A plant for building a tyre for a vehicle wheel includes a device for building carcass sleeves on building drums, a bead-forming machine, a first storage region, a second storage region, a first transport device movable between a picking-up position of pairs of annular anchoring structures in the first storage region and a release position of the pairs of annular anchoring structures in the bead-forming machine, and a second transport device movable between a first engagement position in the first storage region and a second engagement position in the second storage region, to move a plurality of annular anchoring structures between the first storage region and the second storage region.

A tire building drum has a crown section with crown segments which are movable from a crown-down position into a crown-up position, wherein the crown segments together form a crown surface facing outwards in the radial direction, a leading edge and a shoulder that forms the transition from the crown surface to the leading edge, wherein the shoulder leaves a gap, wherein the tire building drum further includes a plurality of support members that extend in said gap, wherein each crown segment has a first side and a second side, wherein each crown segment further includes one or more guide channels, wherein each guide channel is arranged for receiving a respective one of the plurality of support members in the respective crown segment between the first side and the second side. Also disclosed is a method for tire building using the aforementioned tire building drum.

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 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 carcass sleeve is situated in a radially external position with respect to a toroidal forming drum, arranged in a first radially contracted operative condition. The carcass sleeve is shaped according to a toroidal configuration while the forming drum is positioned inside the carcass sleeve. During shaping of the carcass sleeve, the forming drum is radially expanded up to a second radially expanded operative condition. Upon completed shaping, the carcass sleeve is coupled to the forming drum in the second operative condition. The forming drum, coupled to the shaped carcass sleeve, is arranged in proximity to at least one device for building at least one belt layer at a radially external position relative to the shaped carcass sleeve.

A tire uniformity correcting drum comprises: a lower drum to be in contact with a portion of an inner circumferential surface of a tire; an upper drum provided to be movable up and down with respect to the lower drum and configured to press another portion of the inner circumferential surface of the tire which is not in contact with the lower drum; and a hydraulic driving unit configured to connect the lower drum and the upper drum and move up and down the upper drum with respect to the lower drum. A contact area of the upper drum with the inner circumferential surface of the tire is smaller than a contact area of the lower drum with the inner circumferential surface of the tire.

A method for managing a carcass structure building line, a plant and a process for building tyre carcass structures, wherein the plant includes a carcass structure building line provided with a plurality of stations including an unloading station and n building stations. A group of forming drums being processed includes m forming drums being processed defining a first size of carcass structure being processed. Three groups of entering forming drums include respective entering forming drums, defining a second size of carcass structure being processed. A pair of support elements being processed includes a first and a second support element being processed and three pairs of entering support elements respectively include a first and a second entering support element. The invention also relates to a method for managing a carcass structure building line.

A method for manufacturing a tyre is provided, in particular a run-flat tyre. The method includes providing a drum with a first shrink section and a second shrink section. Each shrink section is provided with a shrink surface that is radially movable. The method includes moving the shrink surfaces radially inwards with respect to the central axis from a level position to a shrink position in which the drum, at the shrink surfaces, has a circumference with a second diameter that is smaller than the first diameter, while creating a partial vacuum between the shrink surfaces and a first tyre layer at the first shrink section and the second shrink section. The method further includes shrinking the first tyre layer onto the shrink surfaces in the shrink position under the influence of the partial vacuum. A drum for use in the aforementioned method is also disclosed.

A method and a device for the production of a green tire, in which at least two materials in strip form are positioned on a tire building drum. At least two cores are set in place. The tire building drum is equipped both with a core clamping device and with a core fixing device. The tire building drum is composed of a central part and of two drum halves arranged adjacent to the central part on both sides. The drum halves are arranged such that they can be positioned in an axial direction. The central part is equipped with a variable diameter in a radial direction. A radial enlargement of the diameter of the central part is performed before the cores are set in place.

A drum for producing a tire casing blank comprises a support and sectors forming a circumferential face of the drum. Each sector has a circumferential outer face having a contour of general trapezoidal form and is mounted so as to be movable relative to the support in a non-radial predetermined direction relative to an axis of rotation of the drum and intercepting this axis.