Tire & Rubber

Manufacturer Ensures Consistent Tire Quality with the Help of eATM Modules

Today’s automotive tires are highly engineered for optimal weather, speed, cornering and wear performance. Unless you are in the tire manufacturing business, you are probably not aware of the many number of steps from engineered designs to material selection, compound development, extrusion, calendering, “green” tire building and curing that go into the tire manufacturing process.

The last step in the process is one of the most critical, curing. 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 at approximately 350ºF at 350 PSI, such as steam, hot water, or inert gas. 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 holds the tire fully inflated while it cools.

Helping to ensure that the proper procedures and parameters are followed in the curing process for each mold type and compound, is the job of an eATM® (Enterprise Appliance Transaction Module) from Online Development. This module snaps into an Allen-Bradley® PAC (Programmable Automation Controller) rack and communicate to tire mold sensors and actuators through the PAC’s backplane. The module also communicates with the processes’ IBM® AS/400 database to download parameters to the curing system based on tire and compound being cured. The eATM module also sends data back to the database during and after the curing process as part of the facility’s quality control program.

The eATM module was chosen for this application because of its fast setup, low cost of ownership and trouble-free, dependable operation. Since the module simply snaps into the PAC and connects via Ethernet to the database, installation only requires a few hours, mainly for Ethernet cabling. The module was supplied with an IBM AS/400 driver, so the PAC and the database were instantly communicating on startup. The module’s setup utility made configuring tag, message and schedule parameters fast and easy. It features drag and drop operation and intuitive screens for quick parameter configuration without the need for programming skills. The module also does not require any upgrades in the future should other components within the system change. And, since the eATM module is an appliance and not PC-based, it is not susceptible to viruses or hackers.

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