Three piece tire mold

摘要

The invention provides a tire mold (10) having a first mold half (12), a second mold half (14), and a center ring portion (16) formed of a plurality of tread segments (19). Each mold half (12, 14) has an inner surface with a sidewall molding portion and each of said tread segments has an inner surface having a tread molding portion, each tread molding portion terminating at a first split plane (30) and a second split plane (38). Each of the center ring segments (19) further comprises a first segment register surface (36) for engagement with a first mold register surface (34) of the first mold half (12) and a second segment register surface (41) for engagement with a second mold reverse register surface (39) of the second mold half (14). Each of the tread segments (19) has a radially outward flange (42) forming a hinge for rotatably mounting each tread segment (19) to the second mold half (14).