Tire With Pressure Zero Sidewall Hoop Rings and Method of Manufacture
AssigneeAmerican Engineering Group LLC
InventorsAbraham Pannikottu, Jon Stuart Gerhardt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a pneumatic tire with a toroidal shaped tire carcass having sidewalls and a tread. A typical method of allowing a tire to run even in a punctured state is a method of reinforcing the sidewall area to support the load in the airless state. The present invention discloses both sidewalls having a hoop ring circumferentially molded in-place at the middle portion of both sidewalls or as floating multiple hoop rings bonded in-place at the middle portion in the tire inside sidewalls for supporting the vehicle load in a run-flat condition.
Claims17
A pressure zero tire, comprising:
- a pair of opposed sidewalls;
- and
- hoop rings circumferentially and securedly received by each of said opposed sidewalls of the tire as reinforcing structures for supporting an associated vehicle load in a run-flat condition.
A manufacturing process for pressure zero tires having additional steps to those employed in standard tire building processes, comprising:
- after carcass plies are placed on a building drum, covering the ends of the plies with a liner to prevent sticking of the carcass plies above where hoop rings will be placed;
- turning the carcass plies up over the bead;
- placing another strip of liner covering from where the carcass plies will end up and turn down toward the crown covering the area where side wall strips will be placed;
- placing the side wall strips on the drum and inflating the carcass to shape the tire;
- subsequently pulling down the side walls to allow placement of the hoop rings;
- after the rings are applied, turning down the carcass plies over the hoop rings and removing the liner from the plies and then rolling the assembly to remove air;
- then removing the other strip of liner and replacing the side wall strips to their proper location and again rolling out air;
- and
- then proceeding with a normal tire build operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.