Manufacturing Tires with Lightweight Materials

Carbon nanotubes for tire tread that can improve stable heat generation, fatigue properties, and tensile strength under rough driving conditions. The tread is fabricated from polymer material and includes silica as reinforcing filler, carbon nanotube as the filler, and silica as the silane group.

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A carbon nanotube/carbon black aggregate for high-performance tire tread rubber compounds that provides improved wear resistance, reduced heat generation, and enhanced mechanical strength compared to using just carbon black or adding carbon nanotubes directly. The aggregate is prepared by mixing carbon nanotubes with carbon black. The carbon nanotubes disperse better and provide better properties when combined with carbon black instead of adding them directly to the rubber compound. This aggregate can be used in tire tread compounds to improve wear resistance, reduce rolling resistance, and extend tire life.

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Graphene modified rubber composition for aviation tire treads that provides improved properties like durability, wear resistance, and elongation strength compared to conventional rubber compounds. The composition contains graphene dispersion made by combining graphene and dispersant like PVP, along with reinforcing agents like carbon black and white carbon black. The graphene dispersion allows better graphene dispersion in the rubber matrix. The composition also has antiaging, antioxidant, antizonant, and accelerator additives.

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Lightweight rubber reinforcement for tires that reduces weight without compromising durability. The reinforcement is made by a manufacturing process where a thin, heat-shrinkable fiber substrate is sandwiched between an adhesive layer and a rubber compound layer. The fiber substrate is woven with specific yarn densities and shrinkage rates to provide a uniform thin base. The adhesive layer bonds the fiber substrate to the rubber compound layer during tire manufacturing. This allows thin, lightweight reinforcement without the need for rolling or thick rubber coating, which reduces tire weight without sacrificing durability.

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A metal tire with a lightweight, strong carcass made of an ordered metal lattice array. The lattice structure provides strength and flexibility like a rubber tire without the need for inflation. The metal tire is 3D printed using a non-planar substrate printing method where the hub serves as the inner ring and the print head moves with hub rotation. The lattice structure is printed using metal wire or powder and techniques like arc, electron beam, laser, or induction heating.

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Non-pneumatic tire design with internal cavities, sidewalls, and crowns filled and molded to reduce weight, improve comfort, and extend tire life. The tire has a closed inner cavity filled with lightweight foam, reducing weight compared to a full carcass. The sidewall grooves are filled with lightweight foam to reduce weight compared to solid sidewalls. The crown grooves have high wear rubber near the sidewall and wet-slip rubber near the crown to minimize wear and improve longevity. This targeted filling of specific tire sections reduces weight, improves comfort, and extends tire life compared to traditional solid tires.

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A non-pneumatic tire design for vehicles that eliminates the inner tube and uses multiple layers of reinforcing materials in the tread band instead. The tread has radially adjacent layers with equal radial spacing between them. The layers are oriented at angles to the tire circumference. This reduces weight, improves rolling resistance, and maintains durability without needing a separate rubber shear layer between the layers.

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Rubber composition for tires that improves dispersibility of fillers like silica, reduces heat generation, and enhances elasticity while maintaining electrical conductivity. The composition contains 40-150 parts of silica per 100 parts of diene system rubbers. It also includes 5-20 parts of a carbon nanotube polymer complex per 100 parts of diene system rubbers. The complex has carbon nanotubes blended with polymer. The nanotube diameter is 0.1-3 microns. The composition provides better filler dispersion, intensive reinforcement, heat reduction, elasticity, and electrical conductivity compared to standard tire rubbers.

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Tire with carbon fiber reinforced resin (CFRP) cords that provide lightweight strength without breaking. The CFRP cords for the tire's carcass and bead wires use a matrix resin containing specific ratios of epoxy resin and a functionalized acrylonitrile butadiene copolymer. The resin composition balances elasticity and strength to prevent CFRP cord breakage due to bending forces during tire assembly and operation.

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Low-weight pneumatic tire that reduces weight and rolling resistance while maintaining rigidity and stability. The tire achieves this by using thinner cords in the carcass compared to conventional textile cords. The thinner cords have initial moduli of 2-6% under 2.6 g/d load and stiffness of 7.5-14.0 g/d. The cords are coated with a rubber-based adhesive containing sulfur to improve adhesion to the topping rubber. This allows reducing the tire weight while maintaining performance.

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Solid tire with a foam-filled core to reduce weight compared to conventional solid tires made solely from rubber or thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The tire has an outer layer of rubber or TPU and an inner core made by mixing foam particles with crosslinked polyurethane (CPU). The foam particles are embedded in the CPU material. The foam provides lower density compared to the solid rubber or TPU, reducing overall tire weight.

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Rubber composition containing graphene and a reinforcing material with silicon for improving mechanical properties like wear resistance and reducing hysteresis in rubber articles like tires. The composition contains graphene sheets, a silicon-containing reinforcing material, and a rubber. The graphene and silicon-containing reinforcement enhance rubber properties compared to using just graphene or silicon reinforcement alone. The composition can be produced by mixing the graphene, silicon reinforcement, and rubber.

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Carbon nanotube composite rubber for high-performance tires that improves tire performance like rolling resistance and wear while reducing weight and environmental impact compared to traditional tires. The rubber composition contains carbon nanotubes, sulfonated polyacrylamide, and other conventional tire rubber ingredients. The sulfonated polyacrylamide helps disperse the nanotubes and prevent agglomeration, improving tire properties. The nanotubes provide strength, wear resistance, conductivity, and thermal conductivity. This allows using less nanotubes than conventional composites for the same performance. The sulfonated polyacrylamide also acts as a processing aid to reduce viscosity during mixing and molding. The resulting tire rubber has better properties like lower rolling resistance, better wear, and lower weight compared to conventional tires.

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A tire with improved strength by using polyamide 4 (PA4) fiber made through wet spinning, dry-wet spinning, or gel spinning in an ionic liquid solvent. The ionic liquid solvent has anions with high HBA (hydrogen bond acidity) ability, such as acetate, diethylphosphate, or chloride. Spinning PA4 in these solvents allows producing fibers with higher strength compared to conventional methods like melt spinning. These ionic liquid spun PA4 fibers can then be used in tire cord applications.

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Rubber reinforcing material composition for the sidewall of run-flat tires that improves physical properties like strength, hardness, and durability while reducing weight. The composition contains a specific range of carbon nanotubes (1-10 wt%) along with a heterogeneous polybutadiene mixture (90-99 wt%) for reinforcing. The heterogeneous polybutadiene has a weight ratio of 30-70:30-70 for 1,4- and 1,2-polybutadiene, respectively. This composition provides enhanced viscoelasticity, mechanical properties, and fuel efficiency for run-flat tires while maintaining adhesion.

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Tire tread rubber composition containing carbon nanotubes that improves tire performance and processing without increasing cost. The composition uses a specific ratio of liquid isoprene rubber (LIR) polycondensed with carboxyl-modified carbon nanotubes (CNTs) relative to the total rubber. The LIR:CNT weight ratio is 0.05:1 to 0.5:1. The LIR coating on the CNTs helps disperse them in the rubber matrix and prevents dust generation during processing. The LIR-coated CNTs provide enhanced tire properties like tensile strength and abrasion resistance compared to bare CNTs.

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Rubber compound with improved strength and weight reduction potential for tire applications. The compound contains 10-95% rubber, 1-80% coke powder (like coal or petroleum coke), and has a specific gravity of 0.8-1.5 g/cm³. The coke powder replaces traditional fillers like carbon black to reduce weight while maintaining strength in the 2-45 MPa range. The coke powder is inexpensive and easily obtained as a residue from coal or oil processing.

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Lightweight spare tire system for vehicles that reduces weight and improves fuel efficiency. The system uses a carbon fiber composite rim for the spare tire instead of a heavier metal rim. The carbon fiber rim is paired with a lightweight tire specifically designed for use with it. This creates a complete lightweight spare wheel that can be used when a regular tire needs to be replaced. The carbon fiber rim is much lighter than a metal rim, and the lightweight tire further reduces weight compared to a standard tire. The overall weight savings of the lightweight spare wheel improves fuel efficiency by reducing the total vehicle weight.

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Rubber composition for tire sidewalls that provides improved impact resistance and adhesion compared to conventional sidewall rubbers. The composition includes natural rubber, butadiene rubber, carbon black, carbon fiber, liquid rubber, zinc oxide, stearate, paraffin oil, and vulcanization accelerator. The carbon fiber and carbon black provide strength and modulus, while the carbon fiber also improves impact resistance. The liquid rubber enhances adhesion. The composition allows lighter weight sidewalls with better properties compared to conventional sidewall rubbers.

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Rubber composite for tires that improves mechanical strength and maintains good viscoelasticity. It uses self-aligned carbon nanotubes instead of conventional carbon black. The self-aligned nanotubes have better dispersion without needing separate treatment. The composite contains a rubber, self-aligned carbon nanotubes, and carbon black. The self-aligned nanotubes provide improved mechanical strength while maintaining good tire properties like viscoelasticity compared to regular nanotubes. The composite can be used in tires to provide enhanced strength without compromising tire performance.

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Rubber compositions containing nanocarbon and carbon black as reinforcing agents for tires with improved properties like lower rolling resistance, higher grip, and reduced heat buildup compared to carbon black alone. The key innovation is pre-dispersing the nanocarbon in the natural rubber component before mixing with the carbon black. This allows optimizing the relative amounts of nanocarbon and carbon black for enhanced tire performance. The nanocarbon:natural rubber ratio is 1:100 to 10:100 pphr and the nanocarbon:carbon black ratio is 1:40 to 1:2 pphr. The pre-dispersed nanocarbon masterbatch is used instead of directly adding nanocarbon powder to the rubber mix.

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Heavy duty pneumatic tire design that reduces weight, improves durability, and lowers rolling resistance compared to steel cord tires. The tire has a carcass made with polyketone fiber cords instead of steel cords. The polyketone fiber cords have specific physical properties to maintain strength and prevent gaps between cords. This allows using fewer plies compared to steel cord tires. The reduced number of plies reduces weight and prevents inner layer cord gaps. The polyketone fiber cords also have lower shrinkage compared to steel cords. This prevents stretching during manufacturing and improves durability. The tire also has a belt made with organic fiber cords covered in rubber. This further reduces weight and rolling resistance compared to steel belt reinforcement.

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A lightweight motorcycle tire design that improves handling, stability, and cornering rigidity compared to conventional radial tires. The tire has a non-radial carcass structure with parallel reinforcing elements angled 75 degrees from the circumferential direction in the sidewalls. This contrasts with radial tires where the carcass reinforcing elements are angled 0 degrees in the sidewalls. The non-radial carcass allows thinner sidewalls and reduced weight. The tire also has a circumferential reinforcing layer angled -47 degrees in the sidewalls. This non-radial layout provides improved handling and stability versus radial tires with circumferential reinforcing layers angled 0 degrees in the sidewalls. The non-radial carcass and circumferential reinforcing layer layout also helps cornering rigidity.

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Two-wheeled vehicle tire with reduced weight and rolling resistance without compromising air retention. The tire has an inner liner with a ply of cords made of organic fibers like nylon. The cords are flat, intersect the equatorial plane at an angle of 20-90 degrees, and have a width/pitch ratio of 90% or more. The topping rubber on the cords has a specific gravity of 1.0-1.2. The ply thickness is 0.4-1.5 mm. This reduces the weight and rolling resistance of the tire compared to traditional inner liners with halogenated butyl rubber, without impairing air retention.

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Run-flat tire with improved ride comfort and weight compared to conventional side reinforced run-flat tires. The new run-flat tire has a puncture prevention layer inside the sidewall that provides temporary run-flat capability without requiring a spare tire. However, unlike traditional side reinforced run-flat tires, the puncture prevention layer has lower rigidity and spring constant. This reduces weight and improves ride comfort compared to the stiffer side reinforced run-flat tires. The lower rigidity puncture prevention layer still supports the tire in a deflated state for limited distance travel.

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A pneumatic tire design with a carcass made of different materials in the tread and sidewall regions to improve performance and weight savings. The tread region uses a lighter material compared to the sidewall region. This reduces weight in the tread area while maintaining fatigue resistance in the sidewall. By selecting lighter materials for the tread, it reduces air pressure loss and improves tread adhesion. The heavier sidewall material maintains strength and durability.

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Pneumatic run-flat radial tire that provides good run-flat performance while reducing weight compared to conventional run-flat tires. The tire has a carcass with reduced cord fineness (4000 dTex or less) to improve cut resistance. In addition, a cord reinforcing layer is added adjacent to the carcass with an angle of 0-60 degrees to further enhance cut resistance. This allows reducing weight compared to increasing the carcass layer. The tire also has a sidewall crescent-shaped reinforcing layer with hardness 70-90 degrees for balance of durability, weight, and ride quality.

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Pneumatic tire with reduced weight and rolling resistance while maintaining steering stability and side cut resistance. The tire has a carcass made of triaxial woven fabric instead of conventional cord plies. This provides rigidity in both radial and circumferential directions, reducing the need for belts and sidewall rubber. The triaxial fabric can be made from materials like aromatic polyamide, aliphatic polyamide, polyester, polyparaphenylene benzoxazole, polyketone, cellulose, or carbon fibers. This allows reducing tire weight and rolling resistance without sacrificing steering stability and side cut resistance.

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A pneumatic tire design that reduces weight and improves ride quality compared to conventional tires while maintaining high running performance. The tire has a carcass locked to the bead cores, an annular sidewall between bead and tread, and a laminated tube filled with gas or foam. The annular sidewall prevents bead filler weight increase. The laminated tube allows lower weight compared to solid rubber. The hollow tube filler can be gas or foam. This reduces weight and improves ride comfort compared to solid rubber. It also allows lower weight run-flat capability compared to heavy solid rubber.

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Motorcycle tire with improved strength and rigidity while minimizing weight compared to conventional tires. The tire has a carcass ply with embedded cords following a specific orientation and a topping rubber sheet containing short fibers oriented in the same direction. This orientation of the fibers in the carcass and topping rubber provides improved strength without adding weight compared to random fiber orientation.

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Runflat tire design that enables safe operation of uninflated tires without compromising vehicle handling. The tire has a ply structure with an outer ply reinforced with aramid, a high-modulus, low-density material. This aramid-reinforced outer ply is clamped around the beads and prestressed during manufacturing. This provides rigidity and resistance to deformation during runflat operation. The aramid ply reduces sidewall deformation compared to all rayon plies. It also improves handling and stability of uninflated tires compared to conventional runflat tires.

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A lightweight radial ply tire with reduced aspect ratio, improved wear, and lower rolling resistance compared to conventional tires. The tire has a unique belt construction using aramid cords instead of steel belts. This allows reducing the overall weight and aspect ratio of the tire while maintaining strength and durability. The aramid cords provide better wear resistance compared to steel. The tire also uses a specific tread compound and construction to further enhance wear and rolling resistance.

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A pneumatic race tire with a thin annular composite band located in the tread area that replaces traditional belt packages. The band is made of high strength, lightweight materials like graphite fibers, metal, or hybrid composites. It is located radially inward of the tread and between the tread and body ply carcass. This band element provides compression and stiffness to the tread area without the weight and heat generation of thick rubber belts. It allows thinner treads and reduces heat in the tread region for longer tire life. The band also disperses loads further away from the footprint.

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Low cost, lightweight radial tire with improved performance and reduced rolling resistance compared to conventional radial tires. The tire has a unique construction with an aspect ratio less than 0.8, which is significantly lower than typical radial tires. The reduced aspect ratio allows for a thinner tread and lower weight. The tire has a belt structure in the crown area, surrounded by an overlay. The overlay width matches the belt width. This helps prevent belt separation while reducing weight compared to conventional tires with thicker overlays. The thinner tread, reduced weight, and optimized belt construction improve rolling resistance and handling.

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Tire bead design to reduce tire weight without sacrificing strength. The bead has a core made of wires made of aromatic polyamides like aramid instead of steel. This provides a lighter bead that still has adequate compression and bending resistance to prevent deformation during mounting and prevent bead core breakage. The aramid wires also touch the carcass to prevent carcass cord breakage.

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Method for making reinforced plastic tires using injection molding instead of traditional tire manufacturing methods. The process involves injecting molten plastic into a mold containing pre-placed reinforcement materials like plastic filaments, fibers, or nets. This allows creating a tire with internal plastic reinforcement structures that are molded into shape along with the outer tire rubber. The reinforced plastic network provides strength and stiffness to the tire without needing fabric or other conventional tire reinforcement materials.

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Tire design without internal reinforcement to eliminate the cost and weight of conventional tire reinforcement. The tire has sidewalls with varying thickness zones adjacent to constant thickness zones. The varying thickness zones have a median line with changing curvature. This non-uniform sidewall geometry distributes stresses differently compared to uniform sidewalls. The varying thickness zones absorb and spread stresses, preventing concentrated areas prone to failure. The changing curvature median line further spreads stresses. The sidewall design allows a tire without reinforcement to withstand inflation and sidewall loads without premature failure.

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