The present technology provides a method of building a tire and a tire building machine. When bonding together longitudinal direction end portions of an outer circumferential side strip-shaped rubber member wrapped around a building drum to form a cylindrical shape, inner circumferential surfaces of projecting parts of the longitudinal direction end portions that project in a drum width direction relative to an inner circumferential side strip-shaped rubber member are supported by a support section, and the inner circumferential surfaces are positioned at a level of an outer circumferential surface of the inner circumferential side strip-shaped rubber member. In this state, the projecting parts are pressed in the drum width direction by a pressing section, and the longitudinal direction end portions are bonded together.

An anti-collapse collar is provided that has a body that has an axis. The body has a convex outer surface and defines an interior space. The body has a holding configuration for holding a tire carcass. The body is deformable to a release configuration to move a portion of the outer surface closer to the axis in a radial direction of the body. A release mechanism is spaced from the convex outer surface in the radial direction of the body. Force applied to the release mechanism causes the body to deform to the release configuration.

A tire unloading unit for unloading a green tire, wherein the green tire has an externally facing circumferential tread surface extending around a tire axis, wherein the tire unloading unit has a base and a support for supporting the green tire relative to the base at the externally facing circumferential tread surface projecting from the base for stabilizing the green tire at the externally facing circumferential tread surface from above, wherein the upper arm includes a first lateral boundary member, a second lateral boundary member and intermediate boundary members which are individually movable to closely adapt to the contour of the green tire and remain in contact with said contour even when the green tire collapses slightly over time.

A gripper, a gripper station and a method for gripping an annular tire component, wherein the gripper has a plurality of gripper members distributed in a circumferential direction about a gripper axis and movable with at least a vector component in a radial direction perpendicular to the gripper axis over a main range with a radially inner endpoint and a radially outer endpoint. The gripper further has a limiter for limiting the movement of the plurality of gripper members in the radial direction to a subrange within the main range, wherein the subrange has an adjustable subrange position relative to the main range. The gripper has a synchronization member for synchronizing movements of the plurality of gripper members in the radial direction, wherein the synchronization member defines the main range, and wherein the limiter is arranged for limiting the synchronization member to define the subrange.

A plant for building tyres includes a plurality of working locations, at least one first working location being associated with at least two loading/unloading locations, a proximal one and a distal one, each of said working locations and loading/unloading locations being associable with a forming drum. The production cycle is controlled by the method of: (i) loading a first forming drum into the at least one first working location; (ii) loading a second forming drum into the loading/unloading location; (iii) at the end of the working provided in the at least one first working location, unloading the first forming drum into the proximal loading/unloading location.

In an assembly station a carcass sleeve and an outer sleeve manufactured along respective building ones are mutually coupled. Integrated into the assembly station are engagement devices that can be alternatively coupled to an auxiliary drum carrying an outer sleeve and to a building drum carrying a carcass sleeve. A grip unit picks up the outer sleeve from the auxiliary drum associated with the engagement devices in order to position it to a location radially external to the carcass sleeve carried by the building drum associated with the engagement devices in place of the auxiliary drum. Shaping devices that can be operatively coupled to the building drum cause radial expansion of the carcass sleeve so as to enable the latter to be coupled to the outer sleeve retained by the grip unit.

A method is provided for making an annular reinforcement structure having inner and outer reinforcement bands maintained in concentric alignment by a resilient spacing element positioned between the bands. The method includes the steps of placing the spacing element against the inside face of the outer reinforcement band and compressing the spacing element with a jig, adjacent the top edge of the outer reinforcement band. The spacing element is sufficiently compressed to allow the inner reinforcement band to slide into concentric alignment with the outer reinforcement band, with a minimum of deflection and/or distortion of the inner reinforcement band.

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.

A method is provided for making an annular reinforcement structure having inner and outer reinforcement bands maintained in concentric alignment by a resilient spacing element positioned between the bands. The method includes the steps of placing the spacing element against the inside face of the outer reinforcement band and compressing the spacing element with a jig, adjacent the top edge of the outer reinforcement band. The spacing element is sufficiently compressed to allow the inner reinforcement band to slide into concentric alignment with the outer reinforcement band, with a minimum of deflection and/or distortion of the inner reinforcement band.

A method manufactures a wheel and tire assembly for a mobile vehicle. The method includes the steps of: extruding a cylindrical sprocket structure out of a first polymer; sliding the structure over a cylindrical tire building drum; forming an annular reinforcement layer by wrapping a ply around inflatable bladders; transferring the reinforcement layer and bladders to a sprocket structure; positioning the bladders and ply to correspond to curved indentations of the sprocket structure; inflating the bladders to tension and appropriately position the ply; extruding a cylindrical ring structure out of a second polymer; sliding the ring structure over the tire building drum; positioning the bladders and ply to correspond to curved indentations of the ring structure; forming cylindrical cavities by the curved indentations of the sprocket structure and ring structure; securing an annular layer about an outer surface of the ring structure; deflating the bladders; contracting the tire building drum; removing the bladders and tire build drum from a complete structure including the sprocket structure, the ply, the ring structure, and the layer; curing the complete structure; and mounting the complete, cured structure on a vehicle wheel.