Tire with Improved Endurance to External Impacts

A tire designed to be mounted and pressurized on a vehicle wheel rim that has at least one circumferential seat for a bead belonging to the tire and an outward radial projection in the vicinity of the seat, this tire comprising:

• a circumferential crown provided with a tread for ensuring contact with the ground;
• at least one bead having a portion suitable for being mounted on the rim seat;
• and
• a wall comprising a structure of rubber and reinforcements connecting the crown to the bead;
• the whole formed by these elements defining with the rim an air chamber, the tire also comprising:
• at least one protective element located in a sector where the tire wall between the crown and the bead could become pinched between the projection and an obstacle external to the tire in response to a violent impact due to the tread meeting this obstacle, causing closure of the internal cavity of the tire in this sector and momentary high compressive stresses perpendicular to the wall of the tire, the protective element being capable of deforming elastically in the direction perpendicular to the tire wall,
• wherein the protective element is produced using a foam of a rubber-based material with a rigidity greater than 10 MPa (and preferably greater than 25 MPa) and a void ratio of between 15% and 60% (and preferably of between 25% and 40%).

A tire designed to be mounted and pressurized on a vehicle wheel rim that has at least one circumferential seat for a bead belonging to the tire and an outward radial projection in the vicinity of the seat, this tire comprising:

• a circumferential crown provided with a tread for ensuring contact with the ground;
• at least one bead having a portion suitable for being mounted on the rim seat;
• and
• a wall comprising a structure of rubber and reinforcements connecting the crown to the bead;
• the whole formed by these elements defining with the rim an air chamber, the tire also comprising:
• at least one protective element located in a sector where the tire wall between the crown and the bead could become pinched between the projection and an obstacle external to the tire in response to a violent impact due to the tread meeting this obstacle, causing closure of the internal cavity of the tire in this sector and momentary high compressive stresses perpendicular to the wall of the tire, the protective element being capable of deforming elastically in the direction perpendicular to the tire wall,
• wherein the protective element comprises a layer of an incompressible elastically deformable material fixed to the rubber and to the reinforcements of the tire wall in this sector, the layer having a geometry such that cavities form when it is pinched.

A tire designed to be mounted and pressurized on a vehicle wheel rim that has at least one circumferential seat for a bead belonging to the tire and an outward radial projection in the vicinity of the seat, this tire comprising:

• a circumferential crown provided with a tread for ensuring contact with the ground;
• at least one bead having a portion suitable for being mounted on the rim seat;
• and
• a wall comprising a structure of rubber and reinforcements connecting the crown to the bead;
• the whole formed by these elements defining with the rim an air chamber, the tire also comprising:
• at least one protective element located in a sector where the tire wall between the crown and the bead could become pinched between the projection and an obstacle external to the tire in response to a violent impact due to the tread meeting this obstacle, causing closure of the internal cavity of the tire in this sector and momentary high compressive stresses perpendicular to the wall of the tire, the protective element being capable of deforming elastically in the direction perpendicular to the tire wall,
• wherein the protective element comprises a layer of an incompressible elastically deformable material fixed to the rubber and to the reinforcements of the tire wall in this sector, the layer having voids which are spaced apart from each other in directions parallel to its surface through its full thickness or through part of its thickness.