Light weight heat-sealed tire
AssigneeWarwick Mills, Inc.
InventorCharles A Howland
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tire having reduced mass and low rolling resistance and a method of manufacture thereof achieves reduced weight by using thin layers of thermoplastic polyurethanes (“TPU's”) to heat seal the carcass, breaker, and tread layers of the tire to each other, rather than embedding the layers in conventional, relatively thicker and heavier layers of sulfur cured vulcanized carbon filled elastomers. Creep and “spring-back” of the thermoplastic polyurethanes during cure is avoided by maintaining the adhered layers under pressure until the assembly cools below its glass transition temperature. In embodiments, the heat sealing can be performed on the forming drum, and in some embodiments cool rollers are applied to the heat-sealed carcass so as to accelerate the cooling to below the glass transition temperature.
Claims22
A vehicle tire, comprising:
- a textile carcass assembly comprising:
- a circular band of carcass textile having at least one set of primary yarns;
- at least one priming layer applied to and directly contacting the primary yarns of the carcass textile, said at least one priming layer comprising at least one of an isocyanate, an epoxy, a resorcinol formaldehyde latex, and a polyol;
- a first layer of thermoplastic applied to left and right sides of the carcass textile in direct contact with the at least one priming layer;
- and
- left and right circular cords applied as bead cores to the carcass textile proximal to left and right edges thereof, the left and right sides of the carcass textile being folded over the bead cores;
- and
- a tread layer applied to the textile carcass assembly;
- the at least one priming layer and the first layer of thermoplastic are free of sulfur cured elastomer;
- wherein the left and right sides of the carcass textile are folded onto an outer surface of the carcass textile, thereby forming at least portions of exterior sidewall surfaces of the tire.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.