Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Tire body building type
Utility Patent
1999-05-26
2001-01-02
Knable, Geoffrey L. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Tire body building type
C156S117000, C156S177000
Utility Patent
active
06167934
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates, in particular, to the manufacture of tires, and more particularly, to the manufacture of reinforcement armatures, such as those which are present below the tread of belted tires, the carcass of which is generally radial.
Such reinforcements have been manufactured in the form of semi-finished products known as “plies” which were prepared flat and then incorporated in the assembling of the article. U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,259 relates to the producing of such reinforcements from a continuous thread and placing them directly on the tire blank. This proposal is based on the projecting of a thread in the manner of the thong of a whip.
FIG. 1
illustrates an apparatus for the manufacture of a tire reinforcement employing this principle. Such an apparatus uses a thread
1
fed, for example, by feeding means from a spool, not shown. The apparatus projects lengths
10
of said thread onto a receiving surface S which in this case is part of the tire being manufactured.
The expression “thread” is used herein in a very broad sense to include a monofilament, a multifilament, a cable, a twist or an equivalent assembly, and this whatever the material constituting the thread or the treatment which it has undergone, for instance a surface treatment in order to favor its intimate bonding to rubber, or a rubberizing treatment surrounding said thread with a layer of rubber in order to permit its direct adherence on the support upon its projection.
The apparatus is an assembly
5
which includes:
means for advancing the thread
1
from a source of thread (not shown), such as a spool,
a rotary conduit
2
mounted on a shaft
20
constituting the axis of rotation of said conduit, in such a manner that the outer radial end
21
of said conduit is directed substantially radially with respect to the axis of rotation, said conduit receiving the thread
1
at its central end
22
opposite said outer radial end
21
coming from the thread feeding means, said thread emerging through said outer radial end, said feeding means controlling the linear speed of advance of the thread within said rotary conduit,
means for driving said rotary conduit
2
in rotation,
means for cutting the thread in such a manner as to free one length upon each rotation of said rotary conduit
2
.
Furthermore, said apparatus comprises a thread guide, designated generally as
4
, for receiving lengths
10
of thread. For further details as to the operation of an apparatus of this type, reference should be made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,259. In that apparatus, the thread guide
4
is positioned with respect to said rotary conduit
2
in such a manner as to receive the thread, or more precisely lengths
10
removed one after another from this thread, in the plane of rotation of said conduit
2
. The thread guide
4
receives each length
10
of thread, which passes through this thread guide and emerges through a projection orifice
40
in the immediate vicinity of the surface on which the length of thread is to be deposited and held by adherence. In a preferred embodiment of the apparatus, the lengths of cords are whipped and forced through the thread guide.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to simplify the production of such a thread guide and to facilitate the use of such a thread-laying apparatus for a wide range of manufactured articles, for example for a range of tires of many different types, involving different dimensions of crown reinforcements, curved to a greater or lesser extent on the surface onto which the lengths of thread are projected, and also different types of threads.
According to the invention, the thread guide comprises a pair of deflectors, defining at least one elongated inner passage, placed in said plane of rotation, the deflectors being arranged in such a manner as to leave between them a slot into which each length of thread can pass, said deflectors being arranged to exert a pressure towards each other during passage of a length of cord through the slot, and on the projection-orifice side, said deflectors being able to move apart for the passage of a length of thread. The thread guide provides means for regulating the position of said deflectors relative to each other in order to control the braking effect which they exert on threads to insure proper placement of the threads on the surface.
The thread guide of the invention is more particularly advantageous when certain metal reinforcement threads (wires) are deposited. In this case, it is desirable to brake the advance of the length of thread rather substantially before it reaches the surface of the tire blank in the course of manufacture. The amount of this braking depends on several parameters, such as the nature of the wire and the nature of the rubber coating covering the surface onto which the lengths of thread are projected. The existence of means for adjusting the pressure makes it possible to adjust the braking in the best possible manner and makes it possible to facilitate the use of this type of apparatus and improve the reliability thereof.
In the following, the invention is illustrated by a particular embodiment in which the thread guide forms a removable subassembly which comprises a cradle. In this example, the cradle forms an elongated, closed rectangle formed by two parallel branches connected to each other at their ends by braces and deflectors mounted within said branches. The cradle is provided with a fastening surface which permits the thread guide to be detachably mounted to the assembly. The fastening surface is preferably a simple, localized mounting for the thread guide, in this example, a mounting lug arranged on one of said branches on the side opposite one of said deflectors.
This embodiment, which of course is not limitative, makes it possible to preadjust the thread guide while it is not yet mounted on the reinforcement manufacturing machine. In tire manufacturing shops, one can have as many thread guides as necessary. When it is necessary to effect the production of several different ranges of tires, requiring in practice different adjustments of the thread guide, it is possible to select among several thread guides which have been pre-adjusted in the shop. One has all the time necessary in order properly to adjust the deflectors. This subassembly can then be mounted very rapidly on the machine at the desired moment, so as not to interfere with the productivity of the machines.
All details of the invention are explained below, with the aid of the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3894906 (1975-07-01), Pearce et al.
patent: 4952259 (1990-08-01), Debroche et al.
patent: 4992123 (1991-02-01), Cave et al.
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Knable Geoffrey L.
Sedepro
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