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Tour of a Uniroyal Plant 30 years ago.... Posted by MI-Roger [Email]  (#882) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from MI-Roger) on Fri, 9 Nov 2007 09:18:30
In Reply to: How are tires made?, Shaun  [Profile/Gallery]
, Fri, 9 Nov 2007 08:32:07
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When I toured a Uniroyal tire plant 30 years ago as a college student, I was dumb-founded to learn that tire manufacturing was a 100% manual operation. Each tire maker stood in front of a motorized drum actuated by a foot switch. On each side of the operator were head-high racks containing spools of the various tire compounds. The operator would grab the broad ribbon of tire base material, place it on the drum, step on the foot switch to rotate the drum slightly more than one revolution, then cut off the material in a diagonal slice. He then would grab the ribbon of material for layer #2 and repeat the operation. In between each layer he would spin the drum by hand so that the overlapping ends of each layer would be staggered around the tire's circumference to assist with future balance.
At the very last step the layers of raw rubber would be slid off the drum and placed into a tire mold where heat and pressure would combine to create the tire tread, and to vulcanize the rubber materials.
There were NO controls of any kind to monitor the amount of material used, the placement of the overlaps on the circumference of the tire, to verify the correct number and placement of the different materials, etc!
No wonder tires were crap back then.
Hopefully things are far diferent now, and the picture in the article you posted shows construction of very low volume tires where the most economical method of quality manufacturing is a tightly controlled manual operation.
posted by 198.208.25...
_______________________________________ Saabs owned: 2008 9-5 Aero Sedan, sold at 227K miles 2006 9-3SC 2.0T - Wife's daily driver 2000 Viggen Convertible - Sold May, 2022 1964 Quantum IV Formula Car - Retirement project 2000 9-5lpt Sedan, sold at 318K miles
, Fri, 9 Nov 2007 08:32:07, Fri, 9 Nov 2007 09:18:30 <-- Viewing This Message
, Fri, 9 Nov 2007 10:06:47
, Fri, 9 Nov 2007 09:02:57
, Fri, 9 Nov 2007 14:39:07
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