Patent ID: 8273282

Claim:
A process for manufacturing a tire using a bisected mold formed of upper and lower containers centrally separated along a horizontal plane, each of the upper and lower containers being split into a plurality of sectors arranged in a circumferential direction of a tire, and a plurality of segments with each segment slidably engaged with a sector through inclined guiding means; driving means for causing the upper and lower containers to approach and recede from each other, the driving means being provided on at least one of the containers; one or more upper side plates and one or more lower side plates detachably provided respectively on the upper and lower containers; molds for tire molding detachably fitted to inner sides of the segments; a plurality of guide pins, wherein one or more guide pins penetrates each sector along the guiding means and wherein one end of each guide pin is fixedly attached to each segment; a plurality of driving devices for causing each guide pin to move up and down; and slide unit means for slidably attaching each guide pin to a driving device, said process comprising the steps of: placing an unvulcanized tire inside the upper and lower containers in a state of mold opening along the molds for tire molding, the one or more upper side plates and the one or more lower side plates; performing vulcanization molding of the unvulcanized tire after changing from the state of mold opening to a state of mold clamping of the sectors and the segments through the driving devices and the slide unit means, and at the time of opening of the containers after the vulcanization molding of the unvulcanized tire, mold-opening only the sectors by use of the driving means for causing the upper and lower containers to recede while maintaining the state of mold clamping of the molds for tire molding and the segments by the driving device for causing each guide pin to move up and down and the slide unit means, and subsequently taking the vulcanization-molded tire from the inside of the molds for tire molding by opening the molds for tire molding and the segments.