Functional parts of a tire building machine

1. Drums – Some machines come with a single drum while some come with a twin
– drum design. The drum on which the breaker, tread and cap – ply package are
applied is called the B&T (breaker and tread) drum. While the drum on which the
innerliner, ply, beads, chafer and sidewall are applied is called the flat forming or
flat carcass drum or belt building drum.


Sometimes, the machine has a belt building machine and a belt building
drum which together perform the function of the flat forming drum.


The flat forming drums come with mechanical arms fitted with
rollers. The arms assist in the “turn up” of the sidewall and the body plies. The
diameter of this drum can be changed by using a set of slip – on segments.

Some machines come with four drums, two are the above discussed
drums while the rest two are used fro final shaping and stitching.

2. Component servicer – The component servicer delivers accurately positioned
components with a minimum of distortion. It can provide the different tire components such as inner liner, first body ply, second body ply, side wall,
finishing strip, stabilizer strip, belt cushion strip and so on.

The component servicer has to do many functions namely – cutting
the components into desired lengths, automatic centering of components using
say, CCDs and regulating the speed at which it provides the components.

Modern tire building machines come with features like automatic measuring,
cutting and positioning of the various components, dynamic breaker positioning, fast size
change, automatic green tire removal and machine performance monitoring.