Air maintenance tire and valve assembly
AssigneeThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
InventorsRobert Leon Benedict, Robert Allen Losey, Thulasiram Gobinath
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Abstract
A self-inflating tire assembly includes an air tube mounted within a tire sidewall groove. The air tube is in contacting engagement with opposite angled groove surfaces surrounding the air tube. A segment of the air tube is flattened from an expanded diameter to a flat diameter by bending and compression of the groove in a rolling tire footprint to force air evacuated from the flattened segment along a tube air passageway. A tube is positioned within the groove, wherein the tube has a circular cross-sectional shape and an outside diameter D, and the groove does not have a circular cross-sectional shape, wherein said groove has a width W and a length L, wherein D is greater than W.
Claims9
A self-inflating tire assembly comprising:
- a tire mounted to a wheel, the tire having a tire cavity, first and second sidewalls extending respectively from first and second tire bead regions to a tire tread region;
- a groove positioned within the tire,
- a tube positioned within the groove, wherein the tube has a circular cross-sectional shape and having an outside diameter (D), and the groove does not have a circular cross-sectional shape, wherein said groove has a width (W) and a length (L), wherein the outside diameter (D) is in the range of 1.5 to 2 times the width (W) of the groove and wherein the groove length (L) is in the range of 2 to 4 times the width (W).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.