A turn-up section for a tire building drum, includes a plurality of turn-up arms distributed circumferentially about a central axis and an arm support for supporting the turn-up arms with respect to a base, wherein the turn-up arms are rotatable with respect to the arm support from an arms-down position towards an arms-up position in response to the movement of the arm support in an arm drive direction. Each turn-up arm comprises a hinge pin for rotatably coupling the respective turn-up arm to the arm support. The arm support includes a hinge seat for removably receiving the hinge pin of the respective turn-up arm. The hinge pin is retained in the hinge seat by one or more biasing members. The hinge pin of the turn-up arm is removable from the hinge seat in a radial direction with respect to the central axis by counteracting the bias of the one or more biasing members.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and to a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels, wherein sidewalls (11) are applied on opposite sides of a carcass sleeve (12) placed on a shaping drum (13). The application of the sidewalls (11) comprises: arranging each sidewall (11) as a ring around application levers (24) of a respective support (18), making an axial appendage (35) of the sidewall (11) protrude axially beyond the free ends (25) of the respective application levers (24); radially opening the free ends (25) of the application levers (24) of each support (18) so as to make the respective sidewall (11) radially expand; axially approaching the free ends (25) of the application levers (24) to the respective half-drum (17) up to engaging the axial appendage (35) with the carcass sleeve (12) and radially opening the free ends (25) of the application levers (24) to adhere the sidewalls against the carcass sleeve (12).

The present invention relates to an apparatus and to a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels, wherein sidewalls (11) are applied on opposite sides of a carcass sleeve (12) placed on a shaping drum (13). The application of the sidewalls (11) comprises: arranging each sidewall (11) as a ring around application levers (24) of a respective support (18), making an axial appendage (35) of the sidewall (11) protrude axially beyond the free ends (25) of the respective application levers (24); radially opening the free ends (25) of the application levers (24) of each support (18) so as to make the respective sidewall (11) radially expand; axially approaching the free ends (25) of the application levers (24) to the respective half-drum (17) up to engaging the axial appendage (35) with the carcass sleeve (12) and radially opening the free ends (25) of the application levers (24) to adhere the sidewalls against the carcass sleeve (12).

A tire includes: a bead core; a bead filler which extends to an outer side in the tire-radial direction of the bead core; a carcass ply which extends from the bead core to another bead core, and folded back around the bead core; and a rubber sheet which covers a folding end of the carcass ply folded back, in which an electronic component is provided between the bead filler and the rubber sheet.

A process for manufacturing tyres for vehicle wheels, comprising the step of building on a forming support a carcass structure comprising at least one carcass ply and, at at least one end edge of the carcass ply, at least one annular anchoring structure comprising at least one substantially circumferential annular insert and at least one filling insert associated to said at least one substantially circumferential annular insert. The step of building the carcass structure comprises the steps of positioning the annular anchoring structure on the carcass ply by moving the annular substantially circumferential insert into contact with an end edge of the carcass ply by means of a special positioning member, pulling down the filling insert on the end edge of the carcass ply and turning up a free end portion of the end edge of the carcass ply so as to form a turned up end portion of the carcass ply including said annular anchoring structure. The pulling down of the filling insert on the end edge of the carcass ply is carried out by a special pulling down member while the substantially circumferential annular insert is retained into a contact position with the end edge of the carcass ply by said positioning member.

A process for manufacturing tyres for vehicle wheels, comprising the step of building on a forming support a carcass structure comprising at least one carcass ply and, at at least one end edge of the carcass ply, at least one annular anchoring structure comprising at least one substantially circumferential annular insert and at least one filling insert associated to said at least one substantially circumferential annular insert. The step of building the carcass structure comprises the steps of positioning the annular anchoring structure on the carcass ply by moving the annular substantially circumferential insert into contact with an end edge of the carcass ply by means of a special positioning member, pulling down the filling insert on the end edge of the carcass ply and turning up a free end portion of the end edge of the carcass ply so as to form a turned up end portion of the carcass ply including said annular anchoring structure. The pulling down of the filling insert on the end edge of the carcass ply is carried out by a special pulling down member while the substantially circumferential annular insert is retained into a contact position with the end edge of the carcass ply by said positioning member.

A pneumatic tire comprises a tread portion, sidewall portions, bead portions each with a bead core embedded therein, and a carcass extending between the bead portions and comprising first carcass cords and second carcass cords. The first carcass cord comprises: a main portion extending from the tread portion to the bead portions via the sidewall portions; and folded-back portions continued from the main portion and folded back around the bead cores from the inside to the outside in the tire axial direction. The second carcass cord extends from the tread portion to the bead portions and terminates on the axially outside of the folded-back portions of the first carcass cords. Young's modulus of the second carcass cords is larger than Young's modulus of the first carcass cords.

A pneumatic tire comprises a tread portion, sidewall portions, bead portions each with a bead core embedded therein, and a carcass extending between the bead portions and comprising first carcass cords and second carcass cords. The first carcass cord comprises: a main portion extending from the tread portion to the bead portions via the sidewall portions; and folded-back portions continued from the main portion and folded back around the bead cores from the inside to the outside in the tire axial direction. The second carcass cord extends from the tread portion to the bead portions and terminates on the axially outside of the folded-back portions of the first carcass cords. Young's modulus of the second carcass cords is larger than Young's modulus of the first carcass cords.

A method and a plant for managing the production cycle of a plant for building tyres for vehicle wheels, wherein the plant provides for a storage region for anchoring annular structures and a plurality of processing stations at least one of which is associated with a forming drum, includes feeding a plurality of anchoring annular structures to the storage region, picking up the anchoring annular structures from the storage region at a predetermined picking-up position that does not change on changing of the types of the anchoring annular structures, and feeding the picked-up anchoring annular structures to the processing station associated with the forming drum.

Provided is a tire building drum and a method for shaping tire components on the tire building drum, wherein the tire building drum has an annular sleeve that extends over turn-up arms in the longitudinal direction of the turn-up arms. The sleeve is elastic in the circumferential direction and fits elastically around the turn-up arms. The sleeve is provided with inelastic reinforcement elements extending in at least a part of the sleeve in a reinforcement direction transverse to the circumferential direction of the tire building drum, and has a fixed end that is retained in the axial direction and a movable end that is movable over the turn-up arms in their respective longitudinal directions.