Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Cushion and pneumatic combined
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-22
2001-06-12
Ball, Michael W (Department: 1733)
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Cushion and pneumatic combined
C152S450000, C152S312000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244314
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motor vehicle wheel with a tire mounted on a wheel rim, whereby an insert exhibiting a ring-shaped, rotating, sound-absorbing material is placed inside the tire interior enclosed by the rim and the tire. The invention furthermore relates to a process for manufacturing a sound-absorbing insert.
2. Discussion of Background Information
It is known that the tire vibrations created while rolling a tire is one of the main causes of unpleasant radiating sound. The vibration load created inside the tire body is very large and therefore creates high sound levels. The sound waves originating in the tire body are partially deflected to the exterior via the tire side walls, and partially transferred via motor vehicle components into the vehicle interior. It is now known that the insert of sound-absorbing material in tires or within the interior space created between the tire and wheel rim reduces the radiating sound load.
A solution known from prior art that also relates to a vehicle wheel of the type mentioned at the outset, deals with achieving an effective reduction of the sound waves emanating from the tire body while suggesting a simple way for assembly and disassembly. To this end it is suggested to insert the sound-absorbing material in a flexible tube that can be mounted together with the tire due to its flexibility. The embodiment as a tube has the advantage of an easy assembly method. However, especially at higher speed, when the occurring centrifugal forces become relatively large, a lower weight would be desirably.
A vehicle air tire which is completely or partially covered on its interior surface with a sound reducing coating of open-cell foamed material is furthermore known from the German patent document DE 30 42 350 C2. In order to achieve an effective dampening of the body sound in the frequency ranges that are particularly physiologically significant, it is suggested to use a special, sound-reducing, cross-linked polyurethane foamed material applied at a certain coating thickness.
EP-0 038 920 A1 discloses the addition of vibration absorbers, preferably mounted securely to the tire interior with regard to tension and torque. These vibration absorbers can consist of rubber, synthetic material or similar and additionally contain dampening inserts. DE 29 46 273 A1 also suggests to place sound-absorbing material in the interior of a tire, whereby this document discloses an arrangement of the sound-absorbing material, consisting of open-cell foamed material, on the interior side opposite the tire profile. Among other things it is suggested to fill the whole tire interior with open-cell and roughly structured foamed material. For reasons concerning the firmness, a carrier skeleton can thereby also be embedded in the foamed material.
Open-cell foam material is generally particularly well suited to particularly effectively lower the very high air sound levels created during driving. As a result, the tire-/road sounds radiating to the exterior as well as the noise present in the vehicle interior are reduced. The expert knows that there exists a series of such foamed materials that are very good at meeting these requirements.
In addition there are different materials that act equivalently in absorbing sound in the tire interior, such as absorbent cotton, wool, or felt, finding use as fleece or other form.
In practice, however, changes in the sound-absorbing characteristics of the sound-absorbing materials suited for tire insertion occur, particularly at higher speeds, due to the influence of the increasing centrifugal force, increasing with increased travel velocity, whereby the extent of the changes are also dependent on the material. The sound-absorbing characteristics thereby change due to the deformations occurring in the material and as a result of cross sectional changes of the insert of this material.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has therefor made it its task to find practical embodiments for such sound-absorbing materials to be placed in the tire interior or the space enclosed by the wheel rim and tire that ensure a good resilience to centrifugal forces with the lowest weight possible and extensively avoid increasing the mass of the insert.
The stated task is solved by outfitting the sound-absorbing insert, at least in one direction, in particular in the circumferential direction of the tire, with acoustically transparent support elements exhibiting tensile strength.
As alternative or addition to the solution of the stated task, the sound-absorbing material of the insert can also be an open-cell foamed material that exhibits pore orientations extending predominately in one direction—that of the circumferential direction of the tire.
Both solutions result in the insert being given tensile strength that, compared to known solutions, significantly increases the ability to withstand the centrifugal force without also being associated with an undesirable increase of mass of the sound-absorbing insert that is subjected to the centrifugal force.
In the solution with a support elements exhibiting tensile strength, the support elements are able to avoid the undesirable and unfavorable deformations of the sound-absorbing material or are able to reduce them to a great extent. In the second solution in accordance with the invention, the material by itself is, to a greater degree, in a position to act as “support element”.
A particularly preferred arrangement of the support elements, the support elements wraps over the surface of the sound-absorbing insert that is open to the tire interior and covers at least a portion of its cross section. It hereby deals with a simple but effective way to ensure a good resilience of the sound-absorbing insert to centrifugal forces.
In an alternative embodiment the support element, viewed in the radial direction, is placed at discrete distances from each other in the sound-absorbing insert. In this embodiment additional measures are taken to counteract the deformations occurring in the interior of the sound-absorbing insert. This embodiment variation is particularly advantageous at higher velocities and therefore preferably used in tires that are to be utilized at a high velocity range. In another embodiment variation of the invention, also exhibiting these advantages, the support element is constructed of fibers that are distributed in the sound-absorbing insert and oriented predominately in the circumferential direction of the tire.
A series of possibilities exist for concrete embodiments of the support elements. A preferred embodiment provides that the support element is designed as a woven mesh that is constructed in a mesh-like fashion. In the embodiment involving a woven mesh it is particularly easy to achieve the tensile strength in the circumferential direction of the tire by constructing the fibers running in this direction appropriately strong.
In an alternative embodiment of the support elements, the support element is intended to be constructed of a perforated foil that is in particular constructed isotropic. A foil offers, among other things, the advantage that it able to be easily handled and is able to be constructed so that it is flexible in all directions.
The sound-absorbing insert itself is constructed as sealed ring in order to ensure good sound-absorbing characteristics and to avoid possible undesirable effects on the remaining vehicle tire.
The closed ring can thereby be constructed of a ring-shaped strip of sound-absorbing material that is looped around several times. The arrangement of the support elements is easily possible in an embodiment involving strips and also particularly advantageous, whereby it is sufficient to equip the strip with support elements only on one side should it be constructed as foil or woven mesh.
In order to attach the support element with the ring or strip one can resort to simple methods such as gluing, welding or similar.
The assembly of the sound-absorbing insert into the tire interior or on the wheel
Dodt Thomas
Gauterin Frank
Kleinhoff Klaus
Schürmann Oliver
Veit Ivar
Ball Michael W
Continental Aktiengesellschaft
Greenblum & Berstein P.L.C.
Musser Barbara J.
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