The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Robert Leon Benedict

Robert Allen Losey

Robin Lamgaday

Thulasiram Gobinath

Cheng-Hsiung Lin

Joseph Carmine Lettieri

Peter Ross Shepler

Franz Hillenmayer

Carolin Anna Welter

Brian Matthew Logan

Richard Nicholas Crano

Dinesh Chandra

Timothy Michael Rooney

Richard Stephen Pollack

Arun Kumar Byatarayanapura Gopala

John Michael Fenkanyn

Norbert Majerus

Anthony William Parsons

James Michael Hart

William Allen Rex

Albert James Yovichin

Joseph Michael Letkomiller

Thomas Andrew Laurich

Patrick David Marks

Jean-Claude Patrice Philippe Griffoin

Robert Edward Lionetti

John S Rambacher

Brian Richard Morris

Stephen Frederick Roth

Bernard Byron Jacobs

Susan Marie Spaeth

Mario Vincent Orosa

David Allan Johnson

Thomas Sherwood Fleischman

David Lowell Wolfe

Joseph Paul Batcho, Sr

Larry E Chlebina

Jack Edward Brown, Jr

Dieter Wagner

Su Xu

Mohammad Eghbal Sobhanie

Daniel Patrick Hentosz

Tony W Parsons

Ronda Renee Thayer

Adam Joseph O'Donnell

Walter George Macesich

Samuel Patrick Landers

Sr Joseph Paul Batcho

An air maintenance tire assembly includes a tire having a tire cavity bounded by first and second sidewalls extending to a tire tread region, a pressure control assembly attached to an elongate valve stem projecting from a rim, the pressure control assembly being external to the tire cavity, the elongate valve stem projecting outward from the tire cavity and operative to admit pressurized air into the tire cavity through the pressure control assembly, the first sidewall having an annular sidewall air passageway therein operatively located to compress segment by segment responsive to a bending strain introduced into the first sidewall from a rolling tire footprint thereby forcing air, segment by segment, along the annular air passageway, a tube housing joining both ends of the annular air passageway, and a connecting tube extending from the tube housing to the pressure control assembly, the connecting tube operative to sequentially direct air forced along the air passageway, first, into the tube housing, the pressure control assembly and, then, into the elongate valve stem as the tire rolls over a ground surface.

Air maintenance tire and valve assembly and method

A self-inflating tire assembly includes an air tube mounted within a tire sidewall groove. The air tube is in contacting engagement with opposite angled groove surfaces surrounding the air tube. A segment of the air tube is flattened from an expanded diameter to a flat diameter by bending and compression of the groove in a rolling tire footprint to force air evacuated from the flattened segment along a tube air passageway. A tube is positioned within the groove, wherein the tube has a circular cross-sectional shape and an outside diameter D, and the groove does not have a circular cross-sectional shape, wherein said groove has a width W and a length L, wherein D is greater than W.

Air maintenance tire and valve assembly

An air maintenance tire and air pump assembly is provided including a tire and an elongate tubular air passageway enclosed within a flexing region of a tire sidewall. A plurality of check valve devices are spaced apart and positioned along the air passageway into multiple air passageway segments. A check valve membrane opens to allow pressurized air to directionally pass through the check valve device from an upstream passageway segment to a downstream passageway segment and closes to prevent air from passing in an opposite direction through the check valve from the downstream segment to the upstream segment.

Vein pump assembly for air maintenance tire

A tire assembly includes: a tire having a pneumatic cavity; first and second sidewalls extending respectively from first and second tire bead regions to a tire tread region, the first sidewall having at least one bending region operatively bending when circumferentially adjacent a rolling tire footprint; a sidewall groove defined by groove sidewalls positioned within the bending region of the first tire sidewall, the groove deforming segment by segment between a non-deformed state and a deformed, constricted state in response to the bending of the first sidewall bending region circumferentially adjacent the rolling tire footprint; an air passageway resiliently deforming segment by segment between an expanded condition and an at least partially collapsed condition in response to respective segment by segment deformation of the sidewall groove when circumferentially adjacent the rolling tire footprint; and an assembly mounted to the first sidewall the tire, the assembly including a pressure regulator with an elongate cylindrical housing and a rectangular mounting plate, the mounting plate having an inlet port and two outlet ports for controlling air flow from outside of the tire to and from the pneumatic cavity.

Air maintenance pumping assembly and tire

An air pumping tube and tire system and method of assembling is provided in which a tire groove is formed to extend into a flexing region of a tire sidewall and a complementary air pumping tube inserts into the tire groove. In the green, uncured air pumping tube condition, one or more check valves are assembled into the air pumping tube through access shafts and align with an internal air passageway of the air pumping tube. Plug components of the system enclose the check valves in the air pumping tube and the check valve-containing green air pumping tube is then cured.

Vein-style air pumping tube and tire system and method of assembly

A tire assembly having: a tire having a tread portion and a pair of sidewalls extending radially inward from the tread portion to join with a respective bead; a supporting carcass for the tread portion and sidewalls; a pump passageway positioned within a bending region of the tire, the pump passageway being operative to open and close as the tire rotates; a valve assembly in fluid communication with the pump passageway; a pocket formed in the tire; a filter assembly mounted in the pocket, said filter assembly being in air flow communication with the valve assembly, wherein the pocket has an area larger than the area of the filter housing wherein the valve assembly has an inlet, wherein the filter assembly has an outlet, wherein a tube connects the filter outlet assembly to the inlet of the valve assembly; wherein the tube is made of a rubber composition having a shore D hardness greater than 40 as measured by ASTM-D2240.

Passage tube for air maintenance tire

A method and system monitor a plurality of operating parameters for a tire over time during usage of the tire as the tire is exposed to actual operating conditions. The system and method may also determine a tire health parameter for the tire that provides an indication of the condition of the tire based upon the data collected for the tire over time during usage of the tire. The plurality of operating parameters includes, in the least, a temperature associated with the tire during usage of the tire and a duration of usage of the tire.

Assessment of tire condition based on a tire health parameter

The invention relates generally to a pneumatic rubber tire which contains an outer, annular, circular groove which contains a flexible tube bonded to the walls of the groove.

Tire with outer groove containing bonded tube

A method of assembling an air pump in a tire is provided including: opening an axial air passageway of an elongate flexible air tube at one end; inserting one by one a plurality of one-way check valves into the air passageway from the one end to form an axial array of spaced apart check valves along the air passageway, each check valve having an external nominal width greater than a nominal width of the air tube passageway; establishing a press fit engagement between each check valve and air tube internal sidewalls defining the air passageway to place each check valve at a respective preferred position within the air passageway; retaining the check valves in the respective preferred positions within the air passageway by radial pressure from the air tube internal sidewalls and closing the one end of the flexible air tube.

Method of assemblying a segmented vein air pump in a tire

An antenna assembly includes a stand having a convex outer surface positioned to intercept and engage a vehicle tire as the vehicle tire passes over the convex stand surface. The height and contour of the convex stand surface slows the rotational rate of the vehicle tire, and thereby a transmitting device carried by the tire, to a preferred rotational read rate as the vehicle tire passes over the convex surface. One or more antenna members mount to the stand proximal to the convex surface, each antenna having a directionally aimed tilted antenna field positioned to continuously receive data transmission from the electronic transmitting device as the vehicle tire passes over the convex stand surface at the reduced rotational read rate.

Antenna assembly for a tag reader

An air maintenance tire and pump assembly includes a pair of inline valves are positioned on respective opposite sides of an in-tire air passageway inlet junction and a pair of outlet valves positioned at a downstream side of a respective inline valve. A bypass valve is further provided extending between the downstream valve sides of the inline valves, the bypass valve operative to open and bypass the flow of inlet air through the outlet valves to the tire cavity in the event that a tire cavity pressure is greater than a preset pressure level and close when a tire cavity pressure is less than the preset pressure level.

Bypass air maintenance tire and pump assembly

An elongate air tube is positioned within a tire sidewall cavity in contacting internal engagement with the tire sidewall to form an assembly. The air tube includes an internal elongate air passageway and wing projections projecting in opposite directions at an axially inward body portion. The wing projections seat within cavity pockets to retain the air tube within the cavity. The air tube body operatively compresses responsive to impinging stress forces from the tire sidewall against the air tube body, whereby the air tube body reconfiguring from an expanded unstressed configuration into a compressed configuration to constrict the air passageway. The air tube body decompresses into the expanded configuration upon reduction of the impinging stress forces against the air tube body.

Peristaltic tube air maintenance tire assembly and method

A drive over, reader system for a wheel-based, electric field-actuated transponder device includes a vehicle support pad surface; an antenna device on the support pad located to operatively align with a wheel-based transponder device of the vehicle with the vehicle positioned on the pad in a read location; a transmitter device and a receiver device coupled to the antenna device for generating an upwardly directed electric field to actuate the transponder device and receive a responsive signal back from the transponder device. The upwardly directed electric field operatively engages the transponder device as the vehicle drives over the antenna device. Multiple antennae may be aligned in a linear array to subject the transponder device to multiple electric fields as the vehicle traverses the support pad. The antenna device of the reader system may be configured as a layered panel positioned on the support pad or as a dipole antenna embedded within the support pad.

Reader and method for wheel-based RFID devices

A self-inflating tire assembly includes one or more air tube(s) connected to a tire and having a plurality of adjoining diaphragm chambers separated by a one-way valve. An air passageway extends through the air tube and the diaphragm chambers. The one-way valve allows a directional passage of air through the valve from an inlet valve side an outlet valve side. The footprint in a rotating tire sequentially collapses the diaphragm chambers to directionally pump air through the one-way valve between the diaphragm chambers and along the air passageway from an air tube inlet device to an air tube outlet device.

Distributed pump self-inflating tire assembly

A self-inflating tire assembly includes an annular air tube connected to a tire and defining an annular air passageway, the air tube being composed of a flexible material operative to allow an air tube segment opposite a tire footprint to flatten, closing the passageway, and resiliently unflatten into an original configuration. The air tube is sequentially flattened by the tire footprint in a direction opposite to a tire direction of rotation to pump air along the passageway to an inlet device for exhaust from the passageway or to an outlet device for direction into the tire cavity. The inlet device is positioned within the annular passageway 180 degrees opposite the outlet device such that sequential flattening of the air tube by the tire footprint effects pumping of air along the air passageway with the tire rotating in either a forward or reverse direction of rotation.

Self-inflating tire

Growing community of inventors

Tallmadge, OH, United States of America

Robert Leon Benedict