ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,233,616, issued on Feb. 25, was assigned to Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC (Nashville, Tenn.).
"Apparatus and method for automatic tire ply stitching" was invented by Phillip T. Brasher Jr. (Nashville, Tenn.), Chad P. Wright (McMinnville, Tenn.), Wesley R. Minton (McMinnville, Tenn.) and Angel M. Carvajal (Mount Juliet, Tenn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An automatic splicing apparatus and methods thereof are provided herein for splicing together two ends of a sheet of tire material on a tire building drum. The apparatus comprises a frame, a splicer foot assembly, and a splicer roller assembly. The frame is configured to supp...