Last updated on January 4th, 2024 at 09:32 am
Have you ever wondered how the soft rubber of a tree, turns into thick, heavy, and strong rubber? Though it looks like the hardest thing to manufacture a tire, with all machinery and techniques anyone can manufacture a tire, at least a green tire.
A green tire is a pre-tread tire, on a green tire, there is no tread pattern available. Which is the last primary step to complete the manufacturing of the tire. As tread pattern design is the most important step nowadays, most big companies spend most budget on research and innovation to come up with the most unique and quality pattern.
In this article, we will show you how to manufacture a tire, and what equipment and materials are required to finish the process of manufacturing a tire. Although there are different ways that different companies follow to manufacture a tire, however, this method is the standard and most companies follow the same methods and equipment to finalize their car tires.
Table of Contents
Material and Machinery To Manufacture A Tire
To manufacture a tire, the four most important ingredients required are:
- Chemicals
- Textile fabrics and saws
- Different kinds of rubbers
- Steel and cords
After acquiring these ingredients the manufacturer required the right tools and machinery to put all of them into the process.
- First of all the blender machine required usually Banbury mixing is used
- Then Calender machine with a roller that works on fabric polyester
- After that Spinning bobbing process the cotton threads
- Extrusion machine, dye, and paint roller for tread required
- Machinery for making beads with steel cords
- Hoops making machinery
- Rotating drum and, lastly, mold
After acquiring these tools and machinery you will be able to manufacture the tire on its own. However, as easy as it looks, it requires a lot of work and investment to start a tire manufacturing factory. Also, it’s not for everyone, it requires hard work and information to make a living out of the tire-manufacturing business.
The internal layer of the tire
After mixing the ingredients, the rubber sheet comes out. After that, the fabric ply is put on a calender machine because alone rubber and chemicals are not steady enough to make a strong tire. Afterward, the rubber for the tread builds, and for that, three types of rubber get into the dye and come out as one to put on the middle of the tire, which is also called tire compound. For identifying the ingredients, the color lines draw on the tire with the help of paint rollers.
Then the procedure to build a bead of tire starts. A bead is a part of the tire that holds the tire on the wheels, and it has to be strong. That is why the bead consists of steel cords. The machinery turns steel into rubber and shapes that into a hoop a size that fits on the wheels.
Then two bead hoops rotate on a special rotating drum to build a tire. Air tide tubes follow by corded-ply merge together and Inflated bladders roll the rubber around the bead on both sides. Then the server applies sidewalls on beads Rollers push the sidewalls on the bead. With that, the inner layer of the tire finish.
The external layer of the tire
The Outer layer of the tire consists of strips of rubber and is bedded with a steel cord. The building drum wraps this rubber and put them in the shape of the tire. Then The narrow strips of rubber ply are put in with the help of a computerized system for the right amount of tension to hold the tire up front. Lastly, The tread rubber is put on the tire
Finalizing a tire manufacturing
With the help of transferring-ring, the inner and outer layers merge together. After putting them together, The drum rolls the edge of the tread rubber over the sidewalls to stick the tires together. And that is how you get the green tire. The finished product has not ready yet, the mold is required to shape the tire and put a tread pattern over it, and that is not possible without the heat of the mold. Once done, the trimming is done to remove the extra rubber. And after inspection and tests, the tire is ready to be sold on the market.
What differentiate tires
All of these materials have different varieties, and sometimes some materials are not so easily acquirable. So whoever uses high-quality materials to build up a tire, consider a high-quality tire, which most of the premium brands do, unlike the Chinese and other cheap brands.
Also, premium brands work harder on their tread patterns, which although seem so simple in the tire-building process, it is not. Because the process and back work required for building a tread pattern requires a lot of work, innovation, and tests to come up with the design to put on the tire.
Final Words
Manufacturing a tire is a complicated and advanced process that no individual at home can do. This billion-dollar industry keeps growing with time due to new inventions and innovations in tire categories. That is why these big players like Michelin and Bridgestone are hard to beat in the tire industry as they have done a great lot of work to promote tires while also helping car drivers by manufacturing the best tires.
