Bridgestone/firestone, Inc.

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC

John D Clothiaux

Stephen M Vossberg

Martin A Yurjevich

Gregory D Chaplin

Hidetoshi Yokota

David C Christy

John G Lightner

Andrew Karl Reinhardt

Dale R Harrigle, Jr

Sharon E Podbielski

Karl J Neimes

Steven Michael Vossberg

Larry L Schlabaugh

Allen C Kearney

Thomas S Fleishchman

James A Williams, Jr

An alignment device ( ) for mounting on a laser mapping machine in place of a tire. The alignment device ( ) comprises alignment surfaces S -S which, when mapped by the machine, will provide alignment parameters. Specifically, the mapping of the alignment surface S and the mapping of the alignment surface S reflect the perpendicularity of the machine's laser relative to the machine's rail in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The mapping of the alignment surface S and the alignment surface S will reflect the parallelism of the rail to the machine's shaft in the first and second directions. The mapping of the alignment surface S and the alignment surface S will reflect radial and out-of-plane wobble.

Alignment device for rotating tire laser mapping machine

A pneumatic tire includes a body, a belt package, and a tread package. The tire includes a layer of rubber disposed between the body and the tread package. The layer of rubber creates a thickness of between about 0.5 millimeters and about 1.5 millimeters between the cords in the body and the cords in the belt package. The layer of rubber is fabricated from a rubber having a stiffness greater than the rubber in the body of the tire. This configuration provides a tire having improved cornering coefficient, reduced vibrational levels, and less coarse road noise with only a small increase in rolling loss.

Pneumatic tire having layer of rubber disposed between the body and belt package

A method of testing a tire for rain groove wander is provided which allows a tire to be objectively tested in a laboratory wherein the objective test results closely correlate with subjective field analysis type data, thereby allowing for the subjective tire performance to be predicted while precluding the need for subjective field analysis of the particular tire. The method also allows objective testing of a single tire size by varying the radial loading in the laboratory test set, thereby precluding the construction of multiple tire sizes each having the same tread design. The method simulates rain groove road conditions and correlates objective analysis data obtained via the laboratory test methodology with subjective field analysis data of rain groove wander tire performance of other tires, thereby providing a substantially accurate technique for identifying the subjective performance of the tire without having to conduct the field testing to obtain such subjective field analysis data. The method substantially reduces the cost required is to design and test a prototype tire design and the time required to implement tire design testing.

Method for predicting tire performance on rain groove roadways

A pneumatic tire having a tread, a pair of sidewalls each terminating in an annular bead area, and a pair of beads located within the bead areas, for mounting the tire on a rim. Each of the beads is formed by at least one strand of metallic wire wound upon itself into a spiral and terminating in inner and outer ends, which ends circumferentially overlap each other. The beads are placed in the tire so that the spiral orientation of the beads are opposite to each other and the inner ends of the beads are in substantial axial alignment to reduce radial force variations on the tire.

Pneumatic tire having opposite spiral oriented beads

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Hudson, OH, United States of America

John D Clothiaux