Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Pneumatic tire or inner tube
Patent
1995-07-10
1999-09-07
Johnstone, Adrienne C.
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Pneumatic tire or inner tube
152451, 152556, 428364, 428401, 528183, 528337, 528424, B60C 902, B60C 918, C08G 7306, C08G 7322
Patent
active
059481862
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to light weight tires.
A tire is defined as a "continuous solid or pneumatic rubber cushion encircling a wheel," p. 1237, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary,.COPYRGT. 1989 by Merriam-Webster Inc. A tire is made from rubber, fabric, chemicals, and metal (steel). See Tires, pp. 834-861, of Vol. 16 of the Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, .COPYRGT. 1989 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. A pneumatic tire is a toroidal, high performance polymer composite which includes an external rubber-and-fabric covering. In these tires there are reinforcing cords which provide stability and resistance to bruises, fatigue and heat.
In bias-ply tires, the reinforcing cords extend diagonally across the tire from bead-to-bead. Layers of reinforcing cords are applied at an opposing angle of 30 to 70 degrees to balance the tire strength symmetrically across the tread-center line.
A radial tire is a pneumatic tire in which the plies of the reinforcing cords or filaments in the casing run in a radial direction (from bead-to-bead) at a 60 to 90 degree bias or crown angle in relation to the centerline of the tread (which is also the axis of rotation). Steel belts are used in radial tires in order to constrain the 90 degree carcass plies. The belt rigidity is essential to the functioning of the tire. Without it, a radial ply casing would be unstable. In addition to the steel belts, polyester cords and/or steel cords are used in the foundation structure or "carcass" (the carcass is that part of the tire between the liner and the tread) of the tire to reinforce the performance of the tire as a pressure container.
When steel reinforcement is used in construction of tires, the driving performance of the tires improves; however, the weight of the tires increases due to the weight of the steel. The extra weight of the steel reinforced tires means that vehicles that use steel reinforced tires have an increased "rolling resistance" which leads to an increase in fuel consumption. It is a desirable goal to decrease the amount of fuel consumption in all vehicles for efficiency, cost and environmental reasons.
It has been tried previously to substitute high performance organic fibers for steel in tires; however, these known organic fibers, such as p-aramid fibers, are not used in large quantities for this use because of performance problems. These performance problems include: a lack of sufficient tensile properties in the fibers such that in order to get an equivalent performance from a tire using organic fibers instead of steel, so much of the organic fiber has to be used that the weight of the tire is comparable to the weight the tire had when steel was used. Also, it has been found that the abrasion resistance and fatigue resistance of tires made with known organic fibers is not adequate for these tires to perform to desired levels.
It is desirable to produce tires that have equivalent performance to tires made with steel, but that weigh measurably less than do tires made with steel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The first aspect of this invention is a tire characterized in that it contains polybenzazole fibers.
The second aspect of this invention is a tire containing polybenzazole fibers characterized in that the polybenzazole fibers have:
The third aspect of this invention is a tire containing polybenzazole fibers characterized in that the polybenzazole fibers are incorporated into the reinforcing belts.
The fourth aspect of this invention is a tire containing polybenzazole fibers characterized in that the polybenzazole fibers are incorporated into the carcass of the tire.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
As used herein, the term polybenzazole ("PBZ") includes polybenzoxazole ("PBO") homopolymers, polybenzothiazole ("PBT") homopolymers and random, sequential and block copolymers of PBO and/or PBT. Polybenzoxazole, polybenzothiazole and random, sequential and block copolymers of polybenzoxazole and polybenzothiazole are described in references such as Wolfe et
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Derwent Abstract, 88-209197, "Modified poly-para-phenylene benzo:bis:thiazole fibre--used for mfg. tyre cord and reinforcing material for engineering plastics," JP63145414 (1988).
Johnstone Adrienne C.
Toyobo Co. Ltd.
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