Patent ID: 8082965

Claim:
A rubber sheet joining apparatus, comprising: a cutting unit for cutting a ribbon of cords reinforced rubber sheet at a right angle to a longitudinal direction of the ribbon in different lengths to generate plural different rubber sheet strips having different lengths, one of the plural different rubber sheet strips having a length corresponding to a width of a body ply of a tire, the cords extending in the longitudinal direction of the ribbon; a sheet overlaying unit for providing the rubber sheet strips having different lengths made by the cutting unit to a certain position to stack and join the plural different rubber sheet strips having different lengths to make a stacked and joined strip in which the centers of the plural different rubber sheet strips having different lengths are aligned with each other in a longitudinal direction of the rubber sheet strips; first holding members for holding a front end portion of a following stacked and joined strip made by the sheet overlaying unit; second holding members for holding a rear end portion of a preceding stacked and joined strip made by the sheet overlaying unit; support guides for movably supporting the first holding members relative to the second holding members; and an operating unit for moving the first holding members relative to the second holding members to butt-join the side surfaces of two successive stacked and joined strips held respectively by the first holding members and the second holding members to generate a ply sheet for the body ply of the tire.