Land vehicles: wheels and axles – Wheel – With wheel cover
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-16
2001-07-10
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Land vehicles: wheels and axles
Wheel
With wheel cover
C301S108100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06257675
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to assemblies consisting of a tire mounted on a wheel and intended to be mounted on a vehicle and, in particular, assemblies containing a part forming a wheel hubcap designed, in particular, to mask said wheel and to present a wall surface visually more attractive and aesthetic than the wheel.
Taking the aesthetics and purely ornamental appearance into account in making a tire assembly mounted on a wheel for the vehicles designed today is acquiring ever greater importance. The designers of said assemblies are sometimes led to create ornamental motifs which occupy the outer surface of the tire (particularly the sidewall part extending between the tread and the part of the tire in contact with the wheel) as well as the surface of the hubcap equipping the wheel on which the tire is mounted.
In this context, it can be of great interest from an ornamental standpoint to create a motif presenting an overall unity on the visible surface of the hubcap as well as on the visible outer surface of the tire. A motif presenting an overall unity is understood to be a motif not presenting any apparent visual interruption between the surface of a decorated sidewall and the visible surface of the hubcap situated beside the decorated sidewall.
In the case of a motif presenting an overall unity, a first problem arises after mounting of the tire on its wheel at the time of placement of the hubcap: it is sometimes difficult to position the hubcap correctly in relation to the motif of the tire so as to repeat the unbroken motif between the part of said motif present on the sidewall and the part present on the hubcap; that is all the more true as said motif is not necessarily repetitive circumferentially and it is then imperative to match said two parts perfectly in order to come up with the desired ornamental motif.
Furthermore, it is often found, after rolling of the tire/wheel assembly mounted on a vehicle, that the tire has turned slightly on its wheel under the effect of the stresses exerted by the road on said tire and resulting from repeated accelerations and/or brakings of the vehicle; that rotation of the tire on its wheel, which does not at all affect operation of the mounted assembly, does lead, however, to a break of continuity of the initial ornamental motif between the hubcap and the sidewall of the tire.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve those problems, the invention proposes a mounted assembly intended to equip a vehicle and comprising f a mounting wheel and a tire provided with sidewalls securing the attachment between a tread and the parts of said tire designed to come in contact with said wheel after mounting of the tire on said wheel. Said mounted assembly also includes an element forming a hubcap fastened to the wheel so as to prevent any movement in relation to each other in the axial direction of the mounted assembly, while allowing a rotation of said hubcap relative to said wheel.
The mounted assembly is characterized in that means of attachment between the hubcap and one of the sidewalls are provided, so that said sidewall will cooperate with the hubcap in order to secure a good angular position of the hubcap in relation to said sidewall as well as to maintain said position during use of the mounted assembly on a vehicle.
In this way, possible rotary movements of the tire relative to its mounting wheel, during rolling of a vehicle equipped with said assembly, is fully transmitted to the hubcap attached to said tire. Thus, the problems mentioned above are thereafter solved, since the means of the invention make it possible easily to bring the ornamental motifs created on the hubcap and on one of the sidewalls of a tire into concordance and also to preserve said concordance during rolling.
In a first embodiment, the mounted assembly according to the invention is characterized in that the hubcap contains at least one extension projecting radially to one of the sidewalls of the tire, each extension having a deformation elasticity suitable for following the deformations of the sidewall during rolling, and in that means of attachment are provided on said sidewall to secure and preserve the angular position of the hubcap relative to said sidewall.
In a second embodiment of a mounted assembly according to the invention, at least one of the sidewalls of the tire contains at least one extension projecting radially to the axis of rotation of the tire in order to cooperate with seats provided on the hubcap, so as to secure and preserve the angular position of the hubcap relative to said sidewall.
The invention will be better understood by reading the specification associated with the figures, the object of which is to present in nonlimitative manner working variants.
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patent: 76598 (1948-05-01), None
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T. Handa, “Plastic Wheel Cover,” Japanese Patent Office, pp. 1-7, Aug. 1988.
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Compagnie Générales des Etablissements Michelin-Michelin & Cie
Morano S. Joseph
Nguyen Long Bae
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