Tire vulcanizer

A tire vulcanizer comprising:

• a top mold, a side mold movable with the top mold, and a bottom mold, for receiving a raw tire horizontally;
• a top mold mounting member which retains said top mold;
• a bottom mold mounting member which retains said bottom mold;
• a guiding mechanism which guides said top mold mounting member in a vertical direction;
• an opening and closing mechanism which moves up and down said top mold mounting member along the vertical direction, and causes said top mold and said bottom mold to be opened and closed by up and down movement of said top mold mounting member;
• a locking mechanism which secures said top mold and said bottom mold in a closed condition;
• and
• a squeezing mechanism which exerts a clamping force between said top mold and said bottom mold, wherein
• said guiding mechanism, said locking mechanism, and said squeezing mechanism are installed separately from each other;
• and
• said locking mechanism comprises:
• tie rods disposed alongside said top mold, and each having a top end part fixed to said top mold mounting member and a lower end part on which a plurality of grooves are formed one above the other in the vertical direction;
• through holes formed in said bottom mold mounting member for allowing each of said tie rods to pass through each of said through holes;
• lock plates capable of engaging and disengaging, along a horizontal direction, with any one of said grooves on each tie rod having passed through each through hole, and
• lock plate shifting mechanisms each opening and closing said lock plates only in the horizontal direction relative to each tie rod,
• wherein said squeezing mechanism comprises a gas cylinder including a piston member formed in a ring shape, and said piston member is set to be concentric with respect to the raw tire received by said top mold and said bottom mold, and formed in a size with which an outer diameter of the raw tire is positioned between an outer diameter and an inner diameter of said piston member, and
• wherein, when said top mold and said bottom mold are in the open condition, an uppermost one of said plurality of grooves is located below a lowermost end of the top mold and the side mold, and a lowermost one of said plurality of grooves is located above an uppermost end of the bottom mold.