Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Anti-skid devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-09
2002-03-19
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Anti-skid devices
C152S223000, C301S041100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06357500
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a nonskid device, namely for pneumatic-tired wheels of vehicles on ice and snow surfaces.
Such a nonskid device for increasing the grip of wheels of vehicles is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,443,261. This nonskid device can be mounted on the wheel rims of vehicles and consists of a base disk and a ring disk rotating around its center on which swivelling levers for swinging in and out triangular nonskid arms are articulated which are rotatably fixed to the base disk so that, at each rotation of the ring disk, the nonskid arms can swing out from a position retreated from the tire periphery to a radial operating position so that the pointed end sections project from the surface plane constituted by the tire tread and can engage into the ground. For this known nonskid device, the nonskid arms are beside the tire lateral surface even in the swung out position and cover in no way the tire tread so that the increasing of the grip of the vehicle wheels is not carried out by the direct effect of the tire or of its tread onto the antiskid arms and of the antiskid arms onto the ground surface. In operation the antiskid arms do not constitute an integrated component of the tire to obtain an effect which corresponds to that of spikes sunk into the tread profile of a tire.
Another antiskid device for tires of vehicles, which is known from FR 1 368 348, is constituted by a number of arm-type holding devices which may be mounted by means of a base disk on the rim of each vehicle, whereby the arm-type holding devices lap over the wheel tread in the operating position as well as also when not in use.
Another nonskid device, described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,610,898, is constituted by a great number of spike-type ribs or teeth which may be extended laterally besides the tire into an operating position but which do not lap over the tire tread. The swinging in and out of the radially arranged nonskid arms takes place by using a distortable disk which may be mounted on the rim of a vehicle. The nonskid arms used for this nonskid device are not resilient but are rigid, since they must engage into the ice or snow covered surface of the ground at each rotation of the wheel.
Moreover, from AT 325 435 a removable nonskid device for vehicles, preferably for pneumatic-tired wheels of vehicles, is known with one or several nonskid straps resting on the tread of the wheel tire which can be radially pushed into fastening bushes fixed on the rim outer side and which can be fixed thereon by means of a locking device and which embrace the profile of the tire also on the side turned to the vehicle, device for which the locking device comprises at least one, preferably two ratchets acting contrary to each other, placed parallel to the wheel surface plane, which are linked on the nonskid strap, whereby catches engage at the outer free end of the ratchets, the nonskid straps being completely pushed into the fastening bushes, on their ends turned to the wheel hub, and are held by springs in the locked position so that a nonskid device should be created which takes part in the radial movement of the wheel circumference so that the shock attenuation of the vehicle wheel is not hindered. This nonskid device comprises two essential parts, namely fastening bushes fixed on the rim outer side and nonskid straps which can be radially pushed into those and which lap over the tread of the wheel tire, whereby the fastening bushes do not constitute a non detachable unit with the nonskid straps.
The DE 27 59 899 describes a tired vehicle wheel, namely a pneumatic-tired vehicle wheel with a nonskid device for which the device for receiving the nonskid device is a component of the wheel. This nonskid device shows a supporting case in the art of a hub cap and a disk, which is connected with the wheel, as a component made of a base disk and a ring disk distortable relative hereto with at least two nonskid arms placed in this supporting case which can be swung in and out, while the base disk of the supporting case is fixedly connected with the wheel and constitutes a component part of the wheel. Because the nonskid device is an integrated component of the wheel, an easy removal of the nonskid device is not possible when not in use.
The DE 83 27 385 describes a nonskid device, namely for pneumatic-tired vehicle wheels on ice and snow surfaces which comprises a supporting disk which can be mounted on the wheel disk or rim with a number of nonskid arms radially running at an equal distance the one from the other and which can swivel around axes running parallel to the wheel disk bearing axis or which are fixed, which are made of a bent profile lapping over the tire tread and supporting on the outer side in their free ends a gripping profile or spikes made of a plastic or of another appropriate material, whereby, for fixing the supporting disk, the nonskid device has a fixing disk connected with the wheel disk or the rim which is provided with holding devices for the supporting disk which can be locked, whereas the fixing disk is fixedly connected with the wheel disk or the rim and constitutes a component part of the wheel.
All known nonskid devices have radially running arms of predetermined length which are placed in a fixed position on a bearing ring or on a supporting disk and which cover or embrace the tread tire together with their free ends. Because of the predetermined arm length and because of a fixing point for the arms the position of which is not variable, these nonskid devices can be used only for one tire size.
An adaptation of the length of the arms to different tire sizes is not possible. Thus, a retailer has to have in stock a great number of arms of different length so as to be able to deliver to the client nonskid devices with an arm length adapted to the tire size of the client's vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the invention is to create a nonskid device of the afore mentioned type which can be easily mounted on different sizes of vehicle tires by the retailer as well as by the vehicle's owner, whereby the size adjustment of the nonskid devices can be carried out in adaptation to the respective tire sizes without many technical efforts and without using arm-type gripping element supports of different length but is carried out only by varying the distance of the fixing point of the gripping element support from the tire tread. Moreover, the nonskid device should be flat collapsible; for an easy mounting of the nonskid device on a vehicle wheel, the arm-type gripping element supports should be swivellable in the art of a pendulum in a certain swivelling range.
According hereto, the first inventive embodiment consists in the fact that for a reciprocal swivelling movement of the arm-type gripping element supports around a center lying outside the center of the supporting element for example in form of a bearing ring a number of pivot bearings corresponding to the number of the gripping element supports is placed or provided for on the supporting element, whereby at least one gripping element support is held with its end turned to the supporting element on each pivot bearing, the supporting element showing a configuration in form of a plate or of a ring or another geometrical configuration.
The second embodiment consists in the fact that the gripping element supports are placed with their gripping elements on the supporting element with one end outside the center of the supporting element on the supporting element around swivelling axes running transversely to the middle axis of the supporting element to swing out the gripping element supports from the swung-in non operating position to the swung-out operating position and to swing in from this position to the non operating position, the supporting element showing a configuration in form of a plate or of a ring or another geometrical configuration.
The third embodiment consists in the fact that, for the adaptation of the nonskid device to different tire sizes, the distance of the fixing point of each grip
Confon AG
Kueffner Friedrich
Morano S. Joseph
Nguyen Long Bao
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