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Calenderless Tire Component Manufacturing

Extrusion based rubberization of steel cords

Steelastic is the global leader in extrusion-based equipment for tire component production. Our calenderless tire component manufacturing systems improve manufacturing efficiency, increase flexibility, and reduce environmental impact for a wide range of tire applications. All our systems are single operator controlled, taking cord and rubber compound as inputs, and producing the finished product in one process. This guide provides a step-by-step into the calenderless tire component manufacturing process.

What You Need to Know About Extrusion-based Tire Component Manufacturing Processes

1. It Starts with a Creel

The extrusion-based, calenderless process starts with a steel or textile creel. Creels are comprised of many steel or textile cords, individually wound on spools. The steel or textile cords are pulled from the creel by the downstream process under carefully controlled tension. Steelastic’s heavy-duty creels can be equipped with numerous options such as cord breakage detection systems, individual and zonal spool tension control, and creel loading systems, to help maximize your production time and minimize ROI.

2. Extruder & E-Die Head

Next, the steel or textile cords enter the E-Die Head, which is supplied with rubber compound by a smooth or pin barrel extruder. The extruder and E-die combination is used to coat the cords in rubber compound to the desired extruded strip gauge. All Steelastic E-Die’s are designed for quick tooling change. The thickness of the extruded steel belt typically ranges from 0.5mm (0.02”) to 3.0mm (0.12”), but heavier gauge material strip can be extruded for more specialist applications. The temperature of the extruder zones, and the E-Die Head are controlled by a four-zone TCU (Temperature Control Unit), to ensure that the rubber flows consistently through the extruder and that the extruded strip is of the highest quality. The E-Die tooling is made up of the insert, the insert holder and the throat. The tooling combination precisely positions every cord relative to the next cord, ensures the position of all cords in the extruded strip is to specification, and sets the gauge of the extruded strip. The throat element of the tooling also forms a small lip which is critical to splice integrity further down the process.

3. The Cooling Drum Accumulator

The cooling drum accumulator has two important purposes in the process. It both cools the extruded strip to the desired temperature for cutting and splicing operations, and provides the ability to accumulate material. The ability to accumulate material helps the system to continue to extrude material when short downstream stoppages are needed to change wind-up spools, make minor adjustments, etc.

The cooling drum accumulator includes three 406mm diameter, and eight 238mm diameter, jacketed stainless steel cooling drums and utilizes two driven rolls. One roll controls the master line speed, and the other roll continues to pull material out of the extruder when the system is accumulating material. The maximum accumulation time is approximately 5.3 minutes while the maximum accumulation length is 15.9m.

4. Cutting & Splicing Systems

There are two types of cutting systems in Steelastic’s calenderless tire component equipment portfolio: The Classic Cutter and the Next Generation Steel Belt System:

The Classic Cutter has been widely used by leading tire manufactuers with 700+ steel belt, textile body ply and steel body ply systems supplied over 50 years for PCR, TBR, OTR, track, aircraft, and motorcycle tires. The classic cutter provides precise belt width, gauge and edge straightness, highly accurate splice and belt angle and precise cord placement with no possibility of crossed wires.

The Next Generation Steel Belt System was launched to market in 2018 and provides premium quality steel belts / breakers for PCR and TBR Tires, while reducing space on the manufacturing floor. The system maintains precision cord end count positioning, gauge control and overall dimensional stability of the strip. Cutting edge closed-loop control ensures finite adjustments are made to finished belt width, angle and the splice to ensure the finished product remains in specification. The result is high-quality, versatility and efficiency through reduced processing, labor and maintenance costs as well as reducing scrap.

Next Generation Steel Belt System for PCR & TBR tires

5. Gum Edging Systems

At Steelastic, we offer machinery for hot and cold gum edging of steel belts, textile body ply and steel body ply. Both types of gum edging system are designed for flat or wrapped gum application. Both systems can apply gum material on to belt or body ply ranging from 100mm (about 3.94 in) to more than 2,300mm (about 7.55 ft) wide, and with thicknesses of 0.8mm (about 0.03 in) to 3.0mm (about 0.12 in).

Steelastic’s gum edging machines are designed to provide highly precise gum edge positioning and prevent stretching in the belt or body ply material. Applying gum to belt and body ply helps to reduce friction and heat buildup in the finished tire. This leads to a higher quality tire that lasts longer. Learn more about the gum edging process and how it helps optimize tire performance.

6. Finished Material Wind-up Systems

Steelastic has multiple wind-up designs available to accommodate any cassette configuration, reels or spools, to suit the customer’s tire building configuration. Windups can be provided as single, dual tandem, or dual side-by-side configuration.

Reach Out for a Trial Demonstration

Steelastic Calenderless Demo & Trial Lab, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

At Steelastic, we want to help our customers improve manufacturing efficiency with our calenderless tire component manufacturing systems. Contact us to schedule a free trial or demonstration.