internal edge and a radially external edge, said radially internal edge having a profile for molding a pattern on said tire tread, wherein said molding elements are oriented substantially radially, wherein for a group of adjacent molding elements from among said plurality of molding elements, each molding element of said group comprises a partial cutout, the partial cutout of at least one of the molding elements of said group opens to the radially internal edge and extends only a portion of the distance between the radially internal edge and the radially external edge of the at least one of the molding elements, wherein said each molding element does not have a venting channel connecting the radially internal edge and the radially external edge of said each molding element with each other, and wherein the partial cutouts in all molding elements of said group are in communication with each other to cooperate together to form a venting channel extending entirely through said laminated peripheral crown to connect the interior of the mold to the outside of the mold, the partial cutout in each molding element of said group defining only a section of said venting channel, said method comprising venting the mold at least in part through the venting channel.

A mold for a tire tread, comprising:

• a laminated peripheral crown for molding an exterior of the tire tread, said laminated peripheral crown comprising a stack in a circumferential direction of a plurality of thin molding elements each having a radially internal edge, said radially internal edge having a profile for molding a pattern on the tire tread, wherein said molding elements are oriented substantially radially, and wherein said molding elements comprise partial cutouts which cooperate together to form a venting channel;
• wherein the peripheral crown is divided into sectors, each sector comprising molding elements held together to form a unitary block, wherein each of said sectors can be displaced during opening and closing movements of the mold;
• and
• wherein the molding elements of each of said sectors are clamped together by a fixing device comprising two protruding heads, each of which rests against a free surface of each of the molding elements bounding the sector, the fixing devices being arranged in alternation from one sector to the next sector, each sector comprising recesses which accommodate the protruding head of the fixing devices of the adjacent sectors when the sectors are in contact to form the crown for molding the tire tread.