Method and tire adapted for post cure tire uniformity correction

A method of correcting one or more tire uniformity characteristics of a pneumatic tire having a pair of spaced beads and at least one carcass reinforcement ply;

• the reinforcement ply having reinforcement cords;
• the method being characterized by the following steps;
• a) forming a portion of the tire with a material that is rendered plastic and rendered nonplastic, which, in turn, respectively permits and restricts reorientation of reinforcement cords;
• b) rendering the material plastic, after the tire has been at least partially vulcanized, to permit one or more of the reinforcement cords to be reoriented;
• c) reorienting one or more reinforcement cords with respect to other reinforcement cords or components;
• and
• d) rendering the material nonplastic, to restrict further reorientation of adjacent reinforcement cords, and
• e) the step of reorienting the one or more reinforcement cords includes the step of:
• applying a force to a sidewall of the tire to reorient the one or more reinforcement cords.

Tire comprising a tread portion, a pair of beads disposed within respective bead portions, a sidewall, and a carcass reinforcement ply having reinforcement cords;

• the tire characterized in that:
• the bead portion has a material that is rendered plastic and rendered non-plastic to respectively permit and restrict reorientation of one or more reinforcement cords relative to other reinforcement cords or components of the tire without stretching the cords beyond their elastic limit after the tire has been at least partially vulcanized, the material is a thermoplastic;
• the thermoplastic material has a deflection temperature of between 30 degrees C. and 190 degrees C.;
• and
• the thermoplastic material is disposed between the bead and an adjacent portion of the carcass reinforcement ply.

Tire comprising a tread portion, a pair of beads disposed within respective bead portions, a sidewall, and a carcass reinforcement ply having reinforcement cords;

• the tire characterized in that:
• the bead portion has a material that is rendered plastic and rendered non-plastic to respectively permit and restrict reorientation of one or more reinforcement cords relative to other reinforcement cords or components of the tire without stretching the cords beyond their elastic limit after the tire has been at least partially vulcanized;
• the material is a thermoplastic;
• the thermoplastic material has a deflection temperature of between 30 degrees C. and 190 degrees C.;
• the bead has steel filaments encased in a matrix;
• and
• at least a portion of the matrix is comprised of the thermoplastic material.

Tire comprising a tread portion a bead portion, a sidewall, and a carcass reinforcement ply having reinforcement cords;

• the tire characterized in that:
• the bead portion has a material that is rendered plastic and rendered non-plastic to respectively permit and restrict reorientation of one or more reinforcement cords relative to other reinforcement cords or components of the tire without stretching the cords beyond their elastic limit after the tire has been at least partially vulcanized in which;
• the material is selected from the group consisting of sulfur vulcanizable materials including syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadiene and trans-polyoctenamer;
• semi-sulfur curable resins including AB and ABA block copolymers, where A represents blocks of polystyrene, poly(alphamethyl styrene) or poly(t-butylstyrene), and B represents blocks of either polyisoprene or polybutadiene, and SBS or SIS block copolymers;
• and
• non-curable resins including polymers of alphaolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polybutene and copolymers of alphaolefins with minor amounts of other mono-olefins such as 1-hexene and 1-octene, and hydrocarbon, phenol/acetylene and rosin derived resins;
• and
• the material is incorporated in ply coating stock of the carcass reinforcement ply.