Patent ID: 6723195
Filing Date: 2004-04-20
Classification: B29D

Abstract:
A tire building drum for laminating tire components having thickened edges characterized by:a cylindrical drum hub mounted for rotation about an axis Aâ€”A; a cylindrical drum support mounted to the cylindrical drum hub; a plurality of circumferentially spaced base segments movably attached to said cylindrical drum support and movable between a retracted position to form a cylindrical drum surface and a radially outward position, each of the base segments having a slotted opening of a desired depth to receive a secondary center segment, each of the secondary center segments being mounted to the base segment so as to move radially outward relative to its corresponding base segment from a retracted position to compensate for an increase in thickness of the edges of the tire components applied to the tire building drum; and each of the secondary center segments having a central flat cylindrical surface formed with a central radius substantially equal to the radius of the base segments to form a flat cylindrical drum surface when the secondary center segments are in the retracted position, the secondary center segments having side surfaces tapering from the central radius to a smaller radius at the outer ends of the side surfaces and a bottom surface, the thickness of the secondary center segments between the central flat cylindrical surface and the bottom surface being substantially equal to the depth of the slotted opening whereby the central flat cylindrical surface of each of the secondary center segments forms the flat cylindrical drum surface with the base segments.