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AssigneeMichelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
InventorsWalter Lee Willard, Jr., Virginia White Snipes, Allen Eugene Wilson
Estimating the term…
The run-flat tire of this invention includes a pair of bead regions, a crown region with a tread and a tread reinforcing package including a cap ply and self supporting sidewalls between each bead region and the crown region. An innerliner ply maintains air within the inflated tire. The self supporting sidewalls each include a first crescent-shaped reinforcing member, an inner carcass layer, an inner sidewall supporting complex and an outer sidewall and bead protecting complex. The supporting sidewalls effectively have a plurality of crescent-shaped reinforcing members and a plurality of carcass layers. The sidewall supporting complexes are realized by providing first and second partial carcass layers along with a filler rubber portion and a second crescent-shaped reinforcing member, which can be formed by a separate tire building operation. The sidewall protecting complexes can be formed in a similar operation. The run-flat tire of this invention can be realized within standard production rates for building tires.The inflated vs. deflated performance tradeoffs in ride comfort, handling, radial stiffness and endurance of the tire are substantially maintained with improved mass and rolling resistance over previous run-flat tires. This is accomplished with a run-flat tire having relatively small weight increases over a standard tire and with a rim that can be used interchangeably with the standard tire.
A vehicle tire including an innerliner to the inside of said tire, a reinforced inner carcass layer that is anchored in each bead region by being looped around each inextensible bead core, a tread disposed in a crown portion of said tire, a pair of first crescent-shaped reinforcing members each disposed in a respective sidewall adjacent said innerliner and a tread reinforcing package disposed between said carcass layer and said tread, said tire further comprising:
A tire for mounting on a rim of a vehicle capable of sustaining vehicle loads at a contact patch in an effective manner with a loss of inflation pressure including a crown portion having a tread for contacting a ground surface, a tread reinforcing package located radially inward of said tread, a pair of bead regions axially spaced apart and each having a bead core located radially inward of said crown portion, a pair of axially spaced apart reinforced load bearing sidewalls each disposed radially between a respective lateral edge of said crown region of the tire and a respective bead region and an innerliner at the interior surface of the tire, each load bearing sidewall comprises:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.