The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Loren K Miller

Stephen L Williams

Kenneth A Spriggel

Kenneth L Kounkel

Amit Prakash

John Gomer Morgan

Hon Ho Liu

The present invention relates to a radial pneumatic tire having a contoured zone located in each of the sidewalls of the tire. The contoured zone improves the sidewalls ply durability and decreases upper sidewall circumferential ply-wire breakage, also known as zipper-break. More particularly, the radial pneumatic tire comprises (1) at least one circumferential reinforcing belt; (2) a pair of sidewalls extending from opposing edges of said reinforcing belt to corresponding tire beads and containing a single reinforcing cord ply that wraps around each bead and having two terminal ends; (3) an inner cavity; (4) a contoured zone, wherein said contoured zone is (a) located between said single reinforcing cord ply and said inner cavity, (b) is circumferentially extending about the axis of the tire, (c) located in a region of each sidewall defined by the area from said reinforcing belt to the terminal ends of said single reinforcing cord ply, and (d) wherein the distance between the single reinforcing cord ply and said inner cavity is greater in the region where the contoured zone is located in comparison to the distance between the single reinforcing cord ply and said inner cavity in the region beneath said reinforcing belt.

Radial pneumatic tire having contoured zones in the sidewalls

The magnitude of a variable property of a tire such as the dynamic imbalance may be predicted by measuring lateral runout at positions close to the end of the thread pattern on both sides of the tire and determining the first harmonic runout values. The first harmonic runout values relative to the centerplane of the tire at different circumferential positions around the tire are arithmetically added. The largest sum at any point on the circumference of the tire gives an indication of the maximum dynamic imbalance of the tire. Tires can be screened by the system comparing this sum with predetermined amounts corresponding to the maximum acceptable dynamic imbalance or other standards and providing visual signals identifying those tires with the largest sum exceeding this predetermined amount or the other standards.

Tire dynamic imbalance screening system

The magnitude of a variable property of a tire such as the dynamic imbalance may be predicted by measuring lateral runout at positions close to the end of the tread pattern on both sides of the tire and determining the first harmonic runout values. The first harmonic runout values relative to the centerplane of the tire at different circumferential positions around the tire are arithmetically added. The largest sum at any point on the circumference of the tire gives an indication of the maximum dynamic imbalance of the tire. Tires can be screened by the system comparing this sum with predetermined amounts corresponding to the maximum acceptable dynamic imbalance or other standards and providing visual signals identifying those tires with the largest sum exceeding this predetermined amount or the other standards.

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Tallmadge, OH, United States of America

Loren K Miller