Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – Reshaping – resizing or vulcanizing means for tire – tire... – Plural female molds for plural preforms
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-25
2003-01-21
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
C425S038000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06508640
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire vulcanizing system and a tire vulcanizing method, in which tire vulcanization, mold change, bladder change, mold preheating, and the like are carried out.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional fully automatic tire vulcanizing press, the work time for loading a green tire, shaping, and unloading a vulcanized tire is far shorter than the time over which vulcanization is carried out by introducing a heating/pressurizing medium in a tire in a state in which a tire mold assembly is closed. Therefore, a tire mold opening/closing device for opening/closing the tire mold assembly to load/unload a tire and tire loading and unloading devices are low in operation efficiency.
To solve this problem, the applicant of this invention has already proposed a tire vulcanizing system disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-80846 (No. 80846/1995).
As shown in
FIGS. 16 and 17
, this tire vulcanizing system comprises vulcanizing stations
501
a
and
501
b
, mold opening/closing stations
502
a
and
502
b
, tire mold transporters
503
a
and
503
b
, rails
504
for the tire mold transporters, mold beds
505
a
,
505
b
, . . . , an unloader
507
a
, a loader
508
a
, a conveyor
509
a
for conveying vulcanized tires, a rack
510
a
for green tires, and a mold changing station (for changing a tread mold, side wall mold, etc. in a tire mold assembly Ma to accommodate a change of specification of a tire to be vulcanized and for changing a bladder, which is an expendable)
511
.
In such a tire vulcanization system, a tire mold assembly Mc for which vulcanization has been finished is received by the tire mold transporter
503
a
(or
503
b
) from the vulcanizing station
501
a
(or
501
b
) at which a plurality of tire mold assemblies Mc being vulcanized are arranged, and is transported to the mold opening/closing station
502
a
(or
502
b
).
After the tire mold assembly Mc having been transported to the mold opening/closing station
502
a
is connected to the tire mold opening/closing device
506
a
(or
506
b
), the tire mold assembly Mc is opened by the tire mold opening/closing device
506
a
, and a vulcanized tire is unloaded by the unloader
507
a
attached to the tire mold opening/closing device
506
a
. Then, a green tire is loaded by using the loader
508
a
attached to the tire mold opening/closing device
506
a
. After the loaded tire is shaped during a tire mold closing step and the tire mold assembly Mc is closed, a heating/pressurizing medium is introduced and sealed in the tire, by which a tire vulcanizing step is started.
Next, the tire mold assembly Mc in which vulcanization has been started is disconnected from the tire mold opening/closing device
506
a
, placed on the tire mold transporter
503
a
again and transported, and returned to the vulcanizing station
501
a
,
501
b . . .
In the above-described conventional tire vulcanizing system, a discharge device (a control valve and pipes) for discharging the heating/pressurizing medium in the bladder is provided at each vulcanizing station to shorten the operation time at the mold opening/closing station. Therefore, this system is undesirable from the economical viewpoint. In particular, this system is disadvantageous in terms of economy when this system, in which the control valve and pipes for vulcanization control are provided individually, is used for a facility for mass-producing tires having the equal vulcanization time.
Also, when the conventional tire vulcanizing system is used for a production facility for small tires such as tires for a passenger car, for which the vulcanization time is as short as 8 to 12 minutes, this system requires the following.
In this system, the time for which the mold transporting device receives a tire mold assembly at the vulcanizing station, the work at the mold opening/closing station is finished, and the closed tire mold assembly is transported again and returned to the vulcanization station must be as short as possible. The reason for this is that since the same mold transporting device is used for both ways, the time interval until the transportation of the next mold increases when the mold transporting device transports the mold assembly, so that there arise problems in that the number of molds constituting the tire vulcanizing system cannot be increased, and that the economical efficiency is decreased.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and accordingly an object thereof is to provide more economical tire vulcanizing system and tire vulcanizing method in which a discharge device is not disposed at each vulcanizing station, but is disposed at a position just before the mold loading side of a mold opening/closing station so as to be commonly used for a loaded mold assembly.
Also, another object of the present invention is to provide more economical tire vulcanizing system and tire vulcanizing method in which a vulcanization control valve etc. is not disposed at each vulcanizing station, and a heating/pressurizing medium supply station is disposed on the mold unloading side of the mold opening/closing station so as to be commonly used for the supply of a heating/pressurizing medium into a bladder of a mold assembly unloaded from the mold opening/closing station and for the supply of a heating medium into a heating chamber outside the mold.
Further, still another object of the present invention is to provide a more economical tire vulcanizing system in which a first transporter for transporting the tire mold assembly from a mold opening/closing device to a vulcanizing station and a second transporter for transporting the tire mold assembly from the vulcanizing station to the mold opening/closing device, by which the transportation time is shortened and the number of tire molds constituting the system is increased.
For example, assuming that the vulcanization time is 10 minutes, the transporter reciprocating time is 40 seconds, and the treatment time at the mold opening/closing station is 80 seconds, in the case of the conventional system disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-80846 (No. 80846/1995),
the number of molds which can be treated by one mold opening/closing station is N1=10×60/(40+80)=5 . . . 5 molds.
By contrast, in the case of the system in accordance with the present invention,
the number of molds which can be treated by one mold opening/closing station is N2=10×60/80=7.5 . . . 7 molds, and
the number of molds which can be treated by first and second mold transporters is N3=10×60/40=15 . . . 15 molds.
As the whole of the system, the number of molds which can be treated is 7 molds at a maximum. In the system in accordance with the present invention, the number of molds can be increased as compared with the conventional system disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-80846.
It can be found that in order to further increase the number of molds, the treatment capacity of the mold opening/closing station should be increased, as is apparent from the above calculation example. As one solution to this problem, two mold opening/closing stations have only to be arranged. However, this solution is undesirable in terms of economy.
Thereupon, the applicant of the present invention proposes a vulcanizing system in which part of the operation process at the mold opening/closing station is carried out outside the mold opening/closing station, by which the treatment capacity of the mold opening/closing station is increased.
Specifically, attention was paid to the fact that the treatment time of 80 seconds at the mold opening/closing station is composed of the following time:
a) time for opening and closing the mold
about 30 sec
b) operation time of a vulcanized tire removing device
about 10 sec
c) bladder operating time for peeling a bladder off a vulcanized tire
about 10 sec
d) op
Alston & Bird LLP
Mackey James P.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
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