Challenge
The Automated Tyre Release Agent cell is designed to apply a release coating to the inside of tyres prior to a curing process, which uses a combination of heat and pressure to change ‘green’ tyre forms into a finished product. The pressure is applied using a bladder, which forces the tyre, from the inside, into the heated mould in order to create its final form.
The green tyres enter the cell on a conveyor and have their barcodes scanned prior to being verified by a camera system, which serves a double purpose in that it verifies the position and dimensions of the tire and compares these dimensions against the database record generated by the bar code.
A robot then picks up the tyre at the upper tire bead with a specially designed pneumatic gripper and transports it into the spraying cabinet. A holder pulls the underside of the tire bead down and variableposition nozzles spray the complete inner surface with release agents using an airless system. The gripper and tyre can be rotated inside the cabin by up to 390 degrees. Once the spraying process is complete, the robot arm withdraws the gripper and tyre and deposits the treated tyre onto an exit conveyor, which then conveys it to the curing station.
There are some areas where you don’t need to or want to spray, such as the splice position. Using the SAR solution, its customers can define precise spray areas. Some competitors’ solutions cannot prevent the overspray and fumes getting in to the splice area, whereas SAR’s exhaust system prevents this. Any overspray within the cabinet is extracted directly at the nozzles. In addition, after a predetermined number of cycles the gripper arm is cleaned and then dried using air nozzles.
