Patent GB-392674-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to tire building apparatus
IPC: B29D30/30
Filed: 1932-02-09
Abstract: 392,674. Making tyre covers. FIRESTONE TYRE & RUBBER CO., Ltd., Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex.- (Assignees of Stevens, H. D. ; 94, Kenil worth Drive, Akron, Ohio, U.S.A.) Feb. 9, 1932, No. 3854. Convention date, Oct. 24, 1931. [Class 144 (i).] Relates to the delivery-apparatus of a machine in which a number of strips of tyrebuilding fabric are formed into festoons in an open frame structure 10, Fig. 1, and are drawn out as required by the operator for attaching to a tyre in course of building on the drum 26. As shown in Fig. 4, the strips 11 .. 17 pass from the respective festoons over rollers such as 95 on a series of guide-mechanisms 20 .. 25 carried by a frame 166 adjustable vertically on the front of the machine by screws 168. Each such device comprises a tray 180 mounted on a frame provided with rollers 178 running in guides so that the frame carrying the corresponding strip of fabric may be extended towards the tyre-building drum, as shown for the strip 15, or pushed back when out of use, as shown for the other strips. The outward movement of the tray is limited by an apron 182 secured to a rod 183 on the fixed framework and to a rod 184 on the tray. The fabric passes below the apron, and when the tray is pushed back, the fabric and the apron hang in a fold with the gummed surfaces separated by the apron, as shown for the strips 11 .. 14. The apron is weighted by a rod 186 to ensure folding. The folds rest upon canopies 197 provided over the lower guide-mechanisms. The upper guide-mechanism 24 carries a beveledged roller 195 mounted on an arm 194 which is shown in the inoperative position and may be swung over to the left to bring the roller over to the tyre-building drum to serve as a guide for centring a tread slab. The lowermost guide-mechanism 25 is not fitted with any device for forming a fold in the fabric, since the strips 16, 17 are drawn directly from the festoons. To form the festoons of fabric ready for delivery, strips 11 .. 14 are fed by the operator at the hinged splicing trays 30, 31, 32, and the table 33 to the trailing ends of the material in the machine, which passes over guide rollers such as the driven roller 46, the floating roller 47 and the guide roller 48. The special gummed wide strip 15 is stored with a liner 86 in a roll 85 and is drawn over a liner-rewinding roll 87 and fed to the festooning rollers by a driven roller 88, the strip being detached from the liner by a rotary beater 120. The feeding rollers such as 46, 88 are driven by sprocket chains from a motor 97 through fluid-operated clutches controlled by a series of valves 160 near the splicing tables. One such device is shown in Fig. 2 for the feed roller 88. The spindle of the roller carries a brake-drum 106 with band 107 constantly applied by spring-pressure to prevent overrunning. The brake-drum is driven when desired by studs 118 on a constantly-driven sprocket 115 which is moved to the left when a fluid-pressure is admitted behind a diaphragm 112 by operating a valve such as 160. The pressure is released automatically when the valve 160 is released. Warning is given when a festoon is full by a signal lamp at 161, Fig. 1, by means of a mercury switch such as 162 engaged by the frame carrying the floating roller such as 47. In the case of the strips 13, 14 which hang in double festoons, as at 67, 69, and 77, 79, Fig. 1, the feed roller 66 or 76 controlled as described above, drives a second roller 68 or 78 at half-speed through chain-andsprocket gearing and a pawl-and-ratchet drive. A side wall strip 16 is stored with an interwound liner in a roll 202, Fig. 1, at each side of the machine, and is fed over guide rollers 204, 207, feed roller 208 and floating roller 209, the feed roller being driven by a motor 213. The liner is rewound on the roll 203. A breaker strip 17 is fed in a similar way from a roll 215, over feed rollers 217, 218 driven by a separate motor, and under a floating roller 219. The motors driving the feed for the strips 16, 17 are controlled automatically by mercury switches 225, 226 to stop the feed when the floating rollers 209, 219 reach their lowest positions. Screens 201 are provided at various points to prevent the vertical reaches of the strip material from swaging into contact.