Patents Examined by Robert Dye
  • Patent number: 9895855
    Abstract: A tire is described that includes a casing defining a cavity and equipped to receive an object, such as an electronic circuit, for example, through use of a two-part attachment, such as a touch-close attachment, of which a first part is fixed to a wall of the casing and a second part can be joined to the first part when placed in contact with the first part to keep the object on the casing in a service position. The first part of the attachment includes connection elements that are an integral part of the wall of the casing of the tire. The connection elements allow these two parts to have freedom to move relative to each other, thereby limiting the transmission of stresses, which affect the wall of the tire, to the object. The connection elements may be loops of flexible thread formed by the extremities of turns of a coiled thread integrated into the wall of the tire during the tire's manufacture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN
    Inventors: Martine Borot, Claudio Battocchio, John David Adamson
  • Patent number: 9895935
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire includes a belt layer, a belt reinforcing layer in which a plurality of reinforcing cords are arranged, four main grooves, and land portions comparted by the four main grooves, wherein in the case that the belt reinforcing layer is partitioned into five areas in a tire width direction by the four main grooves, an arrangement density of the reinforcing cord in the fifth area is higher than that of the reinforcing cord in the first area, and an arrangement density of the reinforcing cord in the second area is higher than that of the reinforcing cord in the fourth area, and wherein protruding portions having protruding heights in proportion to the arrangement densities are provided on ground surfaces of the land portions which are positioned outside in the tire diametrical direction in the areas having the higher density than that of the third area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: TOYO TIRE & RUBBER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Satoshi Shima
  • Patent number: 9889707
    Abstract: A tire having a radial carcass reinforcement, composed of at least one layer of metal reinforcing elements, the said tire comprising a crown reinforcement, itself topped radially by a tread, the said tread being joined to two beads via two sidewalls. The metal reinforcing elements of at least one layer of the carcass reinforcement are cords exhibiting, in the “permeability” test, a flow rate of less than 20 cm3/min and at least one layer of the carcass reinforcement is provided, on at least one face, with textile threads exhibiting, in the “permeability” test, a flow rate of between 1 and 3 cm3/min.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignees: Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin, Michelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
    Inventors: Charlotte Caffeau, Sebastien Noel, Bernard Jault
  • Patent number: 9884520
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire having a designated orientation for mounting to a vehicle includes a tread, sidewalls, beads including bead cores, respectively, and a carcass including a carcass ply. Each bead includes a rubber apex, an outer bead and an inner bead, the rubber apex includes an outer apex portion and an inner apex portion, the outer apex portion includes a first outer apex portion positioned inward from the carcass ply in the axial direction and a second outer apex portion positioned outward from the carcass ply in the axial direction, the inner apex portion includes a first inner apex portion positioned inward from the carcass ply in the axial direction and a second inner apex portion positioned outward from the carcass ply in the axial direction, and the second outer apex portion has height which is greater than height of the second inner apex portion in the radial direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES LTD.
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Kujime
  • Patent number: 9884462
    Abstract: A tire mountable apparatus and a method of fabricating a tire mountable apparatus is disclosed. The tire mountable apparatus includes a first layer, a second layer and a middle layer disposed between the first layer and the second layer. The tire mountable apparatus further includes an electrical device embedded in the middle layer of the tire mountable apparatus. The middle layer of the tire mountable apparatus completely surrounds the electrical device and is formed from a potting compound, The potting compound does not require exposure to heat, air, moisture, or light to clue and does not require solvent evaporation or outgassing of reaction products to cure. The tire mountable apparatus may be constructed by curing the potting compound between the first layer and the second layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN
    Inventors: Elizabeth Hotaling, Jay Clifford Sinnett
  • Patent number: 9862237
    Abstract: A regroovable tread profile of a pneumatic vehicle tire includes a regrooving indicator formed with an additional indent in the base of the depression in the form of a blind hole lying transversely in relation to the main direction of extent (U) of the groove and having a length of extent (A2) and an indent depth (B), where (B) is formed such that B<A2 and B<A1 and B<L and with a depth of extent (T2) where T2>T1, which is measured starting from the groove base inward in the radial direction (R) to the base bounding the indent radially inwardly. The depth of extent (T1) forms the measure for the minimum regrooving depth and the depth of extent (T2) forms the measure for the maximum regrooving depth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Jens Hoffmann, Alexander Wuest, Amelia Olga Goncalves Ankiewicz, Tim Tkocz, Anastassia Pokutta-Paskaleva
  • Patent number: 9862915
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of making a solid cleaning composition. The method can include pressing and/or vibrating a flowable solid of a self-solidifying cleaning composition. For a self-solidifying cleaning composition, pressing and/or vibrating a flowable solid determines the shape and density of the solid but is not required for forming a solid. The method can employ a concrete block machine for pressing and/or vibrating. The present invention also relates to a solid cleaning composition made by the method and to solid cleaning compositions including particles bound together by a binding agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: ECOLAB USA INC.
    Inventors: Roger L. Stolte, Michael P. Dziuk, Melissa C. Meinke, Matthew C. Porter
  • Patent number: 9862233
    Abstract: A tire having a carcass reinforcement surmounted radially by a crown reinforcement having at least two working plies, the width Lt of which is equal to the width of the axially narrowest working ply, and surmounted radially by a tread (or “cap”) and interposed radially between the cap and the crown reinforcement by a sublayer (or “base”), this base extending axially and radially under all of the cap and radially on the outside of the crown reinforcement over a total width at least equal to the width Lt of the crown reinforcement, an equatorial plane dividing the cap axially into an outer half cap (TE) and an inner half cap (TI) of the same axial width, the outer half cap (TE) positioned axially towards the outside of a vehicle and the inner half cap (TI) positioned axially towards the inside of the vehicle, the base comprising an additional volume radially under the inner half cap (TI), such that the volume occupied by the base radially under the inner half cap (TI) is greater than the volume occupied by the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignees: COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, MICHELIN RECHERCHE ET TECHNIQUE S.A.
    Inventors: Hervé Bechon, Benoit Foucher
  • Patent number: 9855801
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire includes circumferential main grooves extending in a tire circumferential direction and land portions partitioned and formed by the circumferential main grooves. The land portion of a center region and the land portions of left and right shoulder regions each have a plurality of sipes. Not less than 90% of the sipes disposed in the center region are constituted by two-dimensional sipes and not less than 90% of the sipes disposed in the shoulder regions are constituted by three-dimensional sipes. The left and right shoulder land portions each have a plurality of lug grooves arranged in the tire circumferential direction. A pitch number N_ce of the lug grooves in the land portion of the center region and a pitch number N_sh of the lug grooves in the land portions and of the left and right shoulder regions have a relationship such that N_ce>N_sh.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., LTD.
    Inventor: Norifumi Kameda
  • Patent number: 9849730
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire includes a carcass layer, a belt layer that is disposed on the outer side in the tire radial direction of the carcass layer, and a tread rubber that is disposed on the outer side in the tire radial direction of the belt layer. The pneumatic tire also includes at least three circumferential main grooves extending in the tire circumferential direction, and a plurality of land portions that are defined by these circumferential main grooves. The belt layer includes an inner-side cross belt and outer-side cross belt having belt angles of not less than 51° and not more than 80° as absolute values with respect to the tire circumferential direction, the belt angles having mutually opposite signs, and a circumferential reinforcing layer having a belt angle that satisfies a range of ±5° with respect to the tire circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideki Hamanaka, Koshi Iga, Koichi Kotoku
  • Patent number: 9834041
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire that lowers a temperature of a tread portion by promoting heat dissipation thereof is provided. On a tread surface, a narrow groove is formed extending in a direction inclined with respect to a tire circumferential direction and having a width smaller than a depth, and an inflow portion opening to the tread surface is also formed on at least one of walls of the narrow groove facing each other in the tire circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yuki Kawakami
  • Patent number: 9821610
    Abstract: An object is to make it make it possible to, before a protecting layer is exposed, visually recognize that a final stage of wear of a tread has been reached. A pneumatic tire (10) for an aircraft has: a carcass ply (12) that spans between a pair of bead portions; a belt layer (14) that is provided at a tire radial direction outer side of a crown portion (12A) of the carcass ply (12); a protecting layer (16) that is provided at a tire radial direction outer side of the belt layer (14); a tread (18) that is provided at a tire radial direction outer side of the protecting layer (16), and at which ribs (30, 32, 34) are demarcated and formed by circumferential direction grooves; and filaments (20) that are provided between the protecting layer (16) and the tread (18), or within the tread (18), that extend in a tire axial direction, and that are disposed with an interval therebetween in a tire circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yohei Okita
  • Patent number: 9821612
    Abstract: The present invention provides a tire including a side portion (104), a black rubber layer (113), a stain-preventing rubber layer (112) disposed adjacent to the black rubber layer, and a colored layer (111) disposed on the surface of the stain-preventing rubber layer and exposed on the outer surface of the side portion; a tire including a colored layer (207) disposed on the outer surface of the tire, and an underlayer rubber (208) disposed on the tire-interior side of the colored layer, wherein the colored layer is formed by curing a UV-curable paint; and a tire including a colored layer (302) on the surface of the side portion (301) of the tire, wherein the colored layer includes a marking (303).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi Sakamoto, Takahiro Miura, Daisuke Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 9815336
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire comprises a tread portion 2 provided with shoulder axial grooves 10 extending from a shoulder main groove 3 to a tread edge Te while inclining to a first-side in the tire circumferential direction. The shoulder axial groove 10 has a first-side groove edge, a second-side groove edge, a first-side groove-sidewall 14 extending radially inward from the first-side groove edge 12, and a second-side groove-sidewall 15 extending radially inward from the second-side groove edge 13. The shoulder axial groove 10 has a part where the inclination angle ? of the first-side groove-sidewall 14 with respect to a normal line passing through the first-side groove edge 12 perpendicularly to the tread surface 2s is more than the inclination angle ? of the second-side groove-sidewall 15 with respect to a normal line passing through the second-side groove edge 13 perpendicularly to the tread surface 2s.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventor: Susumu Tanaka
  • Patent number: 9815339
    Abstract: The invention relates to a pneumatic vehicle tire (1) of radial design having a carcass (4) and having components (9, 10) which adjoin the carcass (4), wherein thread-shaped elements (11) are arranged on at least one of the two surfaces of the carcass (4) and preferably serve to discharge occluded air between the carcass (4) and the adjoining components (9, 10) during the construction of the tire. In order to improve the electrical conductivity of the pneumatic vehicle tire (1), at least one thread-shaped element (11) has a coating which is electrically conductive and jointly forms an electrically conductive, thread-shaped element (12) which has an electrical resistance of <1×107 Ohm/cm. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing the electrically conductive coating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: CONTINENTAL REIFEN DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
    Inventors: Michael Schunack, Lars Sonnenberg, Güenter Wahl, Carole Justine, Mehmet Sadettin Fidan, Norbert Kendziorra, Christian Weber
  • Patent number: 9809063
    Abstract: A low compaction cantilevered tire construction is provided which is designed for use at relatively low inflation pressures and which has sidewalls with a relatively uniform bending resistance through the majority of the sidewall. When the tire is placed under high loads at low inflation pressures the sidewall deflects substantially radially and allows the tread portion of the tire to maintain its intended shape thus improving the contact area of the tire and providing a tire having a relatively high contact area and thus relatively low soil compaction for a given loading.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC
    Inventors: Jason R. Barr, Samuel O. Givens, Robert W. Asper, Dennis W. Snyder
  • Patent number: 9802444
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire (10) has, in the surface of the tread (11), a central circumferential groove (12) located at the center of the contact patch width and extending circumferentially around the tire, a plurality of longitudinal grooves (13 (13a, 13b)) formed on the axially outside of the central circumferential groove (12), lug grooves (15), and blocks (16 (16a to 16c)) defined by the central circumferential groove (12), the longitudinal grooves (13), and the lug grooves (15). Each of the lug grooves (15) is formed such that its width in the shoulder region is greater than its width in the central region, and the sum of the groove area of the central circumferential groove (12) and the groove area of the longitudinal grooves (13) is smaller than the area of the lug grooves (15).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinsaku Katayama, Eisuke Seta, Yoshio Kaji, Masafumi Koide, Takayuki Kurata, Hiroyuki Katsuno, Masakazu Amano, Ataka Takei
  • Patent number: 9796218
    Abstract: Improving endurance of bead of radial tire for heavy vehicle. Tire has two beads (2) contacting rim (3) connected by carcass reinforcement (4) having carcass layer (5), with main part (6) wrapped, in each bead (2), axially from inside towards outside of the tire, around bead wire (7) having diameter (L), to form turnup (8) having free end (E). Each bead (2) has filling element (9) with filling compound (10) and extending radially towards outside from bead wire (7) and axially between turnup (8) and main part (6). The distance (I) between turnup (8) and main part (6) decreases continuously from bead wire (7) as far as a first minimum distance (a) reached at a first point (A) of turnup (8), then increases continuously from the first point (A) of turnup (8) as far as a first maximum distance (b) reached at a second point (B) of turnup (8).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignees: COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, Michelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
    Inventor: Athanase Kollias
  • Patent number: 9783006
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire including a tread portion, side wall portions, and bead portions, wherein the tread portion includes a plurality of circumferential grooves having a groove width of not less than 3.0 mm and which extend in a tire circumferential direction while meandering, and a plurality of lateral grooves having a groove width of not less than 3.0 mm and which communicate between a pair of circumferential grooves adjacent in a tire width direction. The circumferential grooves and the lateral grooves partition two rows of polygonal blocks formed by arranging a plurality of polygonal blocks, having a polygonal shape with not less than five corners, in a staggered manner along the tire circumferential direction. A polygonal rib extending in the tire circumferential direction is disposed between the two rows of polygonal blocks. The polygonal rib is adjacent to the two rows of polygonal blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., LTD.
    Inventor: Hiraku Kouda
  • Patent number: 9783008
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire includes a tread, sidewalls extending from edges of the tread, clinches extending from the edges of the sidewall, beads positioned on axially inner side of the clinches, a carcass bridging the beads along inner side of the tread and sidewalls, and load support layers positioned on axially inner side of the carcass such that the layers are positioned between the tread and beads. Each bead includes core and main apex, the core has radially outer side surface facing radially outward, the carcass includes carcass ply turned up around the core from inner side toward outer side in axial direction of the tire such that the main portion and turn-up portion are formed in the ply, the turn-up portion has core laminating portion laminated on the radially outer side surface of the core, and the apex is extending radially outward from radially outer side of the laminating portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES LTD.
    Inventor: Naoki Yukawa