Patent ID: 6702912
Filing Date: 2004-03-09
Classification: B29D

Abstract:
A method for producing pneumatic tires, comprising a green tire building step for assembling unvulcanized members of a radial tire into a green tire, said green tire building step being performed in a building cycle time, and a vulcanization step for carrying out vulcanization of the green tire, said vulcanization step being performed in a vulcanizing cycle time which is longer than said building cycle time, wherein pneumatic tires are produced by at least one production line which comprises a green tire building station including at least one set of building drums, and a vulcanization station including at least one vulcanizing unit equipped with a plurality of vulcanizing molds of a number which satisfies a vulcanizing capacity substantially equivalent to the number of green tires formed at said building station within a predetermined unit time;building green tires of a set of first and second types at said building station, and synchronously performing simultaneous vulcanization of the green tires of the set of first and second types at the vulcanizing station; changing-over production of pneumatic tires from the set of first and second types to a set of first and third types, by exchanging predetermined vulcanizing molds at the vulcanization station, the number of predetermined vulcanizing molds corresponding to said building cycle time inclusive of a building-suspension time required to change the vulcanizing molds of the second type into vulcanizing molds of the third type; and performing, on the molds to be exchanged into the production line to cure the new tire type, a series of required operational steps as external or outside operational arrangement steps with respect to the molds mounted to the at least one vulcanizing unit at the vulcanization station, the external or outside operational arrangement steps including one or more steps of detaching bladders from the molds, mounting associated ring members to the molds, assembling bladders and exchanging a display panel for marking production information onto product tires, and wherein the external or outside operational arrangement steps are performed outside the vulcanizing station.