Method of manufacturing tire

A method of manufacturing a tire comprising a tread, a side-wall connecting to a side portion of the tread and extending inward in a radial direction, a bead core disposed at an inner peripheral side of the sidewall, a carcass toroidally extending between a pair of the bead cores and turned at its side portion around the bead core toward an outside in the radial direction, a belt disposed on a central portion of the carcass at an outer peripheral side thereof in an axial direction, an innerliner arranged at an inner peripheral side of the carcass, and a reinforcing rubber layer of substantially a crescent-shaped section interposed between the carcass and the innerliner, which comprises:

• attaching a pair of sidewall rubbers and an innerliner rubber onto an outer periphery of a first band building drum of a cylindrical form to render them into a cylindrical form, attaching a pair of reinforcing rubbers of substantially a crescent-shaped section onto an outer periphery of the innerliner rubber, attaching a carcass member having a width wider than that of the innerliner rubber onto outer peripheries of the sidewall rubber, the innerliner rubber and the reinforcing rubber, setting a bead core onto an outer periphery of a portion of the carcass member located outward from the reinforcing rubber in an axial direction to build a carcass band, and transferring the carcass band from the first band building drum onto an outside of a cylindrical green tire building drum in a radial direction;
• attaching a belt member and a tread rubber onto an outer periphery of a cylindrical second band building drum to build a belt-tread band having an inner diameter larger than an outer diameter of the carcass band, and transferring the belt-tread band from the second band building drum onto the outside of the green tire building drum in the radial direction;
• toroidally enlarging a main body portion of the carcass member by reducing a distance between both the bead cores while holding the bead cores in the carcass band on the green tire building drum and pressing an outer periphery of an axially central portion of the carcass band to an inner periphery of the belt-tread band;
• and
• turning the sidewall rubber and a turnup portion of the carcass member while holding the bead cores in the carcass band on the green tire building drum;
• wherein a diameter of a reinforcing rubber overlap region of the innerliner rubber to be attached with the reinforcing rubber is relatively and uniformly reduced with respect to a diameter of a reinforcing rubber non-overlap region corresponding to a remaining portion of the innerliner rubber prior to the attachment of the reinforcing rubber onto the outer periphery of the innerliner rubber at the first band building drum, and diameter reducing amounts of these overlap regions at positions in the axial direction are made approximately two times a thickness of the reinforcing rubber corresponding to each position in order to make the outer periphery of the first band building drum having the sidewall rubbers, the innerliner rubber and the reinforcing rubber thereon substantially flat prior to attaching the carcass member thereon, so that air is prevented from being trapped beneath the carcass member, and
• further comprising enlarging a diameter of a portion of the first band building drum corresponding to the reinforcing rubber non-overlap region of the innerliner rubber by approximately two times a maximum thickness of the reinforcing rubber outward in the radial direction to relatively reduce the diameter of the reinforcing rubber overlap region of the innerliner rubber.