Lightweight Materials for Advanced Tire Manufacturing

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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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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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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Tire with improved impact resistance and reduced air leakage around the reinforcing cords. The tire has a thermoplastic rubber-based tire carcass and an outer layer of reinforcing cords wound around it. The thermoplastic rubber contains a polyamide-based thermoplastic elastomer mixed with rubber. This composition allows the tire carcass to have good stiffness and resistance to deformation while still being formed using injection molding techniques. The reinforcing cords provide puncture resistance and circumferential rigidity. The uneven outer surface of the carcass after cord winding helps seal against air leakage.

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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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Pneumatic bias tire with improved steering effectiveness and rear stability, especially for racing karts. It has a single plain weave fiber layer made of high-flexibility organic fibers extending from near the bead core into the sidewall. This layer increases flexural rigidity without adding weight compared to conventional blind weave reinforcement. Placing the lower end near the bead core provides additional rigidity. The plain weave configuration allows the layer to extend into the sidewall.

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High performance tire with reinforced bead area to improve durability and handling without negatively impacting ride comfort. The bead structure has a reinforcing layer with cords having composite cores wrapped in metal wire. The composite cores contain composite fibers embedded in a polymer. The metal wrapped composite cores provide strength while the composite reduces weight compared to all metal cords. Placing the reinforcing layer between the carcass and bead filler provides bead anchoring benefits. This improves tire life and handling without compromising ride comfort.

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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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