Tire manufacturing module and method of manufacturing tires

Abstract

A module for manufacturing a cured tire from a plurality of tire components is disclosed. The module has a plurality of component appliers located at spaced locations along a predetermined path, and a mobile tire building trolley for movement along the predetermined path and two detachable tire building drums for mounting on the movable trolley. A tire curing station has one tire mold for curing the assembled tire components while mounted on one of the detachable tire building drums. The tire is cured as the other detachable tire building drum on the mobile tire building trolley is having tire components applied. One or more of the plurality of component appliers includes a means for forming the tire component at the location of the applier. The applied components include a liner, a pair of bead cores, a ply, a pair of sidewalls, a pair of chafers, and one or more belt layers and a tread. Optionally the applied components may also include an apex, wedges, overlays, underlays, gum strips, and elastomeric inserts. The module has a means for transferring the detachable tire building drums to the tire mold and further has a means for extracting the cured tire while mounted on a tire building drum from the mold. The tire curing station includes an induction curing means.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.