Patent ID: 7371060

Claim:
A mold attaching/detaching apparatus in a tire vulcanizer, the tire vulcanizer comprising: a top plate and a bottom plate relatively moving in a horizontal direction, and relatively moving in a vertical direction at a vulcanizing position; a segmental mold that includes an upper container plate, a lower container plate, and a plurality of divided segments expanding and contracting in radial directions, and that is replaceably placed on the bottom plate; an expansion/contraction device mounted to the top plate, and expanding and contracting the segments of the segmental mold; a locking/unlocking means provided between the expansion/contraction device and the upper container plate; and the segmental mold being held between the top plate and the bottom plate to perform vulcanization at the vulcanizing position, and opened and closed while expanding and contracting the segments by raising and lowering the top plate and operating the expansion/contraction device, in an engaged state of the locking/unlocking means, wherein the locking/unlocking means includes a locking piece provided in the expansion/contraction device, and a receiving piece provided to the upper container plate of the segmental mold; and wherein the locking/unlocking means is configured so that the locking piece horizontally moves to below the receiving piece and is engaged with the receiving piece when the expansion/contraction device mounted to the top plate and the segmental mold placed on the bottom plate move to the vulcanizing position where the center of the expansion/contraction device and the center of the segmental mold coincide with each other by a relative movement between the expansion/contraction device mounted to the top plate and the segmental mold placed on the bottom plate in the horizontal direction, and so that the locking piece horizontally moves from below the receiving piece and is disengaged from the receiving piece when the expansion/contraction device or the segmental mold moves to an offset position shifted from the vulcanizing position in the horizontal direction.