Air maintenance tire assembly

Abstract

A pumping device is used with a pneumatic tire mounted on a tire rim to keep the pneumatic tire from becoming underinflated. The device includes a pumping device attached to the tire rim, a dynamic mass mechanically confined to rotational movement relative to the pumping device and the tire rim, the dynamic mass moving in response to a minimum angular acceleration and a minimum angular velocity of the tire rim and pumping ambient air into the pumping device, an intake port for ambient air to enter the pumping device, and an exhaust port for forcing pressurized air into a tire cavity of the pneumatic tire for restoring air loss from an inflation volume within the tire cavity, the dynamic mass and the pumping device both being weighted equally on each side of a centerline of the tire rim.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.