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US 5,099,902 AGranted
Offset wound helical bead for pneumatic tires
AssigneeBridgestone/Firestone, Inc.
InventorLouis W. Shurman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeBridgestone/Firestone, Inc.
InventorLouis W. Shurman
Estimating the term…
A pneumatic tire bead is formed into a spiral coil consisting of a plurality of convolutions or turns of wire. The wire may be round, square, oval or hexagonal in cross section. A crimp or offset bend is made in each of the convolutions a distance of one wire width or a fraction of the wire width in each full 360 degree wire turn such that the ends of the bead wire permit the bead side walls to remain in flat parallel planes. This offset relationship reduces nonuniformity in the tire heretofore produced by spirally wound wire beads. The bead wire can be wound in a vertical plane or in a radial spiral clock-like spring fashion. In another embodiment a pair of mirror image offset coils are joined together to form a composite bead preferably for use in heavy duty applications. In still another embodiment a single flat hoop may be placed between a pair of mirror image offset coils to increase resistance to circumferential distortion.
A pneumatic tire construction including a tread, a pair of sidewalls, each terminating in an annular bead area for mounting the tire on a rim, and an annular bead contained within the bead area, said bead including a first single strand of metallic wire wound upon itself into a spiral with a first end of said first strand being located on an outer circumference of the spiral and a second end of said strand being located on an inner circumference of the spiral;
An annular bead construction for a pneumatic tire including a single strand of metallic wire wound upon itself into a spiral with a first end of the strand being located on an outer circumference of the spiral and a second end of the strand being located on an inner circumference of the spiral;
An annular bead construction for a pneumatic tire including first and second continuous strands of metallic wire each wound into a helix having a pair of opposed side faces and a pair of opposed end faces, each of said strands terminating in first and second free ends with said first and second free ends of each strand terminating in a spaced relationship with respect to each other with a bent strand portion extending therebetween;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.