The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Feng Anne Xie

Eric Sean Castner

Lei Zheng

Ping Zhang

This invention discloses a tire which is comprised of a generally toroidal-shaped carcass with an outer circumferential tread, two spaced beads, at least one ply extending from bead to bead and sidewalls extending radially from and connecting said tread to said beads, wherein said tread is adapted to be ground-contacting, and wherein said tread is comprised of (1) a filler, (2) a cured rubbery polymer, and (3) core-shell particles which are comprised of (a) a crosslinked elastomeric core consisting essentially of repeat units that are derived from at least one conjugated diolefin monomer and from 15 weight percent to 30 weight percent at least one crosslinking monomer, wherein the crosslinked elastomeric core is a polymeric composition having a glass transition temperature which is within the range of &#x2212;20&#xb0; C. to 20&#xb0; C., and (b) a polymeric shell which is derived from at least one vinyl aromatic monomer, wherein the polymeric shell has a glass transition temperature which is within the range of 50&#xb0; C. to 160&#xb0; C., and wherein the weight ratio of the core to the shell is within the range of 20:1 to 7:1.

Modified gel particles and rubber composition

This invention discloses a process for synthesizing a modified crosslinked elastomeric particle which comprises a two-step polymerization of a conjugated diolefin monomer and a vinyl aromatic monomer by emulsion polymerization, wherein the particle is synthesized by the steps of (1) polymerizing a conjugated diolefin monomer, alone or in combination with a vinyl aromatic monomer, and optionally a crosslinking monomer, to create a crosslinked elastomeric core having residual double bonds and an outer surface; (2) polymerizing a monomer of a vinyl aromatic monomer, alone or in combination with a diolefin monomer, to create a polymeric shell, wherein the polymeric shell is grafted to the outer surface of the polymeric core by reacting with the residual double bonds of the polymeric core; and (3) coagulating the core-shell emulsion latex solution to recover the particles.

This invention is based upon the discovered that crosslinked core-shell particles can be used as a filler in low cost emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber (ESBR) with excellent results being attained. In fact, such core-shell particle filled ESBR exhibits performance similar to silica filled solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR) in terms of dynamic response, Payne effect, rebound and tan &#x3b4; at 0&#xb0; C. and 100&#xb0; C. The utilization of such crosslinked core-shell particles in rubber compounds offers the additional advantage of weight reduction since the core-shell particles are significantly less dense than carbon black or silica fillers. The use of the crosslinked core-shell polymers of this invention in rubber formulations in place of silica also offers the advantage of not needing any expensive silane coupling agents to attain required levels of polymer/filler interaction. Accordingly, no silane coupling agent is used in the rubber compounds of this invention which leads to reduced cost. Cost can be further reduced by virtue of the fact that compound mixing conditions can be substantially relaxed as compared to mixing silica containing rubber formulations. The present invention more specifically discloses A rubbery composition which is comprised of (1) an emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber, (2) carbon black, and (3) core-shell particles, wherein the core-shell particles are comprised of (a) a crosslinked elastomeric core comprised of repeat units that are derived from at least one diolefin monomer, and (b) a polymeric shell which is derived from at least one vinyl aromatic monomer.

Tire tread containing core-shell particles

This invention relates to a tread rubber composition for tires with the addition of crosslinked resinous nanoparticles having a high glass transition temperature (T) into elastomeric base polymers. The invention demonstrates greatly improved handling performance without deteriorating controllability and stability during high-speed running. The present invention more specifically discloses a tire which is comprised of a generally toroidal-shaped carcass with an outer circumferential tread, two spaced beads, at least one ply extending from bead to bead and sidewalls extending radially from and connecting said tread to said beads; wherein said tread is adapted to be ground-contacting; and wherein the tread is comprised of a rubber composition comprising: (1) a rubbery polymer; (2) from 1 to 30 parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight of pre-crosslinked polymer particles, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer particles have a mean number average particle size as determined by light scattering which is within the range of 30 nm to 500 nm, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer is comprised of repeat units that are derived from at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate monomers, acrylonitrile monomer, and vinyl halide monomers, wherein the pre-croslinked polymer is in the form of core-shell particles having a core and a shell, and wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer has a glass transition temperature which is within the range of 30&#xb0; C. to 200&#xb0; C.; and (3) 10 to 150 parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight of at least one filler selected from the group consisting of carbon black and silica.

Rubber composition containing resinous nanoparticle

This invention relates to a tread rubber composition for tires with the addition of crosslinked resinous nanoparticles having a high glass transition temperature (T) into elastomeric base polymers. The invention demonstrates greatly improved handling performance without deteriorating controllability and stability during high-speed running. The present invention discloses a rubber composition comprising: () a rubbery polymer and () from 1 to 30 parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight (phr) of pre-crosslinked polymer particles, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer particles have a particle size which is within the range of 30 nm to 500 nm, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer is comprised of repeat units that are derived from at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate monomers, vinyl aromatic monomers, acrylonitrile monomer, and vinyl halide monomers, and wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer has a glass transition temperature which is within the range of 30&#xb0; C. to 200&#xb0; C.

Growing community of inventors

Stow, OH, United States of America

Feng Anne Xie