Modelling and experimental investigations on tyre vulcanization hotplates

The energy usage analysis and optimization are important in the current world energy scenario to overcome the increasing worldwide energy crisis. It is necessary that the industries which contributes a lot in the total energy usage and wastage must become sustainable enough to reduces its contribution to total worldwide energy crisis. The tyre manufacturing industry has grown rapidly in past decades and at the same time the energy consumption also has increased rapidly. The reduction of energy not only saves money but also increase the company’s effect on environment by consuming fewer finite resources. In a tyre manufacturing process, the vulcanization process consumes a lot of energy and the traditional method of using steam for the vulcanization process is considered highly inefficient. The objective of this thesis is to develop a thermodynamic model of the hotplates of bicycle tyre vulcanization press used by Pirelli group. In the simulation, real time working of the vulcanization press is simulated with focusing only on the hot plates and vulcanization chamber of the press. The results indicate various thermodynamic and fluid dynamic aspects of the press which will be very crucial during the optimization process. Some preliminary experiments were conducted to validate the developed models. These models could be further used for better understanding of the energy demand and to improve energy efficiency of the process.

L'obiettivo di questa tesi è stato quello di sviluppare un modello termodinamico delle tavole calde per la vulcanizzazione di pneumatici per biciclette utilizzata dal gruppo Pirelli. I modelli sono stati parzialmente validati con prove sperimentali preliminari. Le simulazioni nel tempo hanno permesso di ottenere informazioni utili sul funzionamento del sistema reale. Questi modelli potrebbero essere ulteriormente utilizzati per una migliore comprensione ed un incremento dell’efficienza dell’impianto.