Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – Reshaping – resizing or vulcanizing means for tire – tire... – Plural female molds for plural preforms
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-30
2002-12-31
Mackey, James P. (Department: 1722)
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
Reshaping, resizing or vulcanizing means for tire, tire...
Plural female molds for plural preforms
C414S222010, C414S609000, C414S806000, C414S814000, C425S038000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06499980
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to automated monorail conveyance systems for transporting green tires (i.e., unvulcanized tires) within a tire manufacturing factory and more specifically to an elevator system incorporated in the monorail conveyance system for transferring the green tire from a monorail to a tire molding press.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Tire manufacturing factories are arranged into separate areas within which specific tire manufacturing operations take place. Two manufacturing steps having major significance in relation to the present invention are the tire assembly process and the tire curing, or vulcanizing process. These two processes take place in separate locations within a manufacturing operation, typically within a single building of the tire building factory.
In brief summary, tires are assembled in an uncured or unvulcanized state in one part of a factory, and then moved to another part of the factory where they are inserted into heated tire presses wherein the tire is molded under heat and pressure and, in the same process, vulcanized.
More specifically, the tire assembly process involves the use of a tire building machine which includes a cylindrical assembly drum upon which such tire components as the inner liner, the cord-reinforced plies, the beads and the sidewalls of the “green carcass” are assembled into a cylindrical shape. The green carcass then undergoes an initial “blow up” into a toroidal shape more closely resembling a typical tire. The blow-up process typically coincides with the installation upon the green carcass of the belt structure, fabric overlay and tread cap, all of which are typically assembled upon a separate “ring” into which the green carcass is expanded during the blow-up process. After this initial blow-up process in which the green carcass is joined with the belt structure and tread cap, certain additional tire components are typically added, such as the two shoulder skirts which are applied as uncured rubber layers, each of which lies over one of the two respective circumferential juncture lines where the edge of the tread cap joins with the sidewall. This description of the assembly of a “green tire” is only exemplary. Other methods of tire assembly can be used, as when, for example, the tire's sidewalls are assembled upon the green carcass after the blow-up process and after the belt structure and tread cap have been installed upon the toroidally shaped green tire.
After the green tire has been assembled, it must be moved to the port-on of the tire-manufacturing facility or building wherein the tire is molded and cured. The molding and curing are performed in a heated tire molding press in which the external rubber surfaces of the green tire are shaped, as with the tread pattern, under pressure. The tire molding press also heats the tire so as to induce the curing or vulcanizing process during which the previously uncured rubber undergoes thermally induced chemical changes that result in the formation of the kinds of firm, stabilized, shape-holding rubber that is typical of a finished tire.
The two above-described processes are separated in time by the transport of the green tires from the tire assembly area to the location of the curing presses. Often, if not typically, the transport of the green tires involves a layover of the green tires within an intermediate storage area. A given green tire is stored until an appropriate press, one that is suited for that specific type of green tire, is ready to receive the tire. Thus the tires that are assembled in a typical tire-building process are commonly not all of the same type or size. In other words, multiple types of tires are assembled in the tire-building region of the factory. Correspondingly, each different tire type (or size) must be cured in a press that has been set up to receive specific tire types and to shape and cure the specific tire types.
A multiplicity of considerations come into play in the period of time from when the tire is assembled to when it is cured. One consideration is whether or not the tire must be physically transported to the intervening storage area prior to being moved to the curing press. Tire transport typically involves the use of such vehicles as fork-lift trucks or similar wheeled vehicles upon which the green tires can be loaded for transport and then unloaded. Another consideration is that each different tire type must be accounted for and readily retrievable from within the storage area. That is, each green tire must be easily identifiable so that it can be retrieved from the storage area and then transported to the appropriate tire curing press for insertion into the press as soon as the appropriate press becomes available to receive the green tire. Another consideration is that the manufacturing facility must be designed to accommodate the wheeled transfer vehicles, that is, it must have wide surfaces “roads” upon which the wheeled vehicles can travel with sufficient room so as to minimize the chances of a collision between the vehicle and stationary objects or with other vehicles or with people. Another consideration is that the storage area must be large enough to accommodate sufficient numbers of each given type of tire so that at no time, ideally, will any curing press or presses be removed from service for want of a tire in need of molding and curing. The storage area also acts as a buffer zone from which a supply of green tires can be withdrawn even if there is a slowdown in the tire assembly process due to disabled machinery or other hold-up problems.
Tires that are moved from the assembly area to the storage area and then to the curing area are labeled in the assembly area. That is, a tag of some sort is put on the tire, identifying its type, size and other parameters which determine the specific curing press type to which it is to be delivered for final molding and vulcanizing. The tag is also placed in such a location on the tire as to indicate the green tire's proper orientation when it is finally delivered to, and loaded into, the curing press. That is to say, the orientation of the tire within the curing press is not random. Rather the tire is preferably placed in the press at a precise rotational orientation determined by numerous factors that are not specifically relevant to the present invention and are therefore not discussed herein.
The above-described transport, storage, press-loading process and intermediate accounting steps in the tire manufacturing process have traditionally been labor intensive in the physical sense. That is, human beings have been used to manually load and unload the green tires upon the transport vehicles as well as to drive the vehicles. Also, it was necessary to locate specific stored tires, to properly read each tire's identifying label, to transport the tire to storage or from storage or to the specific curing presses for each specific tire type, and to load the tire into the press according to the angular orientation needed for that specific tire.
Among the challenges presented by the above-described method of operation is the use of wheeled transport vehicles within the same areas used by human laborers, which presents obvious safety hazards. Another challenge is that large portions of the factory floor area are used by the pathways upon which the transport vehicles move. Yet another disadvantage of previous methods of operation is the amount of time consumed in locating and identifying given tire types within the storage area. Still another disadvantage is that manual movement of the tires, to or from transport vehicles in the tire assembly area and in the storage area, can result in damage to the green tires. Furthermore, the use of human labor in the loading and unloading of heavy green tires can lead to musculoskeletal difficulties for the laborers. Finally, the size of the storage area must be large enough to accommodate both people and vehicles as well as to hold a sufficient number of tires so that specific tire types can be readily and rapidly
Eizenzimmer George William
Fledderjohann Paul Frederick
McKee David John
Cohn Howard M.
Mackey James P.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
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