How Tires Are Made - Coursework Example

How Tires Are Made Introduction Most vehicles today have pneumatic tires where air is kept inside the tires with pressure. Pneumatic tires have, fora long time, had inner tubes to sustain the air pressure and are commonly used in the existing vehicles (Biswas, Ojha, and Bhadra, 2014). Nowadays, pneumatic tires are designed in such a way that the rim of the wheel creates a pressure seal. Pneumatic tire was first manufactured by the Scottish inventor Robert Thomson in 1845 with inner tube (madehow.com, 2014). That design at that time did not attract much interest as the design was more complex than its time. John Boyd Dunlop, another Scotsman, reinvented the pneumatic tire in the 1880s (madehow.com, 2014). His design gained popularity with the bicyclists. Raw Materials The raw material primarily used to manufacture tires is natural rubber. Sometimes, tires are also made with synthetic rubber. Treatment of the rubber with a variety of chemicals along with subsequent heating helps create the characteristics of wear-resistance, resiliency, and strength. Rubber is strengthened through the process of curing or vulcanization discovered by the American inventor Charles Goodyear in the year 1839 (madehow.com, 2014). Natural rubber exists in the form of a milky liquid on the rubber trees bark. Raw rubber is produced by mixing the liquid latex with acids that cause solidification of the rubber. Excess water is squeezed out with presses to convert rubber in the form of sheets. The sheets are subsequently dried into tall smokehouses so that it gets pressed into the form of enormous bales. On the other hand, polymers in the crude oil are used to produce synthetic rubber. Carbon black, a soft and fine powder is the other major ingredient used in the manufacturing of tire rubber. This powder is produced by burning the natural gas or crude oil with limited oxygen. This causes incomplete combustion and produces fine soot in large amounts. Carbon black is used in making tires in such large volumes that it is translated in rail cars and stored in huge silos at the factory to be used when needed. Other chemicals including sulfur are used in manufacturing tires which when combined with rubber and heated develops specific characteristics in the tires such as high friction or bigger mileage depending on whether the vehicle is a racing car or a passenger car. Constituent Features “A tire acts like a part of the suspension system as it supports the load of the car, isolating the passengers from road shock as its sidewall deflects” (Gilles, 2003, p. 786). The constituent features of the tire of a passenger car are the beads, the tread, and the sidewall body. Amongst these, the tread is like a raised pattern that forms connection with the road. The tread is supported by the body and lends a specific shape to the tire. The beads are made up of metal-wire bundles covered with rubber to support the tire over the wheel. There is a huge role of computer systems in the contemporary tire designing process. Test engineers use complex analysis software with a large database to simulate the tread design performance and other parameters of the design. Three-dimensional color image is created of a design and the software assesses the effects of a variety of stresses on the proposed design of the tire. Tire manufacturers’ time is saved with computer simulations because of the ability to discover a number of design limitations before the assemblage and testing of a proto-type tire. Besides being able to conduct the tests of tire body construction and tread design, computer software can also simulate the effects of a variety of rubble compound types. Modern tires of passenger cars use up to twenty kinds of rubber in the various sections of a tire. While a certain rubber compound is employed in the tread to provide it with good traction during the cold season, another rubber compound lends the sidewalls of a tire increased rigidity. Once the tire engineers feel content with a new tire’s computer studies, tire prototypes are produced by a team of skilled tire assemblers and manufacturing engineers for testing. Tire factories start the process of the new tire’s mass production after satisfaction of the design engineers and the manufacturing engineers with the new design of the tire is achieved. The Manufacturing Process Tire of a passenger car is manufactured by wrapping a number of layers of rubber in a tire-forming machine over a metal drum. In order to achieve this, various sections of the tire are taken over to the forming machine where the strips are cut and positioned by a skilled assembler to form the tire’s parts. The Tire-Forming Machine (madehow.com, 2014) The process begins with mixing of the raw materials that primarily include carbon black, rubber, sulfur, and chemicals. Large quantities of synthetic as well as raw rubber, sulfur, and other constituents are delivered by railcars. Rubber compound is made as desired following the different recipes stored in the computer control systems that allow automatic measuring of chemicals and specific rubber batches for mixing. Rubber and chemicals are stirred together by gigantic mixers that hand in the form of vertical cement mixers in batches. The rubber compound thus formed is taken to the tire-building machine where the rubber layers are developed by a worker to form the tire. At this stage, it is called as a “green tire”. Metal drum collapses after finishing of the green tire so that the tire assembler can remove the tire. It is carried for curing to a mold. After a rubber batch has been mixed, it is processed in the powerful rolling mills where thick sheets of the batch are formed. These sheets are used in the different parts of a tire. For example, the body of tire is made up of strips of fabric covered with rubber. The rubber fabric strips form plies inside the body of a tire. There may be up to four plies in the body of a passenger car tire (madehow.com, 2014). Rubber for the sidewalls and the tire tread moves from the batch mixer to extruder, which is another processing machine. The batch is mixed and heater inside the extruder where it is forced out via a die. A protective plastic sheet covers the sidewall rubber. The sliced tread rubber is loaded into books, which are flat metal cases. The green tire is cured inside a large mold. A tire mold is in the form of a big metal clam that reveals a bladder. After the green tire is put on the bladder, the clamshell mold shuts, thus allowing the bladder to be filled up with steam and expand so that the tire is shaped and the blank tread rubber is forced against the mold’s raised interior. After the tire has been cured, it is taken out of the mold to allow for its cooling so that it can be tested. The quality control department thoroughly inspects each tire for such flaws and defects as voids or bubbles in the tread’s rubber, tire’s interior, and the sidewall. After that, the tire is put over a test wheel where it is inflated and moved in a circular motion. Balance of the tire is gauged by sensors in the test wheel to determine whether the path of the tire is straight. The tire is then ready to be moved for distribution into a warehouse. Some of the top tire manufacturers in the world include Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Continental AG, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Pirelli, Yokohama Rubber Company, and Hankook Tire (Ranker, 2014). References: Biswas, R. N., Ojha, M., and Bhadra, A. (2014). Vehicle Design and Manufacturing: Advanced Tire Technology (ATT). International Journal of Advanced Mechanical Engineering. 4(4), 387-388. Gilles, T. (2003). Automotive Service: Inspection, Maintenance and Repair. Cengage Learning. Madehow.com. (2014). How Products Are Made: Tire. Retrieved from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Tire.html. Ranker. (2014). Worlds Top 10 Tire Manufacturers by 2010 Revenue. Retrieved from http://www.ranker.com/list/world_s-top-10-tire-manufacturers-by-2010-revenue/micksgarage. Read More