US 4,052,237 AGranted

Closed torus tire

AssigneeThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

InventorsPaul E. Appleby, Stanley J. Houck, Richard B. Nash

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Abstract

Method and apparatus for building a cord or wire wound carcass for a closed torus tire. An endless flattened inflatable tube providing a liner for the carcass and coaxially spaced bead rings are placed on a support comprising a cylindrical array of rolls. The bead rings are spaced axially to control the length of each turn of cord or wire wound in the flattened oval path around them. A single wire or cord is wound in a flat oval orbit about the liner and bead rings by orbiting a spool along a track having two straight parallel portions, one inside, the other outside the bead rings and liner. The parallel track portions are connected at their ends by semi-circular track portions. No rigid core is required. After winding the cord or wire about the liner and bead rings, the liner is inflated and the bead rings are shifted axially toward each other to the axial spacing appropriate for the inflated tire in use.

Claims6

Dependent claims

The method of making a closed torus tire having continuously wound cord reinforcement and comprising disposing an endless flattened empty tube coaxially about a cylindrical support to form an inflatable liner;

locating a pair of inextensible endless bead cores coaxilly about said support each adjacent to a respective axial end of said tube, said cores being spaced axially apart a distance effective to determine the peripheral length of each single turn of cord wound continuously around said pair of cores;
winding said cord continuously about said bead cores in a flattened oval path wherein said cord extends in substantially straight parallel lines respectively inwardly and outwardly adjacent to said cores thereof while rotating said cores about the axis of said support in timed relation with said winding;
then shifting each of said bead cores axially toward the other thereby relocating said cores relative to the periphery of the torus of cords therearound inflating said tube;
and applying a breaker belt and tread circumferentially about the cord wound liner tube and said bead cores and curing the tire.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.