Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Pneumatic tire or inner tube
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-14
2004-03-23
Aftergut, Jeff H. (Department: 1733)
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Pneumatic tire or inner tube
C152S527000, C152S531000, C152S535000, C152S538000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708747
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pneumatic radial tire comprising a belt comprised of at least two belt layers and a belt reinforcing layer for the belt embedded therein with a reinforcing element extending in a circumferential direction while bending in wavy form.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, the profile flattening of the tire proceeds with the lowering of a floor in a vehicle. As the tire becomes flattened, the outward growth of tire size in a tread portion in a radial direction becomes larger in the inflation under an internal pressure and hence separation failure is easily caused at an end of a belt to lower the tire durability.
In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a pneumatic tire as described in JP-A-2-208101. This tire comprises a radial carcass toroidally extending between a pair of bead portions, a belt disposed at an outside of the radial carcass in a radial direction of the tire and comprised of at least two belt layers each containing many reinforcing cords embedded therein, the cords of which layers are crossed with each other with respect to an equatorial plane of the tire, a belt reinforcing member disposed at an inside of the belt in the radial direction and comprised of at least one ply having a width narrower than that of the belt and containing plural reinforcing elements embedded therein so as to extend in a circumferential direction of the tire while bending in form of wave or zigzag, and a tread rubber arranged at an outside of the belt in the radial direction.
In such a pneumatic tire, the belt reinforcing member controls the outward growth of tire size of a tread portion, particularly a shoulder portion in the radial direction during the inflation of an internal air pressure to a certain extent, whereby separation failure at a widthwise outer end portion of the belt is controlled to improve the belt durability.
However, the growth of the tire diameter in the tread portion increases with the flattening of the tire, so that the width of the belt reinforcing member should be made wide in accordance of the flattening degree (i.e. aspect ratio) of the tire. In this connection, when the width of the belt reinforcing member in the above pneumatic tire is further widened in accordance with the more flattening of the tire recently demanded (aspect ratio of not more than 0.7), there is caused a problem that the occurrence of belt end separation can not sufficiently be suppressed and particularly the separation failure is created at the widthwise outer end portion of the belt reinforcing member.
The inventors have made various studies with respect to the separation failure of the belt in the above pneumatic tire provided with the belt reinforcing member and have obtained the following knowledge. That is, when the tire rides on protrusions such as stones and the like scattered on road surface at a middle region between the equatorial plane and the tread end, during the running of the tire, the belt reinforcing member is pushed inward in the radial direction to form a dent portion. The degree of this dent portion is sharper in the widthwise direction than in the circumferential direction. For this end, when the tire rides over the protrusion, a large axial shearing strain is caused between the belt layers constituting the belt, and particularly a largest axial shearing strain is caused at an end of the belt layer, which brings about the occurrence of the belt end separation as mentioned above.
The inventors have made analyses with respect to the deformation of the belt as mentioned above and confirmed two causes as mentioned below. Firstly, the reinforcing elements of the belt layers constituting the belt are crossed at a small inclination angle with respect to the equatorial plane of the tire, usually within a range of 15-30° for effectively controlling the growth of tire diameter in the tread portion, while the reinforcing elements embedded in the belt reinforcing member extend in parallel to the equatorial plane of the tire as a whole as mentioned above, so that the bending rigidity of the belt and the belt reinforcing member in the widthwise direction of the tire as a whole is fairly low. Secondly, the belt reinforcing member bears a greater part of circumferential tension produced in the tire in the inflation of the internal air pressure because the reinforcing elements embedded in the belt reinforcing member extend in parallel to the equatorial plane, so that the rigidity rapidly lowers at an outer end of the belt reinforcing member in the axial direction, and hence when the belt reinforcing member is subjected to a force from the protrusion as mentioned above, it acts as a single deformable plate and concavely deforms at the axially outer end as a fulcrum (or fixed point).
Furthermore, the inventors have confirmed the following fact. That is, since the belt in a ground contact region is deformed so as to be flat and the reinforcing elements contained therein are inclined toward the side of the equatorial plane so as to extend in the circumferential direction, rubber surrounding the belt is dragged in the circumferential direction by such a deformation of the belt and also the dragged quantity of rubber becomes large near to the widthwise outer end of the belt. In the above tire, since the belt reinforcing member having a width narrower than that of the belt is arranged adjacent to the belt, rubber located near to the widthwise outer end of the belt reinforcing member is also dragged by the widthwise outer end portion of the belt and largely deformed. However, even if the belt reinforcing member is deformed so as to be flat together with the belt, the reinforcing element in the belt-reinforcing member extend in the circumferential direction, they are not further stretched in the circumferential direction and hence a great strain is produced in rubber near to the widthwise outer end of the belt reinforcing member, and also such a strain is repeatedly caused every the rotation of the tire. As a result, the separation failure is prematurely caused in the vicinity of the widthwise outer end of the belt reinforcing member.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have made further studies based on the above knowledge and found that the occurrence of separation failure can be controlled by arranging a belt protection member satisfying a given condition in addition to the belt reinforcing member, or by specifying a relation between widthwise outer ends of the belt and the belt reinforcing member.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is the provision of a pneumatic radial tire comprising a carcass toroidally extending between a pair of bead portions and comprised of at least one rubberized ply containing a plurality of cords arranged substantially in a radial direction, a belt arranged at an outside of the carcass in the radial direction and comprised of at least two belt layers containing plural cords embedded therein, the cords of which layers being crossed with each other with respect to an equatorial plane of the tire, a belt reinforcing member arranged adjacent to the belt and comprised of at least one belt reinforcing layer containing a reinforcing element embedded therein and extending in a circumferential direction while bending in form of wave or zigzag, and a tread rubber arranged on an outside of the belt in the radial direction, in which a belt protection member containing many reinforcing elements embedded at an inclination angle with respect to the equatorial plane larger than that of the cord in the belt layer is disposed in the neighborhood of the belt and a widthwise outer end of the belt protection member is located outward from a widthwise outer end of the belt reinforcing member in an axial direction of the tire.
Thus, when the belt protection member having a width wider than that of the belt reinforcing member and having a high bending rigidity in the widthwise direction is disposed in the neighbor hood of the belt, the bending rigidity in the widthwise di
Tsuruta Makoto
Yamada Atsushi
Aftergut Jeff H.
Bridgestone Corporation
Fischer Justin
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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