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Chances are you jump in your car, truck or SUV without a second thought for your tires. It's easy to forget just how much technology and work goes into making those hard rubber rings at all four corners of your vehicle.  Pacific Coast Tire & Service has a special appreciation for the long process that results in great tires.  Here's how tires go from rubber to rolling stock.

First, you need a huge building.  Tire plants cover acres of land and employ hundreds or thousands of people around the clock making tires as quickly as every 23 seconds.  A single tire plant can make millions of tires each year, and the entire process happens under one roof in towns spread far and wide all over the US, Canada and around the world.

The process starts with raw materials; rubber, synthetic rubber, carbon and steel all mixed together using unique formulas that each manufacturer holds as closely guarded secrets.  The mix of materials, called the compound, is fed into huge machines called extruders that form the compound into rubber belts called plies. Each ply is unique, specialized to become the inner layer, called the carcass, or the outer layer, called the belt and tread section.

The ply belt material is rolled into large coils, like a big roll of tape, with cloth to separate the sticky layers.  These coils are moved to the tire building area in the plant for the next step.  The belts are wound around large metal cylinders called drums, which collapse after the belts are wound around it so they can be removed.  The belt and tread section is larger and become the outside layer of the tire, while the carcass is smaller and incorporated the beads, the hard rings that seal to your wheels.

Both the carcass and the belt and tread section are made of sticky rubber. The finished belt and tread section is carried by a transfer ring and slipped over the smaller carcass.  Then the carcass drum seals to the carcass and inflates it like an inner tube, pushing it into the inside of the belt and tread section.  Rollers "stich" the two layers together by pressing the sticky rubber like to pieces of bubble gum. The result is a plain rubber ring called a, "green tire."  A green tire has no lettering or tread pattern and looks like a rubber doughnut.

Green tires are transported to the molding and curing area.  Each green tire is set in a mold that gives it the tread pattern and lettering specific to the tire model.  Then the mold and tire are heated and pressurized in a process called vulcanization.  What comes out is a hardened tire that looks like what you see in Pacific Coast Tire & Service showroom.

The finished tires are quality checked and sent to shipping, with a stop along the way to add white paint for raised white letter and white wall tires.  They are then separated by size, palletized and shipped to places like Pacific Coast Tire & Service to be installed on your vehicle.

Tires have been made for over a century and technology is constantly improving safety and durability.  Come see Pacific Coast Tire & Service the next time you need tires and while you're there, check out the tires on display with your newfound appreciation for how your new tires came to be.