A drum (1) for manufacturing a pneumatic tire (2) is provided with a plurality of clamping jaws (12) mounted so as to be movable between a retracted configuration and a deployed configuration which allows the clamping jaws (12) to engage with a bead wire (3) of the tire (2), the clamping jaws (12) being placed, to this end, under the control of a deployment system (13) which comprises an articulated parallelogram (20) having a first, fixed base (25) secured to a shaft (11) and a second, mobile base (26) secured to a clamping jaw (12), and a drive mechanism (30) designed to cooperate with the articulated parallelogram (20) so that it is possible to select and modify the radial position (d26) of the mobile base (26) with respect to the fixed base (25) in order to pass from the retracted configuration to the deployed configuration and vice versa.

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.

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.

A turn-up device, comprising a building machine main shaft, an outer sleeve device, a ply down finger assy, a bladder device, a bead setting device, and a bead locking device. The outer sleeve device, the ply down finger assy and the bladder device are all sleeved on the building machine main shaft. The outer sleeve device is located on the outer sides of the ply down finger assy and the bladder device along the radial direction of the building machine main shaft. The bead setting device is located on the outer sleeve device. A tire building method using the turn-up device can improve the building quality of tire beads, improve the service life of capsule and provide promising precision of carcass.

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 invention is related to a process and an apparatus for building tyres. In the process a carcass sleeve (11) comprising at least one carcass ply (3) and a pair of annular anchoring structures (5) is transferred to a shaping drum (14) comprising flange elements (16a, 16h) that are each engageable to one of said annular anchoring structures (5). The carcass sleeve (11) is shaped according to a toroidal configuration by means of mutual axial approaching of the flange elements (16a, 16b). Before shaping, annular grip elements (36) respectively carried by the flange elements (16a, 16b) are radially expanded each inside one of the annular anchoring structures (5) in order to engage the carcass sleeve (11). The annular anchoring structures (5) are moved axially apart from each other before engaging the carcass sleeve (11) by means of the annular grip elements (36).

A method of building a tire carcass is disclosed. The method of building the tire carcass includes the steps of applying one or more tire building components onto a drum forming a cylindrically shaped tire carcass. A first and second bead is placed onto a respective bead pocket. Then the carcass is inflated under low pressure into engagement with a belt and tread package while the bead pockets are moved axially inward. The beads are continued to move axially inward to the axial width of the widest breaker position. Then the outer lateral ends of the cylindrically shaped tire carcass are turned up about a respective first and second bead.

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.

Disclosed is a first drum half together with a second drum half forming a tire building drum of a tire building machine, and a method for operating the machine. The machine includes a first drive member and a second drive member movable in the axial direction inside the drum shaft. The first drum half includes a base movable over the drum shaft in an axial direction, a crown-up section having a plurality of crown segments and a displacement member for displacing the crown segments in a crown-up direction, wherein the first drum half further includes a first coupling member for coupling the first drive member to the base to drive the movement of the base and a second coupling member for coupling the second drive member to the displacement member to drive the displacement of the crown segments.

The invention relates to a method for operating a tire building machine, wherein the tire building machine comprises a first drum half, wherein the first drum half comprises a base for mounting the first drum half to the drum shaft, wherein the base has a central axis that is arranged to coincide with the rotation axis, wherein the base is arranged to be movable over the drum shaft in the axial direction parallel to said central axis, wherein the first drum half is further provided with a turn-up section comprising a plurality of turn-up arms and an arm support, wherein the turn-up arms are rotatable with respect to the arm support from an arms-down position towards an arms-up position, wherein the method comprises the step of displacing the arm support such that each turn-up arm is turned-up into an intermediate position between the arms-down position and the arms-up position.