Pneumatic tire and method of manufacturing the tire

A method for manufacturing a tire framework of a pneumatic tire providing a tire framework, wherein the tire framework includes a plurality of ribbon pieces arranged along the circumferential direction of the tire, each ribbon piece being joined to the adjacent ribbon pieces at the sides in the lateral direction, wherein each ribbon piece has a plurality of cords and rubber coating all of the corresponding cords, wherein the cords extend in the longitudinal direction of the ribbon piece and are arranged in parallel, wherein all the cords of each ribbon piece form one cord group forming a specific cord arrangement pattern that is identical to the cord arrangement pattern of the cord groups of the other ribbon pieces, wherein the cord groups are consecutively and uniformly arranged along the circumferential direction of the tire so that the specific cord arrangement pattern repeatedly appears over the entire circumference of the tire, and wherein the specific cord arrangement pattern is formed by varying the cord interval in each cord group such that the cord interval at a central region is smaller than that at side regions, comprising:

• preparing a long ribbon having one group of a plurality of cords coated with rubber, the cords being arranged in parallel to form the specific cord arrangement pattern;
• forming a cylindrical body by helically winding the long ribbon, wherein the sides of each adjacent pair of turns of the ribbon are joined;
• cutting the cylindrical body to obtain a plate body, wherein, when the cylindrical body is cut, the long ribbon is divided into the plurality of the ribbon pieces with each adjacent pair joined to each other, and the plate body having the parallel ribbon pieces is obtained;
• and
• forming the tire framework from the plate body, wherein the plate body is made annular to form the tire framework, and wherein the sides of the two ribbon pieces at the ends of the annular plate body are joined.