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 tire building drum is disclosed. A thrust plate is mounted at a tapered end of a central shaft. An actuator is slidable along the shaft between first and second positions. Arcuate segments are arranged in a circumferential relationship about the shaft to define a working surface. First guide rails are slidably secured to the thrust plate, with a first end of each first rail mounted near a first end of one of the segments and a second end extending radially inwardly along the thrust plate. Second guide rails are slidably secured to the actuator, with a first end of each second rail mounted near a second end of one of the segments and a second end extending radially and axially inwardly along the actuator. Each of the guide rail second ends extends radially inward toward the inwardly tapered shaft portion when the actuator is in the first position.

In a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels, a carcass sleeve is arranged on a shaping drum including two half-drums and two supports. Each support is operatively associated with one of the half-drums and carries a plurality of turning-up levers having free ends positioned close to the respective half-drum. Two annular anchoring structures are disposed around the carcass sleeve and each of the two supports is locked to the respective half-drum by interposing only stiff mechanical elements in mutual contact between the support and the half-drum. The carcass sleeve is shaped in a toroidal conformation, by setting a threaded shaft in rotation and moving the half-drums close to each other. Subsequently, each of the two supports is unlocked from the respective half-drum and the threaded shaft is set in rotation to move each support close to the respective half-drum and lift up the free ends of the turning-up levers until the end flaps of the carcass sleeve are turned up around the annular anchoring structures.

During building of tyres, at least one first forming drum is employed which has a deposition surface and includes sectors radially movable relative to a geometric rotation axis, and circumferentially distributed one after the other. A plurality of strip-like elements is deposited in circumferential side by side relationship on the deposition surface set in the first deposition configuration, to form at least one component of at least one first crown structure. Setting of the deposition surface includes the actions of radially moving the sectors to give the deposition surface a predetermined diameter and carry out a relative movement between a central portion and axially external end portions of each sector to shape the deposition surface according to a predetermined curvature outline.

During building of tires, at least one first forming drum is employed which has a deposition surface and includes sectors radially movable relative to a geometric rotation axis, and circumferentially distributed one after the other. A plurality of strip-like elements is deposited in circumferential side by side relationship on the deposition surface set in the first deposition configuration, to form at least one component of at least one first crown structure. Setting of the deposition surface includes the actions of radially moving the sectors to give the deposition surface a predetermined diameter and carry out a relative movement between a central portion and axially external end portions of each sector to shape the deposition surface according to a predetermined curvature outline.

A plant for building tyres for vehicle wheels is described. The plant includes a crown structure building for building crown structures on second stage forming drums, a carcass structure building line for building carcass structures on first stage forming drums, a shaping and assembly station, a first manipulator, and a second manipulator. The first manipulator is configured to manage the flow of the second stage forming drums and the second manipulator is configured to manage the flow of the first stage forming terms.