System and method for producing rubber mixtures for vehicle tires comprising a spray system and an aspiration system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10328608-B2
Application number	US-201615767534-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2016
Priority date	Dec 15, 2015
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

A system and a method are provided for producing rubber mixtures. The system includes installations for performing a monopassage process and a multipassage process to produce a rubber mixture, and a transport system that transports the rubber mixture to one or more of the installations according to a selected recipe. The installations include a mixing and cooling installation that performs a mixing and cooling procedure in which the rubber mixture is formed into a sheet, the sheet is sprayed with water using at least one nozzle provided with water at a predetermined water flow rate and air at a predetermined air pressure, and evaporated water from the spraying of the sheet is evacuated at a predetermined air flow rate. The mixing and cooling procedure causes the rubber mixture of the sheet to reach target temperature and water-content values before a complementary mixing procedure is performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for producing rubber mixtures having expected properties, the system comprising:
a plurality of rubber-mixture production installations, the production installations being arranged to perform monopassage rubber-mixture production processes and multipassage rubber-mixture production processes, each production installation being structured to execute at least one procedure of the monopassage rubber-mixture production processes and/or multipassage rubber-mixture production processes; and
a transport system that transports a mixture of rubber to one or more of the production installations sequentially according to a sequence of a rubber-mixture recipe selected for processing the mixture of rubber to have expected properties,
wherein the production installations include a mixing and cooling installation that performs a mixing and cooling procedure, the mixing and cooling installation including:
an external mixer including a pair of cylinders for forming the mixture of rubber into a rubber sheet,
a spray system including at least one spray rail positioned at each of an upper spray station and a lower spray station, each spray rail being in communication with a source for supplying water and air to one or more nozzles at a predetermined water flow rate and a predetermined air pressure, and
an aspiration system including an aspiration hood positioned downstream of each spray rail, each aspiration hood being in communication with a source for evacuating air at a predetermined air flow rate, and

wherein, during the mixing and cooling procedure, the mixing and cooling installation sprays the rubber sheet with water and evacuates air containing evaporated water in order to cause the rubber sheet to reach a target temperature value and a target water-content value before a complementary mixing procedure is performed.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the production installations include:
an initial mixing installation structured to perform an initial mixing procedure,
an end-of-line installation structured to perform an end-of-line procedure, and
a complementary mixing installation structured to perform the complementary mixing procedure.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the initial mixing installation includes an internal mixer structured with an internal-mixing chamber having a predetermined filling volume for receiving and mixing an elastomeric material with one or more initial ingredients during the initial mixing procedure to form the mixture of rubber, and
wherein the complementary mixing installation includes a ramless mixer structured with a ramless-mixing chamber having a predetermined filling volume for receiving the rubber sheet and mixing the rubber sheet with one or more complementary ingredients, the predetermined filling volume of the ramless-mixing chamber being approximately two times greater than the predetermined filling volume of the internal-mixing chamber.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the initial mixing installation performs the initial mixing procedure so that the mixture of rubber has a temperature not exceeding 180° C., and
where the complementary mixing installation performs the complementary mixing procedure so that the rubber sheet has a temperature not exceeding 110° C.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the transport system includes a transport installation structured to transfer the rubber sheet to a preselected rubber-mixture production installation, the transport installation including:
a conveyor portion structured to transfer the rubber sheet to the end-of-line installation, and
a retractable conveyor portion structured to move selectively to enable the rubber sheet to be transferred to the end-of-line installation via the conveyor portion or to transfer the rubber sheet to the complementary mixing installation.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the retractable conveyor portion has:
a first position for transferring the rubber sheet to the complementary mixing installation to enable the complementary mixing procedure to be performed on the rubber sheet before the rubber sheet is provided to the end-of-line installation, and
a second position for enabling the rubber sheet to be transferred to the end-of-line installation via the conveyor portion without the complementary mixing procedure being performed on the rubber sheet.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the end-of-line installation includes equipment for performing on the rubber sheet at least one of a profiling procedure, a sampling procedure, an end processing procedure, a cooling procedure, and a palletizing procedure.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the transport installation further includes an evacuation station that includes a spray rail and an aspiration hood.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the target temperature value is about 70° C., and
where the target water-content value does not exceed about 0.20% by weight of the rubber sheet.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is structured to perform the monopassage rubber-mixture production processes and the multipassage rubber-mixture production processes without a need for additional equipment to be used.

11. A method for producing rubber mixtures from selected recipes, the rubber mixtures having expected properties, the method comprising steps of:
providing a system that includes:
a plurality of rubber-mixture production installations, the production installations being arranged to perform monopassage rubber-mixture production processes and multipassage rubber-mixture production processes, each production installation being structured to execute at least one procedure of the monopassage rubber-mixture production processes and/or multipassage rubber-mixture production processes, and
a transport system that transports a mixture of rubber to one or more of the production installations according to a sequence of a rubber-mixture recipe selected for processing the mixture of rubber to have expected properties,
wherein the production installations include a mixing and cooling installation that performs a mixing and cooling procedure, the mixing and cooling installation including:
an external mixer including a pair of cylinders for forming the mixture of rubber into a rubber sheet,
a spray system including at least one spray rail positioned at each of an upper spray station and a lower spray station, each spray rail being in communication with a source for supplying water and air to one or more nozzles at a predetermined water flow rate and a predetermined air pressure, and
an aspiration system including an aspiration hood positioned downstream of each spray rail, each aspiration hood being in communication with a source for evacuating air at a predetermined air flow rate, and

wherein, during the mixing and cooling procedure, the mixing and cooling installation sprays the rubber sheet with water and evacuates air containing evaporated water in order to cause the rubber sheet to reach a target temperature value and a target water-content value before a complementary mixing procedure is performed;

processing a mixture of rubber at the mixing and cooling installation to form the rubber sheet as part of a sequence according to a selected rubber-mixture recipe; and
transporting, using the transport system, the rubber sheet to a next one of the production installations in the sequence according to the selected rubber-mixture recipe.

12. The method of claim 11 , further including performing at least one of:
an initial mixing procedure at an initial-mixing installation,
an end-of-line procedure at an end-of-line installation, and
a complementary mixing procedure at

Assignees

• Michelin & Cie

Inventors

• Bornes Stephane
• Le Bars Lionel
• Otto Stephan
• Signoret Christian

Classifications

• B29B7/724

  for continuous roller mixers, e.g. calenders (B29B7/722 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B29B7/726

  Measuring properties of mixture, e.g. temperature or density (B29B7/724 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B29B7/7495

  for mixing rubber · CPC title

• B29B7/7485

  with consecutive mixers, e.g. with premixing some of the components · CPC title

• B29B7/24 Primary

  for feeding · CPC title