CURING

After a raw rubber tire built into a shape close to the completed product is set in the molds, a tire curing machine shapes it into the commercially available completed tire by applying heat and pressure. Because the molds shall be firmly pressed to prevent them from opening with the pressure applied inside, the machine is also called a "tire curing press."

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have produced mechanical (motor-driven) curing machines before, however, now we mostly produce hydraulically driven curing machines. Once a tire before the curing process is placed on the tire base, all processes from supplying the tire to the molds through ejecting the cured tire to the tire transfer conveyer located outside the curing machine can be automatically operated.

The hydraulically driven curing machines are roughly divided into 2 types as follows:

Type	Description
Column type	The rods located around the molds holds the opening force of the molds caused by the inside pressure of the tire set in the molds, and the column guides opening and closing of the molds.
Frame type	The gate-shaped frame holds the opening pressure of the molds caused by the pressure applied to the inner side of the tire.

We provide a full lineup of various curing machines in the latest design such as mold moving type curing machines by size and by application. The following chart shows the outline of the specifications for the most sold column type curing machine in recent times. (Examples of curing machines for passenger vehicle tires and those for truck and bus tires)

Model No.	Mold qty.	Tightening force (ton)	Mold thickness range (mm)	Cured tire		Note
				OD (mm)	Width (mm)
PC-XL43R300	2	60 to 136	200 to 440	500 to 750	110 to 300
PC-XL47R300	2	Max. 136	200 to 475	520 to 830	150 to 300
PC-XL47R330	2	80 to 150	200 to 450	430 to 850	150 to 330
PC-XL47R385	2	Max. 175	190 to 525	520 to 830	135 to 330
PC-XM47R330S	1	80 to 150	350 to 515	550 to 750	200 to 330	Upper mold moving type
PC-XW45R300	2	60 to 136	300 to 440	500 to 800	200 to 390	Rod lock Right and left common control
PC-XW45R300	2	60 to 136	300 to 440	500 to 800	200 to 390	Rod lock Right and left independent control
LT-XL47R385	2	60 to 175	200 to 490	500 to 830	110 to 380
LT-XL48R300	2	60 to 136	200 to 500	500 to 800	150 to 350
LT-XL51R350	2	Max. 160	250 to 505	550 to 900	150 to 350
LT-XL51R385	2	Max. 175	310 to 630	550 to 900	150 to 350
LT-XL51R407	2	Max. 185	250 to 550	Max. 840	150 to 350
LT-XL51R440	2	Max. 200	250 to 505	550 to 900	150 to 350
LT-XLD51-750	2	80 to 340	250 to 550	Max. 1,000	Max. 450
LT-XL51.5R385	2	80 to 175	390 to 440	600 to 900	150 to 350
LT-XL52R350	2	80 to 175	270 to 520	600 to 900	200 to 360
LT-XL52R385	2	80 to 175	270 to 520	430 to 900	150 to 360
LT-XL57R550	2	80 to 250	300 to 595	Max. 1,000	200 to 410
LT-XL59R385	2	Max. 175	330 to 650	550 to 900	150 to 366
LT-XL51R385S	1	60 to 175	250 to 530	500 to 900	154 to 380
LT-XL47R220S	1	Max. 100	440	614 to 696	204 to 242	Lower mold moving type
LT-XT51R385S	1	Max. 175	310 to 630	550 to 900	150 to 350	Electrically driven Lower mold moving type
LT-XW52R385	2	61 to 178	360 to 500	600 to 840	200 to 390	Rod guide
LT-XW52R425	2	100 to 190	310 to 575	600 to 890	189 to 350	Rod guide

For truck tires, bus tires, and much larger tires, the mold heating method in which the molds are placed inside the dome-shaped container and steam is drawn into the dome to heat the molds has been used before. Today, however, the molds called "sectional molds" (Note 1) have been introduced, and most of truck and bus tires use the platen (Note 2) type curing machine with less steam consumption as do passenger vehicle tires. To distinguish the dome type from the platen type, the model No. of the dome type contains a letter "D" in it and that of the platen type contains a letter "P" in it.

Model No.	Mold qty.	Tightening force (ton)	Mold thickness range (mm)	Cured tire		Note
				OD (mm)	Width (mm)
TB-XL D55R750	2	80 to 340	235 to 445	Max. 1,120	Max. 370	Dome type
TB-XL P57R550	2	60 to 250	480 to 550	700 to 980	180 to 310	Right and left independent control
TB-XL P65R750	2	105 to 340	300 to 550	Max. 1,200	Max. 445
TB-XL P65R750	1	100 to 340	550	900 to 1200	250 to 450
TB-XL P65R750	2	100 to 340	550	900 to 1200	250 to 450	Right and left independent control
TB-XL P65R850	2	100 to 380	550 & 600	955 to 1200	250 to 450	Right and left independent control
TB-XL P65R950	2	100 to 430	290 to 562	Max. 1,300	250 to 400
TB-XL P66R950	2	280 to 430	300 to 635	Max. 1,226	278 to 400
TB-XL P66R1000	2	280 to 430	300 to 550	900 to 1200	230 to 510	Right and left independent control
TB-XL P68R1000	2	295 to 454	350 to 700	Max. 1,200	Max. 445
TB-XL P69R1000	2	Max. 450	300 to 800	Max. 1,360	266 to 550	Right and left independent control
TB-XL P69R1200	1	Max. 550	300 to 800	Max. 1,300	200 to 550
TB-XL P72R1000	2	150 to 453	550 & 600	900 to 1400	300 to 500	Right and left independent control

Tire curing machine	Description
Mold moving type curing machine	The upper or lower mold moves horizontally and receives a tire before curing. It has an advantage of reduced height of the curing machine.
Rod guide type curing machine	The tie rod also acts as the guide for up and down movement of the molds instead of the column of the column type curing machine. If right and left tires are different from each other, it can cure them with right and left independent control.
Pressure-less curing machine	The so-called container unit located inside the mold drive mechanism absorbs the opening force of the molds caused by pressure applied to the inner side of a tire. With this design, the tire curing machine is not necessary to receive reaction force of the inner pressure. For this reason, the rigidity of the curing machine can be reduced to the minimum requirement. In addition, molds can be changed automatically for every container unit.
Electrically driven curing machine	The curing machine is equipped with the ball screws driven by a servo motor and controlling major operations of the curing machine, such as up/down and opening/closing of the molds, and the lower mold which can move horizontally. For this reason, the curing machine has high accuracy, achieving high quality tire production. In addition, the curing machine has short operating time, and its height can be reduced as low as possible.
Curing machine for construction vehicles	This is a large-sized curing machine for dump trucks utilized in a construction site. Up and down movement of the upper mold is controlled hydraulically, and horizontal movement (back and forth) is controlled by the inverter motor. This is a column type curing machine, and the upper mold can move horizontally (back and forth). This can reduce the height of the curing machine as low as possible and also facilitate loading and unloading of tires.
Integrated tire curing system	Some components of an automatic curing machine have low operation rate in the curing cycle. The integrated tire curing system makes such components to be shared between many tires to improve the operation efficiency and reduce the installation space in total.