Tire manufacturing

Pneumatic tires are manufactured according to relatively standardized processes and

machinery, in around 455 tire factories in the world. With over 1 billion tires manufactured
worldwide annually, the tire industry is a major consumer of natural rubber.[1] Tire factories
start with bulk raw materials such as synthetic rubber (60% -70% of total rubber in the tire
industry[2][3]), carbon black, and chemicals and produce numerous specialized components
that are assembled and cured.

The tire is an assembly of numerous

components that are built up on a drum
and then cured in a press under heat and
pressure. Heat facilitates a
polymerization reaction that crosslinks
rubber monomers to create long elastic
molecules.

Inner liner

The inner liner is a calendered[4]

halobutyl rubber sheet compounded with additives that result in low air permeability. The inner
liner assures that the tire will hold high-pressure air inside, without an inner tube, minimizing
diffusion through the rubber structure.[5]

Body ply

The body ply is a calendered[6] sheet consisting of one layer of rubber, one layer of reinforcing
fabric, and a second layer of rubber. The earliest textile used was cotton; later materials include
rayon, nylon, polyester, and Kevlar. Passenger tires typically have one or two body plies. Body
plies give the tire structure strength. Truck tires, off-road tires, and aircraft tires have
progressively more plies. The fabric cords are highly flexible but relatively inelastic.

Sidewall

Sidewalls are non-reinforced extruded profiles with additives to give the sides of the tire good
abrasion resistance and environmental resistance. Additives used in sidewall compounds
include antioxidants and antiozonants. Sidewall extrusions are nonsymmetrical and provide a
thick rubber area to enable molding of raised letters.
The sidewalls give the tire resistance against the environment. Sidewall plays an important role
in strengthening of tire.

Beads

Beads are bands of high tensile-strength steel wire encased in a rubber compound. Bead wire is
coated with special alloys of bronze or brass. Coatings protect the steel from corrosion. Copper
in the alloy and sulfur in the rubber cross-link to produce copper sulfide, which improves
bonding of the bead to the rubber. Beads are inflexible and inelastic, and provide the
mechanical strength to fit the tire to the wheel. Bead rubber includes additives to maximize
strength and toughness of tyres.

Apex

The apex is a triangular extruded profile that mates against the bead. The apex provides a
cushion between the rigid bead and the flexible inner liner and body ply assembly. Alternatively
called "filler" (as in the diagram above).

Belt package

Belts are calendered sheets consisting of a layer of rubber, a layer of closely spaced steel
cords, and a second layer of rubber. Belts give the tire strength and dent resistance while
allowing it to remain flexible. Passenger tires are usually made with two or three belts.

Tread

The tread is a thick extruded profile that surrounds the tire carcass. Tread compounds include
additives to impart wear resistance and traction in addition to environmental resistance. Tread
compound development is an exercise in compromise, as hard compounds have long wear
characteristics but poor traction whereas soft compounds have good traction but poor wear
characteristics.

Cushion gum

Many higher-performing tires include an extruded component between the belt package and
the tread to isolate the tread from mechanical wear from the steel belts.
Other components

Tire construction methods vary somewhat in the number and type of components, as well as the
compound formulations for each component, according to the tire use and price point. Tire
makers continuously introduce new materials and construction methods in order to achieve
higher performance at lower cost..

Materials

Natural rubber, or polyisoprene is the basic elastomer used in tire making

Styrene-butadiene co-polymer (SBR) is a synthetic rubber that is often substituted in part for
natural rubber based on the comparative raw materials cost

Polybutadiene is used in combination with other rubbers because of its low heat-buildup
properties

Halobutyl rubber is used for the tubeless inner liner compounds, because of its low air
permeability. The halogen atoms provide a bond with the carcass compounds which are
mainly natural rubber. Bromobutyl is superior to chlorobutyl, but is more expensive

Carbon black (soot), forms a high percentage of the rubber compound. This gives
reinforcement and abrasion resistance

Silica, used together with carbon black in high performance tires, as a low heat build up
reinforcement

Sulphur crosslinks the rubber molecules in the vulcanization process

Vulcanizing accelerators are complex organic compounds that speed up the vulcanization

Activators assist the vulcanization. The main one is zinc oxide

Antioxidants and antiozonants prevent sidewall cracking due to the action of sunlight and
ozone

Textile fabric reinforces the carcass of the tire

Manufacturing process

Production of tires in France, ca.

1950s

Tire plants are traditionally divided into five departments that perform special operations.
These usually act as independent factories within a factory. Large tire makers may set up
independent factories on a single site, or cluster the factories locally across a region.

Compounding and mixing

SBR rubber compound to with chemicals formulations

1. SB Rubber 100 kg

2. carbon 220 150 kg

3. zinc oxide 20.5 kg

4. stearic acid 13.5 kg

5. accelerator 11.2 kg

6. Oil 33.5 kg

7. Al2O3 10.23 kg

Compounding is the operation of bringing together all the ingredients required to mix a batch of
rubber compound. Each component has a different mix of ingredients according to the
properties required for that component.

Mixing is the process of applying mechanical work to the ingredients in order to blend them into
a homogeneous substance. Internal mixers are often equipped with two counter-rotating rotors
in a large housing that shear the rubber charge along with the additives. The mixing is done in
three or four stages to incorporate the ingredients in the desired order. The shearing action
generates considerable heat, so both rotors and housing are water-cooled to maintain a
temperature low enough to assure that vulcanization does not begin.

After mixing, the rubber charge is dropped into a chute and fed by an extruding screw into a
roller die. Alternatively, the batch can be dropped onto an open rubber mill batch-off system. A
mill consists of twin counter-rotating rolls, one serrated, that provide additional mechanical
working to the rubber and produce a thick rubber sheet. The sheet is pulled off the rollers in the
form of a strip. The strip is cooled, sometimes dusted with a detackifier, and laid down into a
pallet bin.

The ideal compound at this point would have a highly uniform material dispersion; however in
practice there is considerable non-uniformity to the dispersion. This is due to several causes,
including hot and cold spots in the mixer housing and rotors, excessive rotor clearance, rotor
wear, and poorly circulating flow paths. As a result, there can be a little more carbon black here,
and a little less there, along with a few clumps of carbon black elsewhere, that are not well
mixed with the rubber or the additives.

Mixers are often controlled according to the power integration method, where the current flow
to the mixer motor is measured, and the mixing terminated upon reaching a specified total
amount of mix energy imparted to the batch.

Component preparation

Components fall into three classes based on the manufacturing process: calendering,
extrusion, and bead building is the same as the tire.

The extruder machine consists of a screw and barrel, screw drive, heaters, and a die. The
extruder applies two conditions pressure. The extruder screw also provides for additional
mixing of the compound through the shearing action of the screw. The compound is pushed
through a die, after which the extruded profile is vulcanized in a continuous oven, cooled to
terminate the vulcanization process, and either rolled up on a spool or cut to length. Tire treads
are often extruded with four components in a quadraplex extruder, one with four screws
processing four different compounds, usually a base compound, core compound, tread
compound, and wing compound. Extrusion is also used for sidewall profiles and inner liners.

The calender is a set of multiple large-diameter rolls that squeeze rubber compounds into a
thin sheet, usually of the order of 2 metres wide. Fabric calenders produce an upper and lower
rubber sheet with a layer of fabric in between. Steel calenders do so with steel cords. Calenders
are used to produce body plies and belts. A creel room is a facility that houses hundreds of
fabric or wire spools that are fed into the calender. Calenders utilize downstream equipment for
shearing and splicing calendered components.

Tire building

Tire building is the process of assembling all the components onto a tire building drum. Tire-
building machines (TBM) can be manually operated or fully automatic. Typical TBM operations
include the first-stage operation, where inner liner, body plies, and sidewalls are wrapped
around the drum, the beads are placed, and the assembly turned up over the bead. In the second
stage of operation, the carcass of the tire is inflated, then the belt package and tread are
applied.

All components require splicing. The inner liner and body plies are spliced with a square-ended
overlap. Tread and sidewall are joined with a skived splice, where the joining ends are bevel-
cut. Belts are spliced end to end with no overlap. Splices that are too heavy or non-symmetrical
will generate defects in force variation, balance, or bulge parameters. Splices that are too light
or open can lead to visual defects and in some cases tire failure. The final product of the TBM
process is called a green tire, where green refers to the uncured state.

Pirelli Tire developed a special process called MIRS that uses robots to position and rotate the
building drums under stations that apply the various components, usually via extrusion and
strip winding methods. This permits the equipment to build different tire sizes in consecutive
operations without the need to change tooling or setups. This process is well suited to small
volume production with frequent size changes.

The largest tire makers have internally developed automated tire-assembly machines in an
effort to create competitive advantages in tire construction precision, high production yield,
and reduced labor. Nevertheless, there is a large base of machine builders who produce tire-
building machines.
Curing

An opened tire mold being

cleaned. The deflated rubber
bladder is on the central post.

Curing is the process of applying pressure to the green tire in a mold in order to give it its final
shape and applying heat energy to stimulate the chemical reaction between the rubber and
other materials. In this process the green tire is automatically transferred onto the lower mold
bead seat, a rubber bladder is inserted into the green tire, and the mold closes while the
bladder inflates. As the mold closes and is locked the bladder pressure increases so as to make
the green tire flow into the mold, taking on the tread pattern and sidewall lettering engraved
into the mold. The bladder is filled with a recirculating heat transfer medium, such as steam, hot
water, or inert gas. Temperatures are in the area of 350 degrees Fahrenheit with pressures
around 350 PSI. Passenger tires cure in approximately 16 minutes. At the end of cure the
pressure is bled down, the mold opened, and the tire stripped out of the mold. The tire may be
placed on a PCI, or post-cure inflator, that will hold the tire fully inflated while it cools. There
are two generic curing press types, mechanical and hydraulic. Mechanical presses hold the
mold closed via toggle linkages, while hydraulic presses use hydraulic oil as the prime mover
for machine motion, and lock the mold with a breech-lock mechanism. Hydraulic presses have
emerged as the most cost-effective because the press structure does not have to withstand the
mold-opening pressure and can therefore be relatively lightweight. There are two generic mold
types, two-piece molds and segmental molds.

Large off-road tires are often cured in ovens with cure times approaching 24 hours.

Final finish

After the tire has been cured, there are several additional operations. Tire uniformity
measurement is a test where the tire is automatically mounted on wheel halves, inflated, run
against a simulated road surface, and measured for force variation. Tire balance measurement
is a test where the tire is automatically placed on wheel halves, rotated at a high speed and
measured for imbalance.

Large commercial truck/bus tires, as well as some passenger and light truck tires, are
inspected by X-ray or magnetic induction (https://web.archive.org/web/20151222125643/htt
p://www.roland-electronic.de/en/products/sis-xp) based inspection machines, that can
penetrate the rubber to analyze the steel cord structure.

In the final step, tires are inspected by human eyes for numerous visual defects such as
incomplete mold fill, exposed cords, blisters, blemishes, and others.

Tire manufacturing companies

For a list of tire companies, see the List of tire companies, and a ranking of the largest tire
manufacturers see List of largest tire manufacturers.

Carcinogen exposure in the tire industry

Several carcinogenic substances are formed during the manufacturing of rubber tyres,
including nitrosamines[7] and dibenzopyrenes.[8]

See also

Retread

References

1. "Rubber, Natural – Chemical Economics Handbook (CEH)" (https://www.ihs.com/product

s/natural-rubber-chemical-economics-handbook.html) . IHS Markit. Retrieved July 21,
2017.

2. "An unknown object: the tire – Materials" (http://thetiredigest.michelin.com/an-unknown

-object-the-tire-materials) . Michelin The tire digest. Retrieved July 21, 2017.

3. "What's the Difference Between Natural and Synthetic Rubber for Tires?" (https://www.ka
ltire.com/whats-the-difference-between-natural-and-synthetic-rubber-for-tires/) . Kal
Tire. July 21, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017.

4. "Calender maker" (http://www.comerio.it) .

5. "How Tires Are Built" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100102031427/http://goodyeartire

s.com/about/diversity/how_built.html) . Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Archived
 from the original (http://www.goodyeartires.com/about/diversity/how_built.html) on
January 2, 2010.

6. "Calender maker" (http://www.comerio.it) .

7. Spiegelhalder, B. (September 1983). "Occupational nitrosamine exposure. 1. Rubber and

tyre industry". Carcinogenesis. 4 (9): 1147–1152. doi:10.1093/carcin/4.9.1147 (https://do
i.org/10.1093%2Fcarcin%2F4.9.1147) . PMID 6883637 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go
v/6883637) .

8. Sadiktsis, Ioannis (February 21, 2012). "Automobile Tires—A Potential Source of Highly
Carcinogenic Dibenzopyrenes to the Environment". Environmental Science & Technology.
46 (6): 3326–3334. Bibcode:2012EnST...46.3326S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/201
2EnST...46.3326S) . doi:10.1021/es204257d (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fes204257d) .
PMID 22352997 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22352997) .

External links

The Tire Society (http://www.tiresociety.org/)