الفهرس 
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Abstract
Tire technology is a complex combination of science and engineering that brings together a variety of disciplines. In the development of a tire, knowledge in the areas of tire geometry, dynamic tire behavior, chemistry of component materials, and technology of composite structures is essential. The result is a broad range of products which satisfy vehicle manufacturers as well as end-consumer needs for optimum performance under a variety of service conditions.
The tire construction is very complicated, composed of many layers divided into primary and secondary components. The tire materials are so many such as fibers, textiles, steel cords, chemicals, rubbers, carbons and oils. Each raw material has to be tested before entering the production line. The tire components are tested at each manufacturing stage. The tire manufacture consists of six basic processes which are : mixing, calendaring, extrusion, building, curing and finishing.
There may be some defects arise with each process. Each defect has probable causes. There are some types of defects which may down grade the tire and other types which may be called ’aspect defects’ may not affect the tire grade, but may affect the comfort of the customer.
To apply a TQM approach for enhancing the quality of tires during manufacturing and in service, a Computerized Total Quality Management (CfQM) system supplemented by a Knowledge Base (KB) is being developed.
The structure of the system is built up through developing connections among the tire manufacturing centers through databases and working modules. The strategy adopted here is based on the fact that, knowing the manufacturing history of the tire is the first and most important step to diagnose its quality problems.
The quality teams technique was introduced for analyzing the tire manufacturing system to facilitate suitable communications among the various centers. A sample of tires was fully traced and the defects appeared in it were classified.
Two case studies were introduced concerning the most frequently occurring defects in the sample.
The developed system was capable of managing the quality aspects at various steps of tire manufacturing process.