At this year’s Tire Technology Expo (March 21-23), 4JET will exhibit its latest laser uniformity correction (LUC) systems which enable digital, precise and touchless post-processing of tire beads to improve uniformity. The new process optimizes tire performance and replaces mechanical reworking which uses grinding processes.
Production tolerances cause variations in the radial force of tires, and if these tolerance values are exceeded, some products can no longer be supplied as original equipment and must be reworked or in some cases destroyed.
To date, methods used for corrections involve mechanical processes which remove material from the tire’s bead or tread. These machines, however, have a limited amount of precision and require a high amount of maintenance. Additionally, these solutions often don’t meet the requirements of the OE or replacement market when it comes to the appearance of the tires.
To solve this issue, the LUC solution is capable of processing the tires without touching the product or leaving any visible marks on the bead. The solution’s maintenance-free, dry and quiet laser vaporizes the material which needs to be removed, before extracting this locally.
LUC systems typically remove material relative to the high point of the first harmonic radial force variation. The systems are capable of processing different tire dimensions in the passenger car segment without retooling in batch size 1, meaning both bead areas can be processed in one set-up.
Cycle times depend on tire dimensions and the volume which needs to be removed from the bead. The machines are fully automatic, and because of their compact design, can be integrated into the conveyor system in the final finish of a tire plant.
The processed areas on the tire are unchanged in appearance from the surrounding surface, removing the need for grinding marks to be hidden using paint.
The 4JET solution uses Core4 software which enables convenient recipe creation and parameterization, and integration with belt interfaces and manufacturing execution systems (MES). It also has modules for analysis, remote maintenance and service. The handling components of the system are based on the company’s solutions for tire marking and inner tire cleaning.
To learn more about 4JET’s technologies, visit booth 5014 at Tire Technology Expo 2023 on March 21-23, in Hannover, Germany.
