The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 30, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 09, 2001
Romain Kunsch, Mersch, LU;
Thierry Koeune, Fauvillers, BE;
Edouard Michel, Copley, OH (US);
Bernard Croissant, Bastogne, BE;
René Bormann, Moesdorf, LU;
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Akron, OH (US);
Abstract
Methods for improving vehicle steering performance and robustness of that performance include control of non-uniformities in the vehicle's tires, wheels and tire/wheel assemblies as a way to overcome the tendency of the steering systems in certain vehicle types to undergo “steering performance loss.” While minimizing lateral force variations (e.g., couple imbalance), a controlled amount of radial and/or tangential force variation is induced in one or more tire/wheel assemblies by means of mass non-uniformity, dimensional non-uniformity, and/or stiffness non-uniformity. For dimensional non-uniformity, the preferred method is to impart a controlled amount of dimensional non-uniformity (preferably radial runout) to the tire and/or the wheel in at least one of the tire/wheel assemblies, followed by statically and dynamically balancing all of the vehicle's tire/wheel assemblies. Preferably, all imparted tire non-uniformities are distributed meridionally symmetrically about the equatorial plane of the tire/wheel assembly.