Method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures and plant for looping annular anchoring structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10960629-B2
Application number	US-201616062067-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2016
Priority date	Dec 23, 2015
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

A plant ( 1 ) for looping annular anchoring structures ( 100 ) includes a looping device ( 2 ), a separation station ( 8 a ) and a coupling station ( 8 b ). A handling apparatus ( 3 ) is interlocked to the looping device ( 2 ) for managing the plant ( 1 ) by moving the plurality of annular anchoring structures ( 100 ) coupled to respective separation elements ( 300 ), the looped annular anchoring structures ( 200 ) coupled to respective separation elements ( 300 ) and the separation elements ( 300 a ). The separation elements ( 300 ) are fed, coupled to respective annular anchoring structures ( 100 ), along a feeding section (A 1 ). The separation elements ( 300 a ) separated by respective annular anchoring structures ( 100, 200 ) are transferred from the separation station ( 8 a ) to the coupling station ( 8 b ) along a transfer section (T), stationing in at least a first intermediate station ( 11, 11 a ). The separation elements ( 300 ) are moved away, coupled to respective looped annular anchoring structures ( 200 ), along a moving-apart section (A 2 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures comprising:
arranging a plurality of annular anchoring structures coupled to respective separation elements;
separating each annular anchoring structure from the respective separation element for subjecting each annular structure to a looping process and obtaining a plurality of looped annular anchoring structures;
coupling each looped annular anchoring structure to respective separation elements; and
moving said separation elements inside the plant for looping, wherein the moving step comprises:
feeding the separation elements which are coupled to respective annular anchoring structures along a feeding section;
transferring the separation elements along a transfer section from a separation station, arranged along said feeding section, to a coupling station arranged along a moving-apart section; and
moving the separation elements coupled to respective looped annular anchoring structures apart using said moving-apart section.

2. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , wherein transferring said separation elements comprises:
picking up said separation elements from the separation station and moving said separation elements along an initial portion of the transfer section up to position said separation elements in a first intermediate station.

3. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 2 , wherein transferring said separation elements further comprises picking up the separation elements from the first intermediate station arranged at the end of the initial portion of the transfer section and moving the separation elements along an end portion of the transfer section up to position the separation elements in the coupling station.

4. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 2 , wherein transferring said separation elements further comprises:
moving said separation elements along at least one intermediate portion of the transfer section extending between said first intermediate station arranged at the end of the initial portion of the transfer section and a second intermediate station;
picking up the separation elements from the second intermediate station arranged at the end of the intermediate portion of the transfer section; and
moving the separation elements along an end portion of the transfer section up to position the separation elements in the coupling station.

5. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 3 , wherein transferring said separation elements further comprises:
a) picking up one separation element at a time from the separation station, moving the separation element along the initial portion of the transfer section up to position the separation element in the first intermediate station;
b) repeating action a) stacking the separation elements in said first intermediate station;
c) moving said stacked separation elements along said intermediate portion of the transfer section up to position said stacked separation elements in the second intermediate station;
d) in said second intermediate station, picking up one separation element at a time from said stacked separation elements and moving the separation element along the end portion of the transfer section up to position the separation element in the coupling station.

6. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 3 , further comprising buffering said separation elements along said intermediate portion of the transfer section.

7. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 2 , wherein picking up and moving said separation elements along said initial portion of the transfer section is carried out by a first picking up device and wherein picking up and moving said separation elements along said end portion of the transfer section is carried out by a second picking up device separate from said first picking up device.

8. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 3 , wherein moving said separation elements along said initial portion of the transfer section is carried out at least partially simultaneously with the moving of said separation elements along said end portion of the transfer section.

9. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , wherein said separation elements are moved inside the looping plant while keeping a same moving configuration.

10. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , wherein feeding the separation elements coupled to said annular anchoring structures are loaded into a feeding station and moved to the separation station.

11. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 10 , further comprising buffering said separation elements coupled to said annular anchoring structures along the feeding section.

12. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , wherein said separation elements are stacked and alternating with said annular anchoring structures at least in said separation station.

13. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 12 , further comprising:
detecting one or more parameters of the quality of the stacking of the separation elements and of the annular anchoring structures,
comparing said one or more parameters with at least one reference value of the separation elements and of the annular anchoring structures,
moving away a defective stack from the separation station before separating each annular anchoring structure from the respective separation element.

14. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , wherein said separation elements are stacked and alternating with said looped annular anchoring structures at least in said coupling station.

15. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , wherein moving the separation elements along said moving-apart section and said separation elements coupled to said looped annular anchoring structures are moved from the coupling station by a moving-apart conveyor up to a moving-apart station.

16. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting one or more parameters of the quality of the annular anchoring structures,
comparing said one or more parameters with at least one reference value of the annular anchoring structure,
moving away the defective annular anchoring structures coupled to the respective separation element before separating said defective annular anchoring structure from the respective separation element.

17. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting one or more parameters of the quality of the looped annular anchoring structures,
comparing said one or more parameters with at least one reference value of the looped annular anchoring structure.

18. The method for managing a plant for looping annular anchoring structures according to claim 17 , further comprising moving away the looped annular anchoring structures from the coupling stat

Assignees

• Pirelli

Inventors

• D'Oria Francesco
• Berenguer Albert
• Bosio Gian Luigi
• De Col Christian

Classifications

• B29D2030/482

  Applying fillers or apexes to bead cores · CPC title

• B29D30/0016

  Handling tyres or parts thereof, e.g. supplying, storing, conveying (B29D30/2607 takes precedence; loading and unloading vulcanizing presses B29D30/0603) · CPC title

• B29D2030/0044

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

• B29D30/50 Primary

  Covering, e.g. by winding, the separate bead-rings or bead-cores with textile material, e.g. with flipper strips (folding textile layers around bead-rings or bead-cores B29D30/18, B29D30/32; jointly covering bead-rings or bead cores B29D30/34) · CPC title

• B29D30/48

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