Patent ID: 8731871

Claim:
A method of designing a tire mold, the method comprising: designing an initial tire mold, on a computer, that includes a total number of annular mold pitches, each having a circumferential pitch length, wherein each of the total number of annular mold pitches have complementary leading and trailing edges; determining an initial number of unique annular mold pitch lengths that include an initial number of unique annular mold parts, wherein each unique annular mold pitch length comprises more than one annular mold part, and wherein the adjacent annular mold parts have complementary leading and trailing edges; specifying a target number of unique annular mold pitch lengths and a target number of unique annular mold parts, wherein the target number of unique annular mold parts is less than the initial number of unique annular mold parts, wherein the initial number of unique annular mold pitch lengths is at least three and the initial number of unique annular mold parts is equal to at least six, and wherein the target number of unique annular mold pitch lengths is equal to or less than three and the target number of unique annular mold parts is less than six; and replacing at least one of the initial number of unique annular mold pitch lengths with at least two of an actual number of unique annular mold parts to design and produce a final tire mold including an actual number of unique annular mold pitch lengths equal to or less than the initial number of unique annular mold pitch lengths, and the actual number of unique annular mold parts is less than the initial number of unique annular mold parts.