Patent ID: 6610238
Filing Date: 2003-08-26
Classification: B29C,B29D,B29L

Abstract:
A tire curing system being arranged in at least three horizontally spaced, substantially parallel process lines comprising, a green tire delivery process line for use in delivery of a green tire to said tire curing system, a robot tire handling process line along which a robot is selectively moveable and, a manipulator process line along which a manipulator is selectively moveable, said tire curing system having a plurality of molds each having a bottom mold half and a top mold half comprising loading means for loading said green tire into said bottom mold half, mold closing means for placing said top mold half over said bottom mold half, self-locking means for locking said top mold half to said bottom mold half, curing means for curing said green tire, mold opening means for removing said top mold half from said bottom mold half, unloading means for unloading a cured tire from said bottom mold half and take-away means for taking said cured tire away from said curing system, said loading means and said unloading means including a moveable robot and said mold closing means and said mold opening means including a moveable manipulator, wherein the movements of said robot and said manipulator are in a straight line, and,said tire curing system being arranged with a fourth horizontally spaced, substantially parallel process line including a mold load-unload process line for use in loading green tires into said bottom mold half and for unloading said cured tire from said bottom mold half.