Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited

Dunlop Gmbh

Hideaki Sugihara

Naoki Yukawa

Chieko Aoki

Masami Nishikawa

Tokuzo Nakajima

Masayuki Sakamoto

Hideaki Yoshikawa

Shinzo Kajiwara

Manfred Gerresheim

Saburo Miyabe

Yasushi Shinmura

Klaus Riehl

Koji Ohkita

A pneumatic tire which includes a tie bar in a lateral groove disposed in a block array, the tie bar connecting adjacent blocks in a circumferential direction through the lateral groove. The tie bar is formed with a sipeing having a zigzag portion, the zigzag portion extending in a zigzag manner in a direction of a groove centerline of the lateral groove. The sipeing is a three-dimensional sipeing in which a sipeing wall surface is repeatedly recessed and projected, three-dimensionally.

Pneumatic tire with tread having sipe in tie bar

A tire noise damper to be disposed in an annular tire hollow formed between a wheel rim an a pneumatic tire mounted thereon, the damper made of a flexible material and comprising a base to be secured to the wheel rim and at least one flap extending from the base to be risen radially outwards from the wheel rim by centrifugal force during running to block the annular tire hollow. For example, the damper comprises at least one annular elastic band to be put around the wheel rim, the annular band provided with at least one U-cut for forming a flap, and the base is formed by the remaining annular portion of the band. In another example, the damper is made of a strip of the fixable material having a certain length, the base is formed by one end portion of the strip, and the flap is formed by the remaining portion of the strip.

Noise damper for pneumatic tire

A vehicle tire having a non-uniformly profiled tread with respect to its center, with a circumferential extending superwide groove having a width of at least 30 mm provided in one half of the tread and two further circumferential grooves which are narrower in comparison thereto and which have at most a width of 15 mm being provided in the other tread half.

Vehicle tire having non-uniformly profiled tread with respect to its center

A tire noise reducing system includes a pneumatic tire, a wheel rim and a noise damper disposed in a cavity formed between the rim and tire the noise damper is made of a porous material having a specific gravity of from 0.005 to 0.06 and secured on a surface facing the cavity, the volume S2 of the noise damper is in a range of from 0.4 to 20.0% of the volume S1 of the cavity. Preferably, the noise damper is provided with an uneven surface or an outer layer for less sound reflection, and the shape index E of the noise damper is more than 1, and the ratio T/W of the thickness T to the width W of the damper is not less than 1.

Tire noise reducing system

A tire noise reducing system comprises a wheel rim, a pneumatic tire to be mounted on the wheel rim and a noise damper to be disposed in an annular tire cavity enclosed by the wheel rim and the pneumatic tire mounted thereon, wherein the noise damper is made of a multi-cellular material whose volume S2 is in a range of not less than 0.4% of the volume S1 of said annular tire cavity. Preferably, the specific gravity of the damper is set in a range of from 0.005 to 0.06.

A tire noise reducing system comprises a pneumatic tire, a wheel rim and a noise damper disposed in a cavity formed between the rim and tire when mounted as being surrounded by the tire and rim, the noise damper is made of a porous material having a specific gravity of from 0.005 to 0.06 and secured on a surface facing the cavity, the volume S of the noise damper is in a range of from 0.4 to 20.0% of the volume S of the cavity. Preferably, the noise damper is provided with an uneven surface or an outer layer for less sound reflection, and the shape index E of the noise damper is more than 1, and the ratio T/W of the thickness T to the width W of the damper is not less than 1.

A tire noise reducing system includes a wheel rim, a pneumatic tire mounted on the wheel rim to form an annular tire hollow, and a resonance damper disposed in the annular tire hollow, wherein the damper is one of an annular elastic loose band disposed around the rim and a flexible slack strip having a certain length and fixed to the wheel rim at two points so that a portion between the fixed points slacks, whereby a loose portion of the loose band and the slack portion of the slack strip are risen by a centrifugal force during running to at least partially block the annular tire hollow.

A tire noise damper to be disposed in an annular tire hollow formed between a wheel rim and a pneumatic tire mounted thereon, the damper made of a flexible material and comprising a base to be secured to the wheel rim and at least one flap extending from the base to be risen radially outwards from the wheel rim by centrifugal force during running to block the annular tire hollow. For example, the damper comprises at least one annular elastic band to be put around the wheel rim, the annular band provided with at least one U-cut for forming a flap, and the base is formed by the remaining annular portion of the band. In another example, the damper is made of a strip of the fixable material having a certain length, the base is formed by one end portion of the strip, and the flap is formed by the remaining portion of the strip.

A pneumatic tire including a tread portion provided with two circumferential grooves to divide the tread portion into a pair of shoulder parts and a central part therebetween, each of the circumferential grooves has such a relatively wide width that the maximum axial width (GWmax) thereof in the foot print is not less than 35 mm, and in a meridian section of the tire, the axially inner sidewall each circumferential groove is substantially straight and inclined axially inwards, and the axially outer sidewall of the circumferential groove comprises a convex part extending axially outwardly to a merge point at which the convex part merges into a ground contacting top surface of one of the should parts.

Pneumatic tire including two wide circumferential grooves

A pneumatic tire has a tread portion with one circumferential wide groove extending continuously in the circumferential direction. A centroid of the cross-section of the circumferential wide groove deviates from the tire's equatorial plane so as to divide the tread part into a narrow tread section and a broad tread section. One of the groove walls extends along a curve convexed outwardly in the tire radial direction from one of the bottom edges of the circumferential wide groove and is smoothly connected to the outer surface of the tread portion. When the tire is mounted on a regular rim, inflated with regular internal pressure and applied with a normal load, the groove width GW of the circumferential wide groove is defined to be not less than 35 mm and not more than 0.35 times the ground contact width TW of the tread part.

Pneumatic tire including only one wide groove

A pneumatic tire has a tread part with two wide circumferential grooves extending in either side of the tire's equator so as to divide the tread part into a pair of shoulder parts and a central part. The central part has a surface utilizing successive convex curves of a pair of inner groove walls and a central ground-contact surface. When the tire is mounted on a regular rim, inflated with regular internal pressure and applied with normal load, a ground-contacting area Fc where the central part contacts with the ground has a length Lc in the tire's circumferential direction which is 0.9 to 1.1 times a length Ls in the tire's circumferential direction of a ground-contacting area FS where the shoulder part contacts with the ground.

Pneumatic tire having ground contacting area

A passenger radial tire which comprises a tread portion, a pair of axially spaced bead portions, a pair of sidewall portions extending therebetween, a pair of bead cores disposed one in each bead portion, and a carcass extending between the bead portions and turned up around the bead cores from the axially inside to the outside thereof to form two turned up portions and one main portion therebetween, wherein in at least the sidewall portions no bead apex exists to thereby the carcass turned up portions are located adjacently to the carcass main portion, and in each bead portion a bead reinforcement extending radially outwardly into the sidewall portion is disposed.

Passenger tire with low bead apex volume

A passenger radial tire which comprises a tread portion, a pair of axially spaced bead portions, a pair of sidewall portions extending therebetween, a pair of bead cores disposed one in each bead portion, and a carcass extending between the bead portions and turned up around the bead cores from the axially inside to the outside thereof to form two turned up portions and one main portion therebetween, wherein in at least the sidewall portions no bead apex exists and the carcass turned up portions are located adjacently to the carcass man portion, and in each bead portion a bead reinforcement extending radially outwardly into the sidewall portion is disposed.

Growing community of inventors

Kobe, Japan

Hideaki Sugihara