Patent ID: 8900386

Claim:
A method of retreading a tyre, comprising: removing the worn tread from the tyre to expose an underlying intermediate surface; buffing the intermediate surface of the tyre; winding a green-rubber cushion about the tyre and onto the intermediate surface; providing a pre-cured tread strip that has been cured prior to use in retreading the tyre, including: an outer surface which, when the pre-cured tread strip is wound around the tyre, is located on an outside, and comprises grooves and slits forming a tread pattern; and an inner surface parallel to and opposite the outer surface, and which, when the pre-cured tread strip is wound about the trye, is located on an inside, contacting the green-rubber cushion; forming at least one groove on the inner surface of the pre-cured tread strip; applying to the inner surface of the pre-cured tread strip, before winding the tread strip about the tyre and on top of the green-rubber cushion, a green-rubber strip that is separate and distinct from the green-rubber cushion, by inserting the green-rubber strip inside the groove on the inner surface so as to fill the groove, wherein the green-rubber strip is made of the same green rubber as the green-rubber cushion; winding, at a winding station, the pre-cured tread strip about the tyre and on top of the green-rubber cushion without any adhesive between the inner surface of the pre-cured tread strip and an outer surface of the green-rubber cushion, the green-rubber strip filling the groove so as to grip the pre-cured tread strip to the underlying green-rubber cushion and to prevent detachment of the pre-cured tread strip from the green-rubber cushion, and curing the tyre fitted with the green-rubber cushion and the pre-cured tread strip; wherein the green-rubber strip is extruded directly into the groove in the pre-cured tread strip so that the green-rubber strip is applied to the groove in the pre-cured tread strip at high temperature; and wherein the green-rubber strip is inserted inside the groove on the inner surface of the pre-cured tread strip at an application station located along a feed conveyor feeding the pre-cured tread strip to the winding station, immediately upstream from the winding station.