Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-01
2001-12-11
Knable, Geoffrey L. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S131000, C156S136000, C156S396000, C156S403000, C156S406200, C156S422000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328835
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a structure and a method for supplying a bead-with-filler which is a tire component to a tire molding machine.
In a tire molding process, two beads are supplied to form both side rims respectively, and hitherto supply of the beads to a tire molding machine has been carried out by workmen manually.
Also in case of supplying beads-with-filler, all works such as setting beads on a preset apparatus for attaching fillers to the beads, taking, out beads-with-filler from the preset apparatus and supplying them to the tire molding, machine have been carried out manually.
Such supply work of the bead-with-filler has been an obstacle to automation of the tire molding equipment.
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the foregoing and an object of the invention is to provide a structure and a method capable of supplying automatically beads-with-filler.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to attain the above object, the present invention provides a structure for automatic supply of a bead-with-filler, comprising a bead-with-filler preset apparatus for presetting a filler to an annular bead; a bead supply apparatus positioned at an upper stream side of the bead-with-filler preset apparatus for supplying the annular bead to the bead-with-filler preset apparatus; a bead-with-filler supply apparatus positioned at a down stream side of the bead-with-filler preset apparatus for supplying the bead-with-filler to a tire molding machine; and a transfer apparatus for transferring the bead and the bead-with-filler having a catching section, the transfer apparatus turning for positioning the catching section at each delivery position of the bead supply machine, the bead-with-filler preset apparatus and the bead-with-filler supply apparatus.
A bead supplied by the bead supply apparatus is received by the catching section of the transfer apparatus, then the transfer apparatus turns to deliver the bead to the bead-with-filler preset apparatus in which a filler is attached to the bead to form a bead-with-filler. The bead-with-filler is received by the catching section of the transfer apparatus, then the transfer apparatus again turns to deliver the bead-with-filler to the bead-with-filler supply apparatus which supplies the bead-with-filler to the tire molding machine. The above works are all carried out automatically.
The automatic supply structure may have a pair of the transfer apparatuses, one of the transfer apparatuses moving following movement of another apparatus with a lag.
Transfers of the bead and the bead-with-filler can be carried out partly simultaneously to improve working efficiency.
Otherwise, in the above-mentioned automatic supply structure, the transfer apparatus may have an upper stream side catching section and a down stream side catching section which are disposed at an angle and turn in a body about a common center, the upper stream side catching section turns between the bead supply apparatus and the bead-with-filler preset apparatus for transferring the bead, and the down stream side catching section turns between the bead-with-filter preset apparatus and the bead-with-filler supply apparatus for transferring the bead-with-filler.
Transfer of the bead from the bead supply apparatus to the bead-with-filler preset apparatus and transfer of the bead-with-filler from the bead-with-filler preset apparatus to the bead-with-filler supply apparatus can be carried out simultaneously to improve working efficiency.
In addition, the structure can be made simple and compact by using a common turn driving construction.
In the automatic supply structure, the catching section of the transfer apparatus may have at least three retaining pieces arranged on a common circle capable of expanding and contracting so that the retaining pieces can catch at inner side of the annular bead when the circle expands.
The catching section of the transfer apparatus expands radially outward to catch the annular bead or the annular bead-with-filler which is easily deformed elastically by an external force, so that the bead and the bead-with-filler can be easily caught and miniaturization of the transfer apparatus can be attempted.
Further, in the automatic supply structure, the bead supply apparatus may separate one or two beads from a bundle of the annular beads piled up to supply the bead-with-filler preset apparatus with the beads.
Since one or two pieces of bead are separated from the bundle of beads which can be transported easily, improvement of working efficiency can be attempted.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for automatic supply of a bead-with-filler is provided. This method comprises steps of, receiving a bead supplied from a bead supply apparatus by a catching section of a transfer apparatus; turning the catching section for delivering the bead to a bead-with-filler preset apparatus; attaching a filler to the bead in the bead-with-filler preset apparatus for presetting a bead-with-filler; receiving the bead-with-filler by the catching section of the transfer apparatus; turning the catching section for delivering the bead-with-filler to a bead-with-filler supply apparatus; and supplying the bead-with-filler to a tire molding machine by the bead-with-filler supply apparatus.
According to the method, the above-mentioned all steps can be carried out automatically so that labor can be reduced.
In the above automatic supply method, the transfer apparatus may have an upper stream side catching section and a down stream side catching section which are disposed at an angle and turn in a body about a common turning center, and when the upper stream side catching section turns to transfer the bead from the bead supply apparatus to the bead-with-filler preset apparatus, the down stream side catching section may turn to transfer the bead-with-filler from the bead-with-filler preset apparatus to the bead-with-filler supply apparatus.
Since the upper stream side catching section and the down stream side catching section are turned in a body, the bead and the bead-with-filler can be transferred simultaneously and working efficiency can be improved.
Further in the above automatic supply method, the bead supply apparatus may separate two pieces of bead from a bundle of the annular beads piled up to supply them, and the bead-with-filler preset apparatus may attach fillers to the respective two pieces of bead piled up simultaneously.
Since two pieces of bead piled up are attached respective fillers simultaneously, work for attaching the filler to the bead can be carried out efficiently.
In the above automatic supply method, still more, the bead-with-filler supply apparatus may have holding sections at both ends and a temporary holding section separated from the holding sections, and the two pieces of bead piled up on the transfer apparatus may be delivered to the bead-with-filler supply apparatus by steps of, holding one bead-with-filler on one of the holding sections of the bead-with-filler supply apparatus while another bead-with-filler is caught by the catching section of the transfer apparatus; separating the one bead-with-filler from the another bead-with-filler and delivering the one bead-with-filler onto the one holding section of the bead-with-filler supply apparatus; moving the another bead-with-filler left on the catching section of the transfer apparatus onto the temporary holding section of the bead-with-filler supply apparatus; and delivering the another bead-with-filler held on the temporary holding section onto another holding section of the bead-with-filler supply apparatus.
One of the two beads-with-filler piled up is separated and delivered to one of the holding sections of the bead-with-filler supply apparatus and another bead-with-filler is held on the temporary holding section then delivered to another holding section to deliver the beads-with-filler to the holding section on both ends of the bead-with-filler supply apparatus respectively, thus supply of the beads-with-filler to the tire molding
Bridgestone Corporation
Knable Geoffrey L.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
LandOfFree
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