Tire with at least one of rubber/cord laminate, sidewall insert and apex of a rubber composition which contains oriented intercalated and/or exfoliated clay reinforcement

A substantially open toroidaly shaped pneumatic rubber tire comprised of a carcass which supports a circumferential tread designed to be ground contacting and which contains two spaced apart, relatively inextensible bead portions, and two sidewall portions which individually extend from each of said bead portions to the tire tread;

• wherein said carcass is comprised of at least one carcass ply extending from bead to bead, and optionally at least one belt ply extending circumferentially around said carcass and positioned between said tread and said carcass plies;
• wherein said at least one carcass ply and said at least one optional belt ply are individually comprised of a laminate of a rubber composition and a plurality of spaced apart cords disposed in a substantially parallel relationship to each other, wherein said rubber composition encapsulates said cords, and wherein said cords are comprised of one or more filaments, wherein said one or more filaments are selected from brass coated steel filaments, polyester filaments, nylon filaments, aramid filaments and glass filaments;
• wherein said carcass contains:
• (A) an apex as a strip of a rubber composition in a shape of an annular ring positioned within a carcass sidewall adjacent to a bead portion of the carcass in a primary annular direction circumferentially co-extensive within the sidewall portion of the carcass and a secondary radial direction extending toward and spaced apart from the tire tread, and/or
• (B) a sidewall insert as a strip of a rubber composition in a shape of an annular ring spaced positioned within a carcass sidewall and spaced apart from a carcass bead portion in a primary annular direction circumferentially co-extensive within the sidewall portion of the carcass and a secondary radial direction extending toward and spaced apart from the tire tread;
• wherein said rubber composition for said rubber/cord laminate of said at least one carcass ply said at least one optional belt ply, said sidewall insert and said apex, is comprised of, based upon parts by weight of an ingredient per 100 parts by weight elastomer (phr):
• (A) 100 phr of at least one diene-based elastomer, and
• (B) about 30 to about 100 phr of particulate reinforcement dispersed within said elastomer(s) selected from intercalated smectite clay particles, carbon black, synthetic amorphous silica and silica treated carbon black comprised of:
• (1) about one to about ten phr of said intercalated, layered, thin, substantially two dimensional smectite clay particles of which at least a portion thereof is in a form of thin, flat, substantially two dimensional exfoliated platelets derived from said intercalated clay, and
• (2) about 20 to about 99 phr of at least one additional reinforcing filler comprised of at least one of carbon black, synthetic amorphous silica and silica treated carbon black,
• wherein, for the rubber composition of said rubber/cord laminate of said at least one carcass ply and said at least one optional belt ply, a majority of said dispersed smectite intercalated clay particles and exfoliated platelets have a primary orientation in the plane of the laminate and substantially parallel to said cords and a secondary orientation in the plane of the laminate and substantially at right angles to said cords;
• wherein for the rubber composition of said annular sidewall insert strip and annular apex strip, a majority of said dispersed smectite clay particles and exfoliated platelets have a primary orientation in the plane of the strip and substantially parallel to the annular direction of said strip(s) and a secondary orientation in the plane of the strip and substantially at right angles to the annular direction of said strip(s);
• wherein said rubber composition of said annular sidewall insert strip and annular apex strip contains a coupling agent having a moiety reactive with hydroxyl groups contained on said intercalated clay particles, exfoliated platelets, synthetic amorphous silica and silica treated carbon black, and another moiety interactive with at least one of said elastomers, and
• wherein each of said sidewall insert and/or apex are formed by extruding a rubber composition through a suitable die in order to shape the unvulcanized rubber in a form of a shaped strip of rubber composition in which the intercalated clay particles and exfoliated platelets are substantially oriented in a direction parallel to the direction of the extrudate and the length of the shaped strip, followed by building said shaped strip into and within the tire sidewall portion in a form of annular ring co-extensive with said sidewall as a component thereof, with a major portion of said clay particles and exfoliated platelets thereof having said a primary orientation in the plane of the annular strip substantially parallel to the annular direction of said strip and a secondary orientation in the plane of the annular strip and substantially at right angles to the annular direction of said strip.