Patent ID: 7661944

Claim:
A tire vulcanizer comprising a vulcanizer body having an upper container attached to a bolster plate and a lower container attached to a bottom plate, and a shaping unit in which a green tire is mounted outside the vulcanizer body and which is set in the vulcanizer body with the green tire mounted therein, the tire vulcanizer characterized in that: the shaping unit includes a bladder made of inflatable tubular rubber, an upper clamp ring which fixes an upper end of the bladder, a lower clamp ring which fixes a lower end of the bladder, and a fluid port through which a pressurized fluid is supplied/discharged to/from an inside of the bladder; the upper and lower clamp rings are approachably/separably supported so that they are able to be positioned at a bladder extended position and at a shaping position, the bladder extended position being a position at which the upper and lower clamp rings are distanced away from each other so that an outer diameter of the bladder is to be smaller than an inner diameter of the green tire, the shaping position being a position at which the upper and lower clamp rings approach each other so that the outer circumference of the bladder is to be made in tight contact with the inner circumference of the green tire; the shaping unit is set in the vulcanizer body in a shaping state that the outer circumference of the bladder is made in tight contact with the inner circumference of the green tire by supplying a fluid to inside of the bladder from the fluid port and positioning the upper and lower clamp rings at the shaping position; the upper clamp ring is connected with one end of an extendable shaft and the lower clamp ring is connected with the other end of the extendable shaft which is composed of an inner shaft and an outer tubular shaft such that the inner shaft is slidably fitted into an inside of the outer tubular shaft; a latch member is formed on the inner shaft so as to advance/retreat between an engaged position at which the latch member protrudes from an outer circumference of the inner shaft and a contained position at which the latch member does not protrude from the outer circumference of the inner shaft; and a step portion is formed on the inner surface of the outer tubular shaft to be engaged with the latch member, thereby latching the upper and lower clamp rings at the shaping position.