Research On The Equipments And Techniques For Molding Tire Precisely And Energy-Savingly Curing

Sophisticated, intelligent and energy-saving is the future developmental direction of the tire industry. Tire vulcanization as one of the most step in tire manufacture is the largest energy-consuming process. there are some disadvantages can't be ignored in current curing methods. Because of the low accuracy of bladder expansion shape and uneven curing temperature in tire sidewall, the performance of tire uniformity and dynamic balance are restricted, resulting in the use of tire performance and service life are affected. In addition, a lot of heat dissipated during the curing media transporting, the low thermal efficiency and heat loss is greatly increasing the cost of production of the tire.Based on direct-pressure vulcanization technology, the rigid metal internal mold replaced the rubber capsule used on center mechanism; the electromagnetic induction technology replaced the media heating. The new technology had achieved certain results in terms of energy efficiency and contour precision molding tires.However, because there is no tire curing machine which matched direct-pressure technology. It is no way to form a direct curing system that cased a lot of obstacles in the development of direct-pressure vulcanization.In this paper, direct-pressure vulcanization was regarded as the core technology. According to the characteristics of direct-pressure, a new type of tire vulcanization was designed. New vulcanizing machine utilized metal outer mold and the inner mold metal respectively pressurized clamping manner to ensure that the curing pressure controllability. Electromagnetic induction technology was firstly used in the all tire curing machine heating components which ended the dependence on the vulcanizing medium. Experiment had been made to study the temperature rising characteristic, temperature uniformity of heating component. The new tire vulcanization machine had achieved curing temperature green supply tire; due to the operation of the tire vulcanization machine step sequence and heating methods have changed. So the servo-controlled hydraulic system had been designed. Moreover, a new control system vulcanizing machine and operator interface had been define with the manufacturers in cooperation.(1) The thorough analysis of the current situation of direct pressure curing process and equipment had been made. It elaborated on the issue which caused by directly applying rigid metal mold on a conventional curing machine from many factors including forming order, pressure control, structural strength and auxiliary equipment. Two solutions had been come up with. One use convex teeth to clamp the internal metal mold, the other one used pressure. Comparing the two solutions, lacking of the tire vulcanization machine matching the direct-pressure curing process had become the restriction of new tire curing technology development.(2) The fully investigation on current structure of tire vulcanization machine, then the newly frame-column machine had been come up with creatively. Basing on government standard, some necessary parameters, including drive mode, heating structure, temperature control manner, the diameter of heat shield, had been confirmed. The finite element software-ABAQUS has been used to analyze structure strength of the new tire curing press machine. Checking the structural strength of each part was one of the goals. Taking advantage of the multiple steps analysis mode of ABAQUS, the assumption that internal clamping had no relationship with outer clamping had been affirmed. The design was reasonable. Eventually, the new tire curing machine 3D modeling and 87 engineering drawing had been finished in Unigraphics NX.(3) Electromagnetic induction heating device applying for all heating component had been successfully developed. According to different structural characteristics among heat plate and metal internal mold, suitable electromagnetic induction heating schemes had been designed respectively. Research had been conducted on many aspect including part temperature rise situation, thermal distribution and energy-saving. The results showed that electromagnetic induction heating not only lowed the energy wasting and improved the heating velocity, but also achieved different temperature distribution by change inductance value and position of heating units. The electromagnetic induction heating schemes had been optimized based on the heat demand of tire curing which achieved a further improvement on efficiency of heat utilization.(4) Hydraulic servo control system had been designed to enhance the operation precision of the new tire curing machine. At the same time, due to changes in vulcanization process step sequence and the heating process control, the new control system and the man-machine interface for new tire curing machine had been designed according to the characteristics of direct-pressure curing process.