The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Charles John Pearson

Adel Farhan Halasa

Wen-Liang Hsu

Jeffrey W Saracsan

John A Lovell

Robert K Rossi

William M Larson

Charles L Makinson

David A Du Vernay

Thomas H Rogers

Yi Feng

It has been unexpectedly found that greatly improved properties for tire rubbers, such as lower hysteresis, can be attained by coupling the rubber with both a tin halide, such as tin tetrachloride, and a silicon halide, such as silicon tetrachloride. Even better characteristics for use in tire tread compounds can be realized by asymmetrically coupling the rubbery polymer. This invention more specifically discloses a coupled rubbery polymer which is particularly valuable for use in manufacturing tire tread compounds, said coupled rubbery polymer being comprised of (1) tin atoms having at least three polydiene arms covalently bonded thereto and (2) silicon atoms having at least three polydiene arms covalently bonded thereto.

Coupled rubbery polymers

A cured rubber tire has adhered thereto a layer of heated and mixed, productive urethane composition fluid sidewall material which has been flowed from a nozzle into a groove in the sidewall of a shaped tire. The tire is rotated under the nozzle a distance equal to the circumferential length of the groove so that the ends of the layer may be joined after which the flow of productive urethane composition sidewall material is terminated.

Apparatus for applying polyurethane layer to tire sidewall

A tire having a pair of bead portions for mounting on a rim, a tread portion radially outward of said bead portions and connecting sidewalls is cast and cured from different liquid elastomer forming materials in a three-stage process. First, the inner layer of the tire is molded of high modulus material on a collapsible core in a mold with an outer shell. Second, the first outer shell is removed and a second outer shell of a second mold is mounted around the core and cast inner layer. The tread portion of the tire is then molded by centrifugal casting from a low modulus material. Third, the sidewalls are molded of low modulus, optionally microcellular, material by injection of the liquid elastomer forming material into the sidewall spaces between the molded inner layer and the second outer shell.

Cast tire and method of manufacture

A tire comprised of a composite structure of a cured rubber tire having adhered thereto a laminate of a cured polyurethane. Said laminate is prepared by (A) applying to the cured rubber tire a solution of a reaction mixture comprised of (i) an aliphatic primary diamine, (ii) a specified prepolymer utilizing a polycaprolactone polyol, and (iii) an organic solvent followed by (B) drying and curing the applied solution.

Tire having polyurethane laminate thereon

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Akron, OH, United States of America

Charles John Pearson