Tire Life Extension Methods

Embedding split ring resonators in vehicle components like tires, bodywork, and landing pads to monitor deformation, wear, and environmental conditions. The resonators, made of 3D carbon growth, can be tuned to resonate at specific frequencies based on material properties. By pinging the resonators with RF signals and analyzing the return signals, changes in frequency indicate deformation, wear, or environmental effects. This allows non-destructive sensing of tire ply degradation, tire wear, and landing pad conditions.

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Rubber composition with improved crack resistance after thermal degradation for applications like tires and seismic isolation. It uses a unique double network structure formed by crosslinking syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadiene (sPB) in the rubber matrix. The sPB crystals and dissolved sPB/rubber segments form a network that provides energy dissipation and flexibility for crack resistance. Crosslinking is done at temperatures above sPB melting point to partially dissolve sPB and fix it in the rubber.

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Determining tire degradation state using color change of an indicator attached to the tire. The method involves extracting color components from an image of the indicator, looking up the color change in a database associated with degradation factors, and using a degradation model to determine tire state based on the color change. This provides an objective and precise measurement of tire degradation that can be used to propose appropriate retreading options.

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A rubber composition for tires that reduces heat generation and prevents tearing when dismounting wheels. The composition contains carbon black with low specific surface area, a low sulfur vulcanization system, and a specific multifunctional crosslinking agent. The low surface area carbon black reduces heat compared to high surface area carbon black. The low sulfur vulcanization prevents aging tears. The multifunctional crosslinking agent provides stable bonds with good heat resistance and aging properties. This allows reducing heat generation by 40% compared to conventional compositions while preventing tire tearing during wheel removal.

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Engineering tire tread rubber composition for improved heat dissipation, durability, and cutting resistance in heavy-duty tires. The composition contains specific additives like low heat generating agents, heat dissipation fillers, and anti-cutting agents, along with conventional rubber components like styrene-butadiene rubber, natural rubber, carbon black, silica, and sulfur. The additives optimize the tread performance in harsh environments where heat buildup is a concern. The low heat generating agents reduce internal heat generation. The heat dissipation fillers improve thermal conductivity. The anti-cutting agents prevent chipping. This composition allows thicker, deeper treads with better heat dissipation and resistance to cutting and chipping without sacrificing tire life.

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Tire tread design with sipes that maintain performance as the tire wears. The tread has sipes with three different depths, forming three levels in the tread blocks. The shallowest sipes are at the top level and the deepest sipes are at the bottom level. This allows the sipes to maintain their biting edges and void volume as the tread wears down, improving wet and snow traction over the life of the tire. The staggered depth levels also prevent damage or tearing when the mold is removed from the tread during manufacturing.

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Pneumatic tire with a steel-reinforced carcass that improves durability and running performance. The tire has a unique carcass design that eliminates the need for additional reinforcement members to maintain the carcass turn-up. The carcass extends from the bead up and around the apex that absorbs impacts. The key is that one end of the carcass is closer to the bead than the other end is to the apex. This maintains the turn-up height without additional components, reducing weight and rolling resistance while still preventing the carcass from loosening.

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Producing a motor vehicle tire with improved bonding between textile cords and surrounding rubber to enhance tire durability. The method involves dipping the cords in a bath containing polyisocyanates to activate the bonding, instead of using resorcinol-formaldehyde dips. The cords are then coated with a rubber compound containing specific rubber types and carbon blacks. This avoids toxic and environmentally harmful resorcinol-formaldehyde dips while still providing adequate bonding.

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A pneumatic tire design with improved flat spot resistance and high-speed durability. The tire has an optimized belt layer construction and bead design. It features a band layer with separate inner radial bands in each tread land. The inner radial bands have edges set back from the nearest groove to reduce strain. This reduces flat spots from band deformation when parked. The tire also has a shorter outer bead apex height to limit sidewall deformation. The optimized belt and bead design balance flat spot resistance with high-speed durability.

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Tire design that maintains performance as it wears by using a tread rubber that does not harden too much during aging and a groove shape that retains water channeling. The tread rubber hardness after heat aging should be only 10-25% harder than the new tread. The groove design should have a groove depth retention ratio of 1.05-1.40 when worn to 50% of new depth, to maintain wet traction. This allows water to be retained in the grooves when worn.

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Tire rubber compositions with improved wear resistance without sacrificing rolling resistance. The compositions use a reinforcing filler predominantly comprising a filler covered at least partially by silica, like silica-coated carbon black. The filler dispersion in the rubber matrix is optimized to be uniform without using a coupling agent. The compositions also minimize plasticizers. Removing coupling agents and plasticizers improves the reinforcing properties of silica-covered fillers for improved tire wear.

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Pneumatic tire with improved wear resistance while maintaining edge effect for traction. The tire has a tread pattern with alternating angled lateral grooves and sipes. The sipes in each block are angled in opposite directions and connected by a shallow recessed portion. This allows the sipes to maintain edge effect during vehicle turns.

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Tire design with zigzag sipes in tread blocks to improve tire life and wet performance. The sipes have specific dimensions and angles to optimize performance. The zigzag sipes have a wavelength and amplitude that oscillate while maintaining the zigzag shape. The sipes also have a slope angle and orientation relative to the tire axial direction. This zigzag pattern allows the sipes to engage and enhance block rigidity during cornering, reducing block deformation and wear. The optimized zigzag sipes balance block stiffness for longer life with wet grip by allowing sipe flexure.

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A heavy duty truck tire that reduces uneven wear without sacrificing rolling resistance or wet performance. The tire has shoulder circumferential grooves with a positioning relative to the tire's equator that allows more even wear across the tread as the tire wears down. This positioning avoids the problem of excessive outer diameter growth causing uneven wear.

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Low heat generation tread rubber composition for tires that reduces rolling resistance without compromising grip. The composition contains natural and synthetic rubbers, carbon blacks, silica, silane coupling agents, and a specific hydrazide compound called 2,5-diethoxy terephthalhydrazide. This compound modifies the rubber chain ends, improves carbon black dispersion, enhances silica-carbon black interaction, and forms new crosslinks to reduce hysteresis loss and heat buildup.

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Tyre design with improved resistance to uneven wear. The tread pattern has a crown groove, shoulder groove, and middle groove with curved sections. The middle groove has shallower bottom regions than the crown and shoulder grooves. This prevents uneven wear caused by alternating contact of grooved and non-grooved tread sections.

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A tire design to improve traction, adaptability, and durability compared to conventional tires. The tire has an adaptive tread with multiple surface sections that can move independently to form a tread pattern that matches the terrain. This provides better traction and wear resistance compared to fixed tread patterns. The tire also uses a super elastic linking layer between the wheel interface and tread layer that allows independent movement while maintaining structural integrity.

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A heavy duty tire with improved durability and wear resistance. The tire has a low aspect ratio and uses at least three circumferential grooves to form multiple land portions in the tread. The tire also has a full band with opposing ends and two edge bands made of spirally wound cord. The sidewall has a recess to fit the rim flange. This design provides a balance between preventing uneven wear with the band and avoiding strain in the sidewalls.

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A tire with improved wear resistance and drainage performance. The tread has inclined grooves that extend from the center to the sides. The grooves have three sections - a wider start section near the center, a narrower middle section, and a wider end section near the sides. The sections are connected in a bent or curved manner. This design improves wear resistance by maintaining tread rigidity around the narrow middle section of the grooves.

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A truck tire with a tread design that reduces or eliminates abnormal tire wear while still providing the benefits of siping. The tire tread has J-shaped sipes that are oriented forward relative to the rolling direction. The trailing end of the J-shaped sipe is curved under itself to prevent wear issues that can occur at that point. The curvature of the trailing portion resists compression and prevents abnormal wear compared to a standard straight sipe.

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