Automatic sidewall servicer.

摘要

A servicer (17) is described for supplying two cut-to-length strips of sidewall simultaneously to a tire building drum (18) without handling by the tire builder. The servicer (17) employs twin cassettes (20) which contain two spools of spirally wound sidewall (19) which is separated by a comparatively rigid, U-shaped protective liner (31). The servicer (17) has an indexing table (60) for moving twin cassettes (20) from a standby position to a let-off position (LP) to a take-up position (TP) and, lastly, to a removal position where the cassette is removed for rewinding with new material. A robotic grabber (88) is provided to engage the leading edges of liners on a let-off cassette and move them to the rear of the servicer where the operator threads the liners onto a take-up cassette and the sidewall onto a pair of overhead belt-type conveyors for transportation to a discharge tray which is mounted on the front end of the servicer for rotation to and from an adjacent tire building drum (18). The discharge tray (140) carries a mechanism (160) for cutting the sidewall, to length, and a device (200) for finally aligning the cut sidewall for passage from the tray onto the sidewall area of an unvulcanized tire carcass being built on the drum (18).