Patents Examined by Adrienne C. Johnstone
  • Patent number: 8336589
    Abstract: Accumulation of static electricity is prevented while enhancing rolling resistance performance of tire. Tread rubber 2G has tread rubber body 15 forming tread ground contact surface 2S, under tread 16 disposed radially inward of the tread rubber body, and terminal portion 17 penetrating the tread rubber body in the radial direction, the under tread 16 being in contact with cushion rubbers 13 each having cushion main portion 13A interposed between edge portion 7E of tread-reinforcing layer 7 and carcass 6 over an overlap width W1 of 1 mm or more. Tread rubber body 15, topping rubber 7G of tread-reinforcing layer 7 and sidewall rubbers 3G are made of an insulating rubber material 20 having a volume resistivity of at least 1×108 ?·cm, and under tread 16, terminal portion 17, cushion rubber 13, topping rubber 6G of carcass 6 and chafer rubber 11 are made of a conductive rubber material having a volume resistivity of less than 1×108 ?·cm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Takao Wada
  • Patent number: 8286680
    Abstract: A tire comprising a circumferential tread, a circumferential tread, at least one circumferential belt, at least one carcass ply, a pair of sidewalls, and a pair of bead portions. Each of the bead portions comprising a bead core, a bead filler, a toe region, a heel region, a ledge region, and a flange region. The ledge region is provided between the toe region and the heel region, wherein the ledge region comprises at least one circumferentially continuous groove. The flange region each extending circumferentially about the tire, the flange region provided radially above the ledge region, wherein the flange region comprises at least one circumferentially continuous groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC
    Inventors: Neel K. Mani, John L. Turner
  • Patent number: 8287674
    Abstract: An improved tire provides an air-flow restrictor that may be installed inside a tire. The air-flow restrictor may restrict or prevent the flow of air in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the tire. Also, a method for saving fuel by inserting or retrofitting tires with air movement restricting inserts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Inventor: Garry L. Rumbaugh
  • Patent number: 8281834
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire and rim assembly is provided in the cavity with a noise damper in which a sponge material extending in a circumferential direction of the tire and having a volume V2 of 0.4 to 20% of entire volume V1 of the cavity, wherein the noise damper comprises a fixing surface fixed to a surface which surrounds the tire cavity, and a free surface directed to the tire cavity, a maximum value of thickness from the fixing surface to the free surface is in a range of 5 to 50 mm, including a thick mountain portion and a thin valley portion; and at least one of outer ends of the noise damper in the circumferential direction of the tire is formed into an inclined surface portion comprising a first inclined surface rising from the fixing surface and a second inclined surface extending from the first inclined surface to the free surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Naoki Yukawa
  • Patent number: 8276631
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire having a noise damper, a method for manufacturing the same, and a method for fixing the damper to the tire are disclosed. The inner surface of the tread portion of the vulcanized tire is buffed, and the noise damper is fixed to the buffed inner surface, using a double-sided adhesive tape which has specific characteristics such as adhesive force, tensile strength, thickness, cold-resistant property, heat-resistant property and water-resistant property.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Naoki Yukawa
  • Patent number: 8210223
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire for use on aircraft has a tread, a crown reinforcement, and a radial carcass reinforcement having at least one axially inner ply of textile cords wound around a pair of bead cores, at least one axially inner ply being wound around the bead core in each bead from inside to the outside forming outside turn-ups and at least one axially outer ply of textile cords extending from bead to bead along the turn-ups of the at least one axially inner ply. The at least one axially inner ply or at least one axially outer ply has merged cords having a percent elongation at break of 12% to less than 20% and a break strength greater than 1050 N with a linear density of greater than 9,000 dtex. Merged cord reinforcement is preferably used in the ply layers or strips of the crown reinforcement as well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
    Inventors: Walter Kevin Westgate, Yuvaraj Senthil Arumugam, Robert John Gartland
  • Patent number: 8191595
    Abstract: A tire for two-wheeled motorcycles of the present invention includes a first carcass layer folded back along circumferential surfaces of bead cores, a second carcass layer folded back along circumferential surfaces of turnbacks of the first carcass layer 5, a belt layer wound spirally along a tire circumferential direction and an intermediate carcass layer provided between the first and second carcass layers 7 and in an inner circumferential side of the belt layer and extending close to a tire maximum width.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventor: Masatomo Oshima
  • Patent number: 8167016
    Abstract: A heavy-load tire has a wind bead structure in which a turned-up portion of a carcass ply is wound around a bead core, in which a bead portion is equipped with a bead reinforcing layer having a u-shaped cross section and a bead apex rubber having a triangular-shaped cross section. The turned-up portion has an auxiliary turned-up portion passing through the vicinity of a radially outer side of the bead core. The bead apex rubber includes a high complex elasticity modulus inner apex portion disposed at a radially inner side and a low complex elasticity modulus outer apex portion disposed at a radially outer side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kiyoto Maruoka
  • Patent number: 8151849
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire for mounting on an aircraft wheel has a radial carcass and flipper reinforcement. The tire has a pair of bead cores, at least two or more axially inner plies greater than or equal to, extending between the bead cores, a crown reinforcement radially outward of the plies having a maximum belt width BW, and at least one flipper reinforcement wrapped around each bead core. Each bead core has a radially extending cross sectional length B. Each flipper reinforcement extends along an inner surface of the bead core to the axially inner end located in an area that is between 0.01 BW to 0.25 BW as measured from the belt edge toward a centerline of the tire preferably in the range of 0.05 BW to 0.125 BW and wherein one flipper reinforcement has an axially outer end lower than the top of the bead core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
    Inventor: Kiyoshi Ueyoko
  • Patent number: 8151847
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire including a tread part contacting a road surface, at least two belt layers each formed of a plurality of parallel cords covered with rubber, and a pair of bead toes. An angle at which the line segment BQ and the line segment SW cross is 50° or smaller when, in a cross section including the axis of rotation: the ends of a shortest belt layer, which is the shortest one, in length in a tire width direction, of the belt layers are set to be points B; points on a tire surface, between which the width of the tire is the widest, are set to be points Q; a line segment connecting each point B and the corresponding one of the points Q is set to be a line segment BQ; and a line segment connecting the pair of points Q is set to be a line segment SW.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventor: Akihiko Abe
  • Patent number: 8151843
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire 1 according to the invention has bead portions 11, 12 including bead cores 11a, 12a, and at least a carcass layer 13 and a tread portion 16 arranged, wherein in a section in a tire-width direction, assuming as a reference a tire centerline CL making right angles with a bead line BL interconnecting a center of the bead core 11a and a center of the bead core 12a, and passing a center of the bead line BL, an outer ground-contact area 20B is wider by 5 to 15% than an inner ground-contact area 20B, and wherein in the section in the tire-width direction, a carcass periphery length as a distance along a carcass centerline CaL from a crossing point P to an approach point P2 is longer by 0.5 mm to 10 mm than a carcass periphery length Ca as a distance from the crossing point P to an approach point P1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventors: Shigemasa Ishii, Nobuaki Toyosato
  • Patent number: 8146638
    Abstract: A heavy-duty pneumatic tire includes a carcass ply turned up around a bead core in each bead portion from the inside to the outside of the tire so as to have a pair of turnup portions and a main portion therebetween; and a bead apex and an L-shaped reinforcing cord layer. The bead apex includes: an L-shaped high-modulus inner bead apex including a base part and a radial part; and a delta-shaped low-modulus outer bead apex disposed on the radially outside of the base part of the L-shaped inner bead apex and on the axially outside of the radial part of the L-shaped inner bead apex. The L-shaped reinforcing cord layer is made up of an radially inner part extending on the radially inner side of the bead core, and an radially outer part extending along the axially outer surface of the carcass ply turnup portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kiyoto Maruoka
  • Patent number: 8091600
    Abstract: A heavy duty pneumatic tire, which allows the inside narrow-width belt layers to have a wide width as desired, and which suppresses the amount of strain generated at side edge portions of the belt layer to be sufficiently small thereby effectively preventing the separation of the belt layer, therefore the belt, in which two inside narrow-width belt layers 1B, 2B and two outside wide-width belt layers 3B, 4B, which have a larger width than the narrow-width belt layers, are sequentially disposed in the outer periphery side of the crown area of the radial carcass 5, wherein a portion of the wide-width belt layer 3B adjacent to the outer periphery side of the two narrow-width belt layers 1B, 2B, corresponding to side-edge vicinity of the narrow-width belt layer 2B of the outer periphery side is formed to be convex in radially outward direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventor: Kazuomi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 8083877
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire containing a tread, a carcass having at least one belt ply disposed below the tread, and a cap ply located between the carcass and the tread. The cap ply comprises at least one layer of an open construction leno weave tape having a pair of warp yarns in the longitudinal direction and a weft yarn in the weft direction. The pair of warp yarns comprises a first warp yarn and a second warp yarn, where the second warp yarn has a force of elongation of between about 1 and 40% the force of elongation of the first warp yarn, where the second warp yarn is in tension, and where the second warp yarn has an elongation at break of greater than 2%. The leno weave tape is disposed in a flat pattern around the circumference of the carcass in the area of the belt ply. A method of making a pneumatic tire is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Milliken & Company
    Inventors: Dany F. Michiels, Johann Peschek, Willy Delanoy, Boudewijn Snauwaert
  • Patent number: 8079393
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire 1 having a toroidal carcass 3 and a belt 7 consisting of belt layers 5, 6 arranged in the outer circumferential side of a crown portion 4 of the carcass 3. Between the adjacent belt layers 5, 6, the cords 8, 9 are crossed with each other with respect to an equatorial plane E of the tire to form cross belt layers. The widest belt layer 6 is a folded belt layer having a body portion 10 and a folded portion 12. A cord 9 constituting the folded belt layer 6 is an organic fiber cord. A narrow belt reinforcing layer 14 of rubberized cords 13 is arranged at least immediately below the width terminal end 11 of the body portion 10 of the folded belt layer 6 which terminal end 11 abuts on the folded portion 12.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Ishiyama, Jun Matsuzaki, Masafumi Koide
  • Patent number: 8037912
    Abstract: A tire comprising at least one reinforcement structure of the carcass type anchored on either side of the tire in a bead, the base of which bead is intended to be mounted on a rim seat, the reinforcement structure extending circumferentially from the bead towards the sidewall, at least one arrangement of main cords along a substantially circumferential path being arranged substantially adjacent to the structure, the arrangement of the cords of the at least one arrangement being such that the number of main cords arranged on the axially inner side relative to the structure is greater than the number of main cords arranged on the axially outer side relative to the structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Michelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
    Inventors: Pedro Costa Pereira, Bernard Guerinon
  • Patent number: 8037909
    Abstract: Pneumatic radial tires are described having belt layers deposited under a tread and a ring-shaped water-splash control rib (100) formed on the sidewall (20), wherein the upper profile Lb of the rib is positioned above a continuation line (Ca) which extends along an average profile of an outmost belt layer and which is divided in to upper and lower profile of the outmost belt layer, the rib comprising drainage grooves or drainage protuberances in the upper profile of the rib, the height h of the rib is 0.085-0.115 times the width TW of the tread (0.085TW?h?0.115TW).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Kumho Tire Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Kang-Jong Song, Sung-Wan Park, Kang Byeon
  • Patent number: 8033311
    Abstract: Tire having a crown, a crown reinforcement, sidewalls and beads, a carcass reinforcement passing into the sidewalls and anchored in the beads. The anchoring is accomplished, in at least one bead, by a circumferential alignment of an anchoring reinforcing member oriented circumferentially and cooperating with a rubber composition. The anchoring reinforcing member is a metal cable having a construction M+N with an inner layer C1 of M wires of diameter d1 wound together in a helix at a pitch p1 , this layer C1 being surrounded by an outer layer C2 of N wires of diameter d2 wound together in a helix at a pitch p2. This anchoring cable satisfies (d1, d2, p1 and p2 being expressed in mm): 2?M?4, M+3?N ?M+7, 0.25 <d1 <0.40, 0.25 <d2 <0.40, 3.5 <p1 <7<p2<14.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Michelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
    Inventors: Denis Alvarez, Christian Signoret
  • Patent number: 8006732
    Abstract: A tire 10 has an endless decorative band 2 on a surface of a sidewall 1. The decorative band 2 has one or more first indicative sector 3 and one or more second indicative sector 4 which are arranged alternately and consecutively in the circumferential direction. The first indicative sector 3 consists of a background portion 5 which continuously leads to the sidewall portion 1 adjacent to the first indicative sector with a uniform surface roughness value, and a foreground portion 6 which is arranged in the background portion 5 and forms marks by having a surface roughness value larger than that of the background portion 5. A background portion 7 constituting a part or whole of the second indicative sector 4 has a surface rougher than any of the sidewall portion 1 and the background portion 5 of the first indicative sector 3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation
    Inventor: Daita Itoi
  • Patent number: 8006733
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire containing a tread, a carcass having at least one belt ply disposed below the tread, and a cap ply located between the carcass and the tread. The cap ply comprises at least one layer of an open construction leno weave tape having a pair of warp yarns in the longitudinal direction and a weft yarn in the weft direction. The pair of warp yarns comprises a first warp yarn and a second warp yarn, where the second warp yarn has a force of elongation of between about 1 and 40% the force of elongation of the first warp yarn, where the second warp yarn is in tension, and where the second warp yarn has an elongation at break of greater than 2%. The leno weave tape is disposed in a flat pattern around the circumference of the carcass in the area of the belt ply. A method of making a pneumatic tire is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Milliken & Company
    Inventors: Dany F. Michiels, Johann Peschek, Willy Delanoy, Peter Eeckhout, Boudewijn Snauwaert