Non-pneumatic tire having balanced spoke stiffness
AssigneeBridgestone Americas Tire Operation, LLC
InventorsBenjamin E. Rimai, Bradley S. Plotner, Prashant Kumar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A non-pneumatic tire and method of forming a non-pneumatic tire. The non-pneumatic tire includes a lower ring having a first diameter and an upper ring having a second diameter greater than the first diameter. The upper ring is substantially coaxial with the lower ring. A plurality of spokes extend between and interconnect the lower ring and the upper ring. The plurality of spokes have a tension stiffness of greater than or equal to 11 and less than or equal to 150 N/mm°, and a compression stiffness of greater than or equal to 11 and less than or equal to 100 N/mm°.
Claims21
1-15. (canceled)
A non-pneumatic tire comprising:
- a lower ring having a first diameter;
- an upper ring having a second diameter greater than the first diameter, the upper ring being substantially coaxial with the lower ring;
- and
- a plurality of spokes extending between and interconnecting the lower ring and the upper ring;
- wherein the plurality of spokes have a tension stiffness of greater than or equal to 11 and less than or equal to
- 150
-
- N
- mm
- /
- °
- ,
- and a compression stiffness of greater than or equal to 11 and less than or equal to
- 100
-
- N
- mm
- /
- °
- .
A non-pneumatic tire comprising:
- a lower ring having a first diameter;
- an upper ring having a second diameter greater than the first diameter, the upper ring being substantially coaxial with the lower ring;
- and
- a plurality of spokes extending between and interconnecting the lower ring and the upper ring;
- wherein the plurality of spokes have a tension stiffness to compression stiffness ratio in the range of 0.3:1 to 8:1.
A method of manufacturing a non-pneumatic tire comprising the steps of:
- modeling a model tire having a model width and a model design load capacity;
- selecting a reference tension stiffness value and a reference compression stiffness value based on the step of modeling, the reference tension stiffness value being greater than or equal to 11 and less than or equal to
- 150
-
- N
- mm
- /
- °
- ,
- the reference compression stiffness being greater than or equal to 11 and less than or equal to
- 100
-
- N
- mm
- /
- °
- ;
- calculating a first ideal tension stiffness and a first ideal compression stiffness for a tire design having a first design width and a first design capacity by adjusting the reference tension stiffness value and the reference compression stiffness value selected during the step of selecting;
- and
- and producing a first non-pneumatic tire having the first design width and the first design capacity, and further having the first ideal tension stiffness and the first ideal compression stiffness calculated during the step of calculating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.