Patents by Inventor Tetsuya Kuze

Tetsuya Kuze has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20070029022
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire improving driving stability, road noise, riding comfort, and a fuel consumption performance in a balanced manner. The pneumatic tire includes: a bead filler made wider than a triangle formed by connecting its base and top in a cross-sectional view taken along a meridian of the tire; and a sheet-like auxiliary filler arranged from a sidewall portion to a bead portion, having thickness of 0.5 to 2.0 mm and formed of a material harder than neighboring rubber compositions excluding the bead filler. The top D of the bead filler is positioned lower than a point B1 and higher than a rim flange by at least 5 mm, a lower end C1 of the auxiliary filler is positioned higher than a point A1 and lower than a point E2, and an upper end C2 thereof is positioned lower than a point A2, apart from the point A2 by at least 10 mm, and higher than a point B2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2004
    Publication date: February 8, 2007
    Inventors: Katsunori Tanaka, Tetsuya Kuze, Atsushi Tanno, Naoya Amino
  • Patent number: 7077180
    Abstract: Disclosed is a pneumatic tire provided with multiple blocks 6 on a tread 1. A sipe 7 provided on the block 6 is formed by shifting pitches of a zigzag shape 7a on a tread face 1a side of the sipe and a zigzag shape 7b on a bottom side thereof in the width direction of the tire, and by connecting concave and convex flexion points a, a?, b and b? on the both of the zigzag shapes with edge lines x1, x2 and x3. The block 6 is sectioned by the sipe 7 into a concavo-convex face A in which convex triangular pyramids Aa and convex reverse triangular pyramids Ab are alternately arranged, and a concavo-convex face B in which concave triangular pyramids Ba and concave reverse triangular pyramids Bb are alternately arranged. The concavo-convex faces A sectioned by the sipes are at least disposed in both outermost positions in the circumferential direction of the block in a manner that the concavo-convex faces A are oriented outward from the block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2006
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tetsuya Kuze
  • Patent number: 6719024
    Abstract: In a pneumatic tire including sipes extending in zigzag provided on tread surfaces, both wall surfaces of each sipe, which face to each other, are inclined with respect to a diameter direction of the tire, constituted of triangular wall surfaces, each having two sides expanding toward a sipe bottom with a bending point of a zigzag of the sipe as an apex and of inverse triangular wall surfaces, each having two sides narrowed toward the sipe bottom with one side of the zigzag of the sipe as a base, and a pair of the triangular wall surfaces adjacent to each other and a pair of the inverse triangular wall surfaces adjacent to each other are alternately arranged. Thus, provided is a pneumatic tire capable of improving ice performance without lowering driving stability on a dry road surface, and of suppressing occurrence of uneven wear.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tetsuya Kuze
  • Publication number: 20030205305
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire is disclosed in which ABS braking performance on a wet road after being worn is improved. This pneumatic tire includes: a tread pattern whose rotational direction is specified; and a block plotted on a tread by main grooves extending in a tire circumferential direction and lateral grooves extending in a tire width direction, the block having a pair of opposing corners with acute angles and including at least one sipe therein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2003
    Publication date: November 6, 2003
    Inventors: Masatoshi Kuwajima, Tetsuya Kuze
  • Publication number: 20020170643
    Abstract: Disclosed is a pneumatic tire provided with multiple blocks 6 on a tread 1. A sipe 7 provided on the block 6 is formed by shifting pitches of a zigzag shape 7a on a tread face 1a side of the sipe and a zigzag shape 7b on a bottom side thereof in the width direction of the tire, and by connecting concave and convex flexion points a, a′, b and b′ on the both of the zigzag shapes with edge lines x1, x2 and x3. The block 6 is sectioned by the sipe 7 into a concavo-convex face A in which convex triangular pyramids Aa and convex reverse triangular pyramids Ab are alternately arranged, and a concavo-convex face B in which concave triangular pyramids Ba and concave reverse triangular pyramids Bb are alternately arranged. The concavo-convex faces A sectioned by the sipes are at least disposed in both outermost positions in the circumferential direction of the block in a manner that the concavo-convex faces A are oriented outward from the block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2002
    Publication date: November 21, 2002
    Inventor: Tetsuya Kuze
  • Publication number: 20020043318
    Abstract: In a pneumatic tire including sipes extending in zigzag provided on tread surfaces, both wall surfaces of each sipe, which face to each other, are inclined with respect to a diameter direction of the tire, constituted of triangular wall surfaces, each having two sides expanding toward a sipe bottom with a bending point of a zigzag of the sipe as an apex and of inverse triangular wall surfaces, each having two sides narrowed toward the sipe bottom with one side of the zigzag of the sipe as a base, and a pair of the triangular wall surfaces adjacent to each other and a pair of the inverse triangular wall surfaces adjacent to each other are alternately arranged. Thus, provided is a pneumatic tire capable of improving ice performance without lowering driving stability on a dry road surface, and of suppressing occurrence of uneven wear.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2001
    Publication date: April 18, 2002
    Applicant: THE YOKOHAMA RUBBER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tetsuya Kuze
  • Patent number: 5954107
    Abstract: A pneumatic radial tire has a tread pattern having a pair of straight main grooves each having a width equal to 8-13 percent of a ground contact width W of the tire and extending in parallel on opposite sides of an equator of the tire, a plurality of lug grooves extending across shoulder regions formed on the outersides of the pair of main grooves from the pair of main grooves outwardly toward the ends of the ground contact surface of the tire to form in cooperation with the main grooves successive rows of blocks, and a plurality of V-shaped sub-grooves in the shoulder regions spaced at a predetermined pitch apart in the circumferential direction of the tire and extending divergently with respect to the direction of reverse rotation of the tire, wherein the ratio of a distance W1 between respective centers of the main grooves to the ground contact width W is in the range of 0.2.ltoreq.W1/W.ltoreq.0.4; an angle .alpha.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1999
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kuze, Yoshimasa Hashimoto, Toshihiko Suzuki, Sadakazu Takei, Izumi Kuramochi, Hiroshi Tokizaki
  • Patent number: 5016695
    Abstract: A pneumatic tire having a tread pattern comprising a rib and a block, wherein a rib having the highest rigidity in the circumferential direction of the tire of said at least one rib is offset from the equatorial line of the tire to the shoulder side which is located on the outer side of a vehicle when the tire is mounted on the vehicle and the position of mounting of this rib and the width of the main groove on the shoulder side adjacent to this rib are specified respectively by formulae (I) and (II) described in the specification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 1989
    Date of Patent: May 21, 1991
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kuze, Toshihiko Suzuki
  • Patent number: 5007472
    Abstract: A pneumatic radial tire characterized in that:an inner carcass layer is turned up around each bead core from inside to outside in such a manner as to wrap a bead filler therein;a steel cord reinforcing layer is disposed outside the inner carcass layer;an outer carcass layer is disposed in such a manner that it covers the outside of the steel cord reinforcing layer and its end portion extends to at least near the bead core;a second filler is disposed outside the outer carcass layer;the second filler has a hardness below that of the bead filler and within the range of 70 to 93 in terms of JIS hardness;the cord angle of the steel cord reinforcing layer is from 15.degree. to 30.degree.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1990
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1991
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kuze, Takashi Yamashita, Toshihiko Suzuki
  • Patent number: 4730654
    Abstract: A pneumatic radial tire having a block pattern asymmetric about the right and left portions on the ground-contacting portion of the tire which has a specific area ratio of grooves and a specific angle of subgrooves on the ground-contacting portion of the tire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 15, 1988
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Yamashita, Tetsuya Kuze, Tuneo Morikawa
  • Patent number: 4716950
    Abstract: A radial tire for a passenger car characterized in that an upper filler is disposed on a bead filler positioned on a bead wire buried in each bead portion of the tire, and a single steel reinforcing layer is interposed between the upper filler and the bead filler so that it extends from outside the upper filler to the inside of the bead filler and its height H from a bead heel does not exceed 50% of a sectional height T of the tire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 1986
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1988
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tuneo Morikawa, Tetsuya Kuze
  • Patent number: RE37306
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2001
    Assignee: Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenichi Shirai, Masahiro Ishida, Tetsuya Kuze, Toshihiko Suzuki
  • Patent number: D380994
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 1995
    Date of Patent: July 15, 1997
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubbe Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hisaya Morishita, Junichi Ohtani, Tetsuya Kuze, Toshihiko Suzuki, Izumi Kuramochi, Hiroshi Tokizaki
  • Patent number: D389103
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1996
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1998
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshimasa Hashimoto, Tetsuya Kuze, Toshihiko Suzuki, Izumi Kuramochi, Kohtaroh Iwabuchi
  • Patent number: D392229
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 17, 1998
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenichi Shirai, Masahiro Ishida, Tetsuya Kuze, Toshihiko Suzuki
  • Patent number: D397974
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 8, 1998
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hisaya Morishita, Tetsuya Kuze, Hiroshi Tokizaki, Izumi Kuramochi
  • Patent number: D426855
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2000
    Assignee: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masakazu Niwa, Kenichiro Sugitani, Hiroshi Hata, Tetsuya Kuze