Optimal cure steps for product quality in a tire curing process

Numerical algorithms and computer programs have been developed to determine optimal cure steps in a tire curing process. A dynamic constrained optimiz ation problem was formulated with the following ingredients: (1) an objecti ve function that measures product quality in terms of final state of cure a nd temperature history at selected points in a tire; (2) constraints that c onsist of a process model and temperature Limits imposed on cure media; (3) B-splines representation of a time-varying profile of cure media temperatu re. The optimization problem was solved using the complex algorithm along w ith a finite element model solver. Numerical simulations were carried out t o demonstrate the procedure of determining optimal cure steps for a truck/b us radial tire. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.