Lightweight Materials for Tire Manufacturing

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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A pneumatic tire for racing karts that provides improved grip and durability. The tire has a tread, sidewalls, beads, carcass, and reinforcing layers. The reinforcing layers are located between the sidewalls and beads. The reinforcing layers have widths of 25 mm or less and cords angled between 0-15 degrees to the circumferential direction. This provides targeted reinforcement without excessive stiffness. The reinforcing layer inner edge height is smaller than the bead apex outer edge height. This prevents bulging between the bead and sidewall. The reinforcing layer outer edge height is greater than the bead apex outer edge height. This prevents wrinkling between the sidewall and bead. The reinforcing layer height difference to the tire height is 0.05-0.30.

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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 pneumatic tire with improved recyclability and manufacturing efficiency by using a thermoplastic tread reinforcement instead of traditional steel cords. The tire has a tread reinforcement made of thermoplastic resin between the inner cavity and ground contact surfaces. The thickness center of the tread reinforcement is positioned close to the inner cavity surface, with a radial distance L1 between 50-95% of the total distance L0 between the cavity and ground. This configuration ensures stability of the tire ground contact shape while allowing recycling of the tread reinforcement. The tread reinforcement can be made of thermoplastic resins like polyamide or thermoplastic elastomers.

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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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Sidewall insert rubber composition for run-flat tires that improves durability like fatigue resistance, crack resistance, and heat resistance. The composition contains 10-50 parts per 100 parts of raw rubber of hollow carbon fibers. This provides improved durability without increasing weight compared to traditional fillers.

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