ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,311,624, issued on May 27, was assigned to Toyo Tire Corp. (Itami, Japan).
"Molding drum" was invented by Tatsuya Toda (Itami, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A molding drum is provided in which a sheet-shaped rubber member for a tire is wound around an outer circumferential surface having a cylindrical shape. A plurality of segments are arranged in a drum circumferential direction, and the outer circumferential surface of the molding drum is formed by outer surfaces of the segments coinciding with each other. At least one of the plurality of segments is a tip-end holding segment including at least a first small segment and a second...