Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Pneumatic tire or inner tube
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-10
2004-01-20
Ball, Michael W. (Department: 1733)
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Pneumatic tire or inner tube
C152S516000, C152S331100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06679306
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to run flat pneumatic tires where the tire includes a load bearing inner support structure to support, in compression, a tire load should the pneumatic tire lose pressure, allowing the vehicle mounting the tire to safely travel a target distance of at least fifty miles, at a speed of at least fifty miles per hour.
2. Prior Art
A recent rash of catastrophic automobile accidents attributed to rapid pneumatic tire deflation have resulted in a greatly increased interest in producing a pneumatic tire that, even after a rapid deflation, will safely support a load carried by the tire so as to allow the vehicle mounting the tire to make a controlled stop and to even to continue to travel on that deflated tire, at a moderate speed, for a sufficient distance to find a repair facility. Which moderate speed has been selected as fifty to fifty five miles per hour, for a target distance to be traveling on the deflated tire set at approximately fifty miles. To the end of providing such a tire, most, if not all, the major tire manufacturers, have developed or are in the process of developing, a run flat tire. To date, however, pneumatic tires as have been developed and even marketed have generally failed to safely meet the target speed and distance, and such, in practice, have not been reliable at the target speed over the target distance, and are very expensive. Examples of run flat pneumatic tires are shown in
FIGS. 1 and 3
, that are identified as Prior Art, of the present application. Shown in
FIG. 1
is a run flat tire like that as has been developed by Michelin identified as a “Zero Pressure Tire” that includes multiple plys to create stiff side walls; and, the tire shown in FIG.,
3
, is a pneumatic tire that has also developed by Michelin and includes an annular elastomeric block fitted within the tire, around the rim web, that the tire tread will collapse onto upon deflation.
The above set out tires, as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 3
, are believed to represent the current state of development of run flat type tires, with similar pneumatic tire concepts being developed by other major tire manufacturers. None of which run flat pneumatic tires, in practice, have consistently safely met the target criterion for the reason that the deflated tire, under load, collapses, with the tire side walls then flexing rapidly as the tire continues to turn under load, “working” the tire side wall, and creating a heat buildup that, in a short time period, results in tire failure to destruction. In all the run flat tires, prior to the present invention, at low or no pressure, the tire side walls will, after travel at speed over time, experience a heat buildup with continued flexure, resulting in tire destruction.
Unique from all the earlier run flat pneumatic tire embodiments, the invention provides an inner support that is load bearing and is fitted within the tire casing, mounted to the rim. The inner support, by itself and at atmospheric pressure only, is capable of support the load carried by the pneumatic tire when the pneumatic tire is deflated. Without only ambient air therein, the inner support maintains the rolling tire load with minimum tire side wall flexure and, accordingly, a lesser heat buildup from flexure of the deflated pneumatic tire over the target distance, at the target speed. The inner support, provides load bearing strength in compression due to its arch shaped interior cavity construction and its mounting to the rim. Further, with the inner support mounted within the pneumatic tire casing, the inner support outer portion surface is proximate to the pneumatic tire thread undersurface, and further act as a shock absorber in normal operations when the pneumatic tire is “aired-up”. Which the inner support is contacted by the pneumatic tire tread undersurface, supporting the tire load, should the pneumatic tire lose pressure. Accordingly, the inner support will immediately take up the tire load at a loss of tire pressure, minimizing a likelihood of loss of vehicle control, even where the tire deflation is instantaneous. Because of the minimum distance of travel of the tire casing tread to contact the inner support outer surface, tire casing side walls will experience minimum added flexure after pneumatic tire deflation, greatly lessening a heat build up with continued rolling of the tire under load in traveling to the target distance, at the target speed.
The preferred inner support is essentially a tire like structure, that, at atmospheric pressure only, has an inherent load bearing or supporting strength that is like that of a pneumatic tire under a pressure of from thirty five to forty psi. In practice, an elastomeric tire type structure that is preferred as the inner support is set out in a U.S. Patent, entitled, “Air-No-Air Elastomeric Tire,” Ser. No. 09/943,814, filed Sep. 4, 2001. Which tire, for use as an inner support, has been modified by drilling holes at spaced intervals through the tire side walls to pass air as is injected therein through a valve stem that is fitted through the rim, into the inner support arch shaped cavity. The Air-No-Air Elastomeric Tire, for use as an inner support, has its side wall mounting ends that are maintained in a rim, between the pneumatic tire casing bead ends and rim inner walls. So arranged, upon a decompression of the pneumatic tire casing to where the tread drops into engagement with the inner support tread surface, the inner support will support the load carried by the pneumatic tire casing. In which support attitude, the inner support side wall ends compress the pneumatic tire casing bead ends against outer hook ends of the rim, prohibiting a separation of the pneumatic tire casing bead off of the rim.
Solid, cavity free, non-pneumatic tires formed from an elastomeric material have been in use for many years going back to as early as 1878, as set out in a British Patent No. 2,367, that shows a solid rubber tire and rim. Even where such rubber tires have been formed to include inner cavities, like the inner support of the invention, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 450,816 and 464,767, such tires have not been utilized as inner supports for a for a conventional pneumatic tire to form a run flat type tire. A U.S. Pat. No. 1,014,318, shows in
FIG. 1
, an elastomeric tire having an arch shaped cavity that is maintained as a tire between hook ends of a rim. However, there is no discussion in this patent of, nor does the patent imply, an association of such elastomeric tire with a pneumatic tire casing to form a run flat tire. Finally, while cavities are shown in the tires of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,948,303 and 5,524,913, these patents are directed to tire mountings to a rim and there is no discussion of load bearing capabilities of the tire, nor that the tire could be used as an inner support for a run flat type tire. Only the present invention has recognized the load bearing capabilities of an elastomeric inner support having an arch shaped center cavity and its use as the core of a run flat type tire.
A number of other earlier patents have involved non-pneumatic tire and tire and rim combinations. None, however, teach or imply a combination of an inner support like that of the invention for inclusion with a pneumatic tire casing. For example, British Patents No.'s 3,432; 15,439; 20,186; and 27,224; French Patents No.'s 338,920 and 367,981 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,056,976; 1,178,887; 3,533,662 and 5,229,047, are all directed to non-pneumatic tires that do not include arch shaped inner cavities. Also, non-pneumatic tires that do not include a center cavity are shown in earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,855,096 and 4,943,323, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,906,836 and 6,165,397 that were co-invented by the present inventor. Additionally, while a number of earlier patents show non-pneumatic tires that include inner cavities, for example: British Patent No.'s 11,800 and 14,997; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,194,177 and 1,670,721, these patents do not show tires having arch shaped inner cavities that cou
Amerityre
Ball Michael W.
Fischer Justin
Russell M. Reid
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