The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Patrice De Monte

Jerome Marcel Germain Delu

Christopher David Dyrlund

Gary Robert Burg

Tom Dominique Linster

Hongbing Chen

Jean-Claude Knepper

Michel Meunier

Michel Jacques Albert Ghislain Meunier

Erich Nicolaus Lemaire

Daniel Kohnen

Jerome Delville

Marie-Laure Stéphanie Milan

Christian Endres

The present invention is directed to an apparatus for supporting an annular bead core-apex subassembly, the apparatus comprising a spacer disc for supporting the annular bead core-apex subassembly, and a clamping device comprising a supporting surface for supporting the spacer disc, as well as a plurality of clamping elements for selectively clamping the spacer disc to the supporting surface. The clamping elements are movable between an expanded position in which the spacer disc is clamped to the supporting surface, and a retracted position in which the spacer disc is released and can be lifted from the supporting surface. Moreover, the present invention is directed to a system comprising a respective apparatus for supporting an annular bead core-apex subassembly as well as the subassembly. Finally, the present invention is also directed to a method of transporting an annular bead core-apex subassembly.

Apparatus for supporting and holding a bead core-apex subassembly and method of producing and transporting the bead core-apex subassembly

A pneumatic tire comprising a carcass and a tread located radially outward of the carcass and extending between the tire sidewalls is disclosed. The tread provides a tread running surface and comprises a first, radially outer tread layer comprising a first rubber compound and a second, radially inner tread layer comprising a second rubber compound, wherein the second tread layer is located radially adjacent to the first tread layer, and wherein the first rubber compound is different from the second rubber compound. The second tread layer comprises a plurality of integrally formed extensions of the second tread layer extending from the second tread layer radially outwardly to the tread running surface. The first rubber compound and the second rubber compound each comprise at least at least 30 parts per hundred parts of rubber (phr) of silica. Each of the extensions has a width as measured in the axial direction of the tire in a range of from 1 to 15 mm.

Pneumatic tire having a dual layer tread

Growing community of inventors

Arlon, Belgium

Patrice De Monte