IMPROVED METHOD FOR CURING NON-UNIFORM, RUBBER ARTICLES SUCH AS TIRES

摘要

A method to cure non-uniform rubber articles uses independently heatable, pin heat transfer elements to provide an efficient and practical means of reducing the total cure time of the article in the mold and optimizing the cure state of the article without substantially changing the function or degrading the performance of the article. Reductions in cure time of 10% or more can be achieved. The method is particularly useful for curing tires and tire treads. Finite element analysis or thermocouple probes can used to determine the state of cure for each part of a tire or a tread for a tire. From this knowledge of the cure-limiting parts, one or more independently heated, pin heat transfer elements are added to the interior surface of a tire or tread mold to transfer heat into the cure-limiting parts and to provide a more uniform state of cure.