Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Cushion and pneumatic combined
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-17
2003-09-16
Johnstone, Adrienne C. (Department: 1733)
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Cushion and pneumatic combined
C029S894310, C152S158000, C152S520000, C152S521000, C156S110100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06619350
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle wheel with an emergency running support body for a pneumatic tire attached to the wheel rim that includes a tread, two sidewalls, a carcass, reinforcing elements, and two tire beads provided with bead cores. The emergency running support body is formed as a shell-shaped annular body inside the pneumatic tire, which, on its outside, has an emergency running support surface that supports the tire and the inner side of the tread in an emergency running state and that is supported on the wheel rim by one or more brackets located inside the pneumatic tire and filled with lubricant. The brackets have devices for emitting the lubricant in case of emergency running conditions.
2. Discussion of Background Information
In the critical case of a sudden loss of pressure in a tire, vehicle wheels with emergency running support bodies receive a stable driving state and an emergency running ability for a certain distance or time. Furthermore, such vehicle wheels have the advantage that, in the context of the continually reducing weights of the vehicles for the purpose of energy conservation, carrying spare wheels and/or the necessary tools for the mounting thereof can be omitted.
Emergency running or emergency running conditions is understood to mean the driving state in which, due to a sudden loss of pressure in a tire, e.g., due to outer damage, the guidance, traction, and stabilization characteristics of the tire as a link between the vehicle and the driving surface that are normally present are no longer present in their original amounts, but in which a runability and usability remain to the extent that the safety of a vehicle is not unreliably limited. The emergency running state allows the driving to continue for a certain distance, at least to the nearest repair shop.
In the emergency running state of such a vehicle tire with an emergency running support, in which the tire and/or the inner side of the tread is in contact with the emergency running surface, a slip, i.e., a relative movement and therefore friction between the emergency running surface and the inner side of the tread region, occurs due to the rolling radius of the shell-shaped ring body on the inside of the tire tread having the emergency running surface and due to the rolling radius on the street which is increased by the thickness of the tread region of the tire resting thereon.
In order to prevent the large increase in heat that arises under emergency running conditions, which can cause premature thermal destruction of the tire, it is known to provide a lubricant in the inner chamber of the tire which, for example, is applied on the inner chamber of the tire or on the emergency running surface.
Such lubricants are normally applied on the inner sides of the tire or other corresponding surfaces in the inner chamber of the tire before mounting the tire and such lubricants are essentially embodied as, e.g., Bingham fluid. As a rule, the lubricants include of a greasing agent and a structure former, e.g., lithium salt. The structure former functions to keep the actual greasing agent, e.g., polyglycol, in position and in readiness during the normal driving state. Only when the sheer stress within this structure former becomes sufficiently large due to parts of the tire and/or wheel rubbing against one another, the material begins to flow and the parts moving relative to one another are lubricated.
While such lubricants or greasing agents can optimally be applied with regard to the points of contact within the tire that arise in the emergency running state, they have an increased water contamination potential and are also a potential health hazard in processing, i.e., in their application. Moreover, there is the disadvantage that even when no emergency running state has occurred during the period of use of the tire, the lubricant cannot be reused and that, in changing from summer tires to winter tires, problems can again occur in processing and disposal.
In particular at high speeds, a manual and therefore uneven application of the lubricant can cause unevenly distributed masses in the tire and thus imbalances during operation.
One alternative to such an embodiment lies in enclosing the lubricant in a separate container that opens in the case of an emergency running state and releases the lubricant into the inner chamber of the tire. For this purpose, FR 2 095 392 discloses small containers filled with a greasing agent, see, e.g., FIGS. 5 and 7, which are arranged on and/or inside the rim and are destroyed and/or opened by the friction between the tire and the rim in the emergency running condition. However, problems arise either in the mounting of the tire, due to the additional installation of the containers and their holders with regard to handling, or in view of the impermeability to be achieved in the pressurized inner chamber of the tire when the containers are arranged in the open inner rim space and their openings are connected to the inner chamber of the tire.
DE 40 32 645 A1 discloses arranging containers filled with greasing agent in the inner chamber of a tire inside a specially embodied rim that provides emergency running surfaces on its circumference on both sides of the container. Here as well, the container is opened by contact of the inner side of the tire tread surface with a pressure switch protruding into the inner chamber of the tire. Disadvantageously, special covers and additional elements are necessary for the purpose of holding and positioning the containers in this system as well, which increases mounting expense and makes the tire as a whole heavier. Furthermore, such an arrangement of greasing agent containers cannot be used in the case of standard rims either.
The additional holders that are needed in all systems are additionally placed under the influence of strong centrifugal forces at high speeds such that highly stable constructions are necessary, which causes the expense for the entire construction to increase as well as the energy requirements for the larger masses to be moved.
Due to the problems described, the systems that have been known up to now have been unable to become an industry standard.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a vehicle wheel with an emergency running support body in which a lubricant is supplied exclusively in the case of emergency running conditions being initiated, and the total system is reusable independently of tire changes and is useable for standard rims as well. Moreover, no complicated construction is necessary with regard to the influence of centrifugal force, and only a small mounting expense is to be taken into account.
The present invention is similar in general to the vehicle wheel discussed above, and also includes having one or several containers positioned inside the pneumatic tire which are filled with lubricant. The containers have devices for distributing the lubricant in the case of an emergency which are positioned inside a ring chamber formed between the emergency running support body and the rim. The devices for distribution of the lubricant are connected to the ring chamber formed between the emergency running support body and the pneumatic tire.
The containers are arranged inside a ring chamber between the emergency running body and the rim, and the devices for distributing the lubricant are connected to the ring chamber formed between the emergency running body and the pneumatic tire. Such a construction makes the expense for attaching the containers conceivably low, with the container itself being located in a ring chamber that lies outside of the regions that come into contact with the inner side of the tire under emergency running conditions. Additionally, the mounting expense is negligibly low because the emergency running support body can already be provided with the containers when the total mounting, and therefore the mounting of the tire as well, occurs.
A particularly advantageous embodiment lies in the fact that th
Busche Joachim
Dieckmann Andreas
Frerichs Udo
Glinz Michael
Hellweg Hans-Bernd
Continental Aktiengesellschaft
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Johnstone Adrienne C.
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