Method for managing the production cycle of a plant in a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10479035-B2
Application number	US-201214363137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2012
Priority date	Dec 14, 2011
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

A method and a plant for managing the production cycle of a plant for building tires for vehicle wheels, wherein the plant provides for a storage region for anchoring annular structures and a plurality of processing stations at least one of which is associated with a forming drum, includes feeding a plurality of anchoring annular structures to the storage region, picking up the anchoring annular structures from the storage region at a predetermined picking-up position that does not change on changing of the types of the anchoring annular structures, and feeding the picked-up anchoring annular structures to the processing station associated with the forming drum.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for managing the production cycle of a plant for building a tyre for vehicle wheels:
feeding a plurality of anchoring annular structures, each comprising a bead ring and a filling insert, to a basket within a storage region, wherein the basket feeds the anchoring annular structures in succession to a predetermined picking-up position in three dimensional space, said predetermined picking-up position does not change if anchoring annular structures of the plurality of anchoring annular structures have differing diameters;
supporting each anchoring annular structure in the basket by a respective supporting member, each supporting member includes an abutment wall comprising a pair of coplanar fins separated from one another by a recess,
wherein each anchoring annular structure is supported by the respective supporting member at a respective support portion that is defined by a single circular sector at an upper portion of the anchoring annular structure's internal circumference, and
wherein an uppermost support portion of each anchoring annular structure spans a corresponding recess of its respective supporting member;

picking up a first anchoring annular structure of the plurality of anchoring annular structures from its uppermost support portion by inserting a gripper into the first anchoring annular structure's corresponding recess of its respective supporting member when the first anchoring annular structure reaches the predetermined picking-up position; and
carrying with said gripper the first anchoring annular structure by its uppermost support portion to a processing station associated with a forming drum.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising: feeding each anchoring annular structure in succession to the predetermined picking-up position.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein said feeding a plurality of anchoring annular structures to said storage region comprises: arranging the anchoring annular structures in an orderly line.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 , comprising: separating each anchoring annular structure from other anchoring annular structures at least at their respective uppermost support portions.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising: feeding a second anchoring annular structure to a position previously occupied by the picked-up anchoring annular structure.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said feeding a plurality of anchoring annular structures to said storage region comprises: feeding a plurality of groups of anchoring annular structures to said storage region wherein each group of anchoring annular structures is assigned to a respective basket within the storage region, and said picking up said first anchoring annular structure from said storage region comprises picking up each anchoring annular structure of each group of anchoring annular structures from its respective basket within the storage region.

Assignees

• Pirelli

Inventors

• Marchini Maurizio
• Berenguer Albert

Classifications

• B25J11/00

  Manipulators not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• B29D30/32

  Fitting the bead-rings or bead-cores; Folding the textile layers around the rings or cores · CPC title

• B29D2030/0044

  Handling tyre beads, e.g., storing, transporting, transferring and supplying to the toroidal support or to the drum · CPC title

• B29D30/48

  Bead-rings or bead-cores (from wire B21F37/00); Treatment thereof prior to building the tyre · CPC title

• B29D30/00 Primary

  Producing pneumatic or solid tyres or parts thereof (producing inner tubes B29D23/24; constructional form of tyres or parts thereof B60C; connection of valves to inflatable elastic bodies B60C29/00; testing of tyres G01M17/02) · CPC title