Patent ID: 7288160

Claim:
A method of building a tire carcass on a tire building drum comprising the steps of: applying one or more tire building components onto a rotating drum to form a cylindrically shaped unvulcanized tire carcass having carcass ends; wherein said drum has a center section and a first and second shoulder section, said center section being radially expandable, said center section further comprising center segments having a first half and a second half, wherein the first half is connected to a first ring and the second half is joined to a second ring, wherein said first and second rings are rotatably mounted within the first half and second half, respectively; wherein the first and second rings are joined together by one or more linkages for maintaining the rotational synchronization of the first and second rings; placing a first and second bead around the tire building components on the drum so that the carcass ends of the tire carcass extend laterally between the beads; radially expanding a first and second bead lock mechanism into engagement with a first and second bead; moving the carcass located between the bead locks radially outward by radially expanding the center section of the tire building drum while moving the pair of bead lock mechanisms axially inward and while rotating said first and second rings together within the center segments, and maintaining the synchronization of the rotation of the rings by the one or more linkages.