US 12,233,616 B2
Apparatus and method for automatic tire ply stitching
Phillip T. Brasher, Jr., Nashville, TN (US); Chad P. Wright, McMinnville, TN (US); Wesley R. Minton, McMinnville, TN (US); and Angel M. Carvajal, Mount Juliet, TN (US)
Assigned to Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, Nashville, TN (US)
Filed by Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, Nashville, TN (US)
Filed on Apr. 8, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/297,603.
Application 18/297,603 is a division of application No. 17/632,576, granted, now 11,654,646, previously published as PCT/US2020/042859, filed on Jul. 21, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/889,624, filed on Aug. 21, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0241850 A1, Aug. 3, 2023
Int. Cl. B29D 30/30 (2006.01); B29C 53/42 (2006.01); B29C 65/00 (2006.01); B29D 30/42 (2006.01)
CPC B29D 30/3007 (2013.01) [B29C 53/42 (2013.01); B29C 66/4322 (2013.01); B29D 2030/422 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of automatically splicing together two ends of a sheet of tire material on a tire building drum, the drum having a rotational axis defining a longitudinal direction relative to the drum, the method comprising:
(a) providing a splicer foot assembly including:
a splicer foot including a plurality of forward lower preparation rollers and a plurality of rearward lower splicer rollers; and
a plurality of upper preparation rollers;
(b) providing a splicer roller assembly including a plurality of upper splicer rollers, the splicer roller assembly being longitudinally translatable relative to the tire building drum independently of the splicer foot assembly;
(c) wrapping the sheet of tire material on the tire building drum so that the ends of the sheet of tire material face each other;
(d) inserting the splicer foot under the ends of the sheet of tire material at a rearward side of the sheet of tire material;
(e) gripping the ends of the sheet of tire material between the upper preparation rollers and the forward lower preparation rollers;
(f) advancing the splicer foot assembly in a forward longitudinal direction relative to the drum while simultaneously power rotating the upper preparation rollers and thereby pulling the two ends of the sheet of tire material toward each other over the splicer foot as the splicer foot assembly advances in the forward longitudinal direction;
(g) gripping the ends of the sheet of tire material between the upper splicer rollers and the rearward lower splicer rollers; and
(h) splicing together the two ends of the sheet of tire material as the independently translatable splicer roller assembly and the splicer foot assembly advance together in unison in the forward longitudinal direction.