An advanced tire mold has been developed which offers the advantages of reducing the level of whiskers on the surface of the tire, reduces sticking to the mold, and which facilitates enhanced gas removal. This tire mold includes a mold segment having an inner side for contacting the uncured tire, an outer side opposite to the inner side, and a plurality of vent passages which allow gas to pass from the inner side of the mold segment to the outer side of the mold segment, the vent passages comprising vent slots, wherein each vent slots have an inlet at the inner side of the mold segment, and wherein the vent slots taper from the inlets to the outer side of the mold segment. This tire mold can be comprised of multiple mold segments which can be utilized in a tire curing press.

A vent plug is mounted in a vent hole open in a molding face of a tire cure mold. The vent plug has a cylindrical housing having a vent path in itself, a stem that is inserted into the housing and serves as a valve element for opening and closing the vent path, and a coil-shaped spring that biases the stem toward a cavity so as to open the vent path. The vent path includes an outer inlet portion open in an annular shape between a valve seat provided to the housing and a head portion of the stem that comes in contact with the valve seat, and an inner inlet portion open in an annular shape on an inner side of the outer inlet portion.

A pneumatic tire is provided with sipes, at least some of which have an open top end to the surface of the tread block. An intersection of the sipe with a surface that is geometrically congruent and parallel with the surface of the tread block and arranged a depth apart from the surface of the tread block into the tread block forms a curved line. A first sipe is shaped in such a way, that at all depths (d) within a range from the open top of the first sipe to a first transition depth, the curved line includes at least one deflection point having an inner corner that has a radius of curvature under 0.3 mm. A lamella plate for manufacturing the pneumatic tire, the tread band, or the tread block. Use of the lamella plate for manufacturing a tread block, a tread band, or a pneumatic tire.

A vent plug is mounted in a vent hole open in a molding face of a tire cure mold. The vent plug has a cylindrical housing having a vent path in itself, a stem that is inserted into the housing and serves as a valve element for opening and closing the vent path, and a coil-shaped spring that biases the stem toward a cavity so as to open the vent path. The stem includes a columnar trunk portion and a head portion that comes in contact with a valve seat at an opening portion of the housing to thereby close the vent path. The stem turns as the stem moves along an axial direction.

An assembly (1) of moulding elements for moulding cuts in a tread of a tire comprises a first sipe blade (2), a second sipe blade (3) and means for assembling the first sipe blade (2) with the second sipe blade (3), The assembly means comprise at least one slot (20) in the thickness of the first sipe blade (2), said first sipe blade (2) having no additional thickness at said slot (20) and a protuberance (30) in the continuation of the second sipe blade (3), said protuberance (30) being able to be inserted into the slot (20). This assembly system is both simple to produce and allows a multitude of configurations of the sipe blades relative to one another.

A tire cure mold has a tire molding face, a mounting groove provided to the tire molding face and a stencil plate mounted into the mounting groove. The stencil plate has a front face that faces a cavity, a back face that faces a bottom face of the mounting groove, and a through hole extending from the front face to the back face. A recessed portion for forming a protruding identification mark on the outer surface of the tire is provided to the front face. A first protruding portion corresponding to the recessed portion is provided to the back face. A second protruding portion that protrudes toward the bottom face of the mounting groove is provided to an outer edge portion of the stencil plate at least at a periphery of the through hole.

A tire curing apparatus having two guide rods, a mold having an upper mold and a lower mold, an upper plate, a lower plate, and an upper-mold raising/lowering device. Two clamp grooves (a first clamp groove and a second clamp groove) are formed on a path along which the upper plate moves on an outer peripheral surface of the guide rod. The upper plate has a clamping device. The clamping device is formed of a clamp block and fixes the upper plate by being fitted to the first or second clamp groove.

The present invention relates to a device for manufacturing a mould element for moulding a tread by injection of pressurized aluminium, characterized in that it includes a die and a steel counterform, said die and said counterform forming a chamber, and in that the die has slots into which strips are inserted, said slots being wider than the thickness of the strip to enable the strips to come out of the slots when demoulding the mould element from the chamber, and in that the insertion depth of the slots is equal to or less than 25 mm. The chosen width of the slot is a compromise between the hold of the strip during injection of the pressurized aluminium and the ease of demoulding said strip. The slots are blind in order to limit the penetration of the strips, which only project from one side and do not pass through the die.

Rib- or fin-shaped element (1, 10) comprising an anchoring part (1b.sub.1, 10b.sub.1) and a molding part (1b.sub.2, 10b.sub.2), wherein the anchoring part (1b.sub.1, 10b.sub.1) can be anchored in a profile ring segment of a profile ring of a vulcanizing mold that molds the tread of a vehicle tire and the molding part (1b.sub.2, 10b.sub.2) is provided for molding a sipe or a groove in the tread.

The element (1, 10) has at least one elongate projection (1a, 11), which forms a bevel at the periphery of the tread and is produced by means of selective laser melting.

A mold for molding a tire tread comprises a plurality of mold segments. Each of the plurality of mold segments includes an integer number of tread pitch repetitions. The plurality of mold segments are structured to be coupled to each other end-to-end so as to form the mold such that the mold includes an integer number of tread pitches. The mold also includes at least one mold end segment positioned on at least one end of the mold and has a mold end segment length shorter than a length of each of the plurality of mold segments.