Reduce Tire Manufacturing Cost

Motorcycle tire with tread design to reduce wear step formation. The tire has a curved tread profile. The land ratio, or width-to-height ratio, of each zone between the tread edges and ground contacting surface is specified. This prevents excessive wear step formation at the edges of the tread by optimizing the wear distribution. The curved tread shape and controlled land ratios suppress the step wear that can occur in the center of the tread due to its shape.

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Tyres for vehicles with improved grip, wear resistance, and low weight. The tyres contain a rubber matrix with functionalized carbon nanoparticles like graphene and carbon nanotubes. The functionalization improves dispersion of the carbon nanoparticles in the rubber. This provides better grip, structural and chemical properties, and abrasion resistance compared to unfunctionalized carbon nanoparticles. The functionalization involves treating the carbon nanoparticles with chemicals like nitric acid to modify their surface.

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A non-pneumatic wheel design for use on rough terrain like the Moon or Mars. The wheel has an annular tread layer that can deform to match the ground surface. Stop discs project radially outward from the hub. The tread layer has an inner surface that contacts the stop discs to limit radial deformation. This prevents excessive tread layer sliding and damage. The stop discs can rotate against the tread inner surface to accommodate large deformations. The wheel structure includes radial reinforcements connecting the tread to the hub. The stop discs rotating feature allows the wheel to deform significantly on rough terrain without damaging the stops.

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Tire tread for heavy construction vehicles that improves grip, especially on muddy terrain, while also increasing wear resistance. The tread has blocks with concave contact faces and a distribution of radial heights between the inner and outer portions that allows better penetration and anchoring. The concave contact faces have at least three pairs of sides forming angles greater than 180 degrees. This shape provides better grip and traction compared to convex contact faces. The radial height of the outer penetration portion is 0.1-0.6 of the total block height.

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Pneumatic tire with improved grip and durability at high speeds. The tire has a tread with at least two rubber compounds with different thermal conductivities in the ground contacting surface. This allows efficient heat dissipation during high-speed running to prevent excessive heat buildup. The tire also has specific dimensions and groove geometry to further enhance grip and durability.

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Polydiene rubbers with improved properties for tire applications, made by polymerizing diene monomers with functionalized comonomers containing alkoxy silyl groups. The functionalized comonomers have repeating units derived from the functionalizing comonomer. The functionalized rubber polymers have better interactions with fillers and improved tire properties compared to non-functionalized diene polymers.

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Rubber composition for pneumatic tires with improved durability without sacrificing elongation. The composition contains a diene-based rubber, carbon black, and phosphoric acid-modified cellulose nanofiber. Adding the modified cellulose nanofiber to the rubber composition enhances rubber strength without reducing elongation compared to using just carbon black. This provides better tire durability without compromising tire flexibility.

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Rubber composition for pneumatic tires that improves durability without sacrificing elongation. The composition contains a diene-based rubber, modified diene-based rubber, carbon black, and phosphoric acid-modified cellulose nanofiber. The modified diene-based rubber improves rubber strength, while the nanofiber further enhances strength. The composition allows reducing filler like silica to improve elongation. The composition can be used in vulcanized rubber parts of tires.

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Pelletizable fiber blends containing short fibers and a binder that can be directly added to polymers or rubbers without melting the pellets to disperse the fibers. The pelletized fiber blends improve fiber dispersion during polymer processing, reduce fiber clumping, and provide better interfacial bonding between fibers and the matrix. The blends have less than 1% wax to prevent sticking during pelletization. The pellets can be used to prepare composites with improved physical properties like tensile modulus, elongation, tear strength, and abrasion resistance compared to unpelletized fiber blends.

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Modified conjugated diene-based polymer for rubber compositions with optimized properties like modulus and tensile strength. The polymer has specific viscosity, molecular weight, and molecular weight distribution ranges. It is prepared by controlled polymerization conditions. The polymerization step involves using an organometallic compound and stopping at low conversion. The modified polymer is then reacted with a modifier. This provides a rubber composition with improved properties like modulus and tensile strength compared to unmodified diene polymers.

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Upgrading micronized rubber powder (MRP) for large-scale reuse in tires by chemically activating the powder to improve performance. The activation involves treating the powder with silane during grinding to prevent sticking and using silica as a dusting agent. This functionalizes the powder surface to enhance vulcanization and dispersion in rubber compounds. The activation step involves contacting the powder with silane, silica, peroxides, or other activators. This allows using lower amounts of MRP in tire formulations compared to unactivated powder, which improves properties like tear strength, abrasion resistance, and dynamic performance.

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Improved compositions and methods for cross-linking recombinant resilin proteins to make biodegradable elastomers with tunable properties for applications like automotive parts, shoes, and gaskets. The compositions are made by exposing recombinant resilin to ammonium persulfate and heat to cross-link without enzymes or photoinitiators. The cross-linked resilin can be further processed by solvent exchange to replace the aqueous cross-linking medium with nonaqueous solvents like glycerol, propylene glycol, or DMSO to tune properties like elastic modulus, hardness, and fatigue resistance. This allows tuning cross-linked resilin compositions for specific applications without degradation from impurities.

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Tow dolly cross rail assembly with positive camber that reduces tire wear and improves stability when towing vehicles. The cross rail has an arched configuration with an upward-sloping center bar. This creates positive camber on the dolly tires at the outer ends of the bars. It prevents the tires from leaning inward when loaded, keeping them vertical. The arched shape helps prevent sagging and dynamic loading issues compared to flat cross rails. The center bar slides and telescopes to adjust rail length for different vehicle sizes.

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Fully bio-based, highly filled lignin-rubber masterbatch for replacing carbon black in rubber. The masterbatch is prepared by mixing modified lignin with rubber. The lignin is modified by esterification with acetic acid and oleic acid to improve compatibility with non-polar rubbers. The modified lignin has reduced hydroxyl group content compared to unmodified lignin. The esterification reaction provides hydrophobic groups to decrease lignin polarity. This improves lignin dispersibility in the rubber matrix.

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Rubber composition for tire treads that provides improved wet performance while maintaining snow and wear characteristics. The composition contains specific amounts of polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene rubber, silica, organosilane coupling agent, processing oil, resins, and curing agents. The rubber formulation balances wet traction, snow traction, and wear resistance through the selected rubber components and curing package.

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Aircraft system that reduces tire wear during ground maneuvers by preventing excessive steering angles. The system compares the aircraft's steering angle to a threshold where tire wear starts. If the angle exceeds the threshold, it takes action to prevent further excessive turning. This can be done autonomously using onboard systems or remotely from a ground station. The threshold is dynamically calculated based on factors like speed and weight. By avoiding extreme steering angles, tire wear can be reduced during ground operations.

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Additive composition for improving properties of silica-filled rubber compounds in tires, such as fuel economy, traction, and wear resistance. The composition comprises a reaction product of fatty acid and polyamine. It is added to silica-filled rubber compounds, like tire treads, at low parts per hundred (phr) levels. The additive enhances silica dispersion and reduces payne effect, without affecting key rubber properties like viscosity, scorch, hardness, tensile strength, elongation, abrasion, and modulus. This enables improved tire performance, including lower rolling resistance, enhanced winter/dry traction, and better dry handling, without compromising other properties.

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Silica-filled natural rubber compositions for tire treads that provide improved properties like tensile strength, tear resistance, wear resistance, and impact resistance compared to traditional natural rubber treads. The compositions contain natural rubber, functionalized synthetic polyisoprene, and a silica filler. The functionalized synthetic polyisoprene has silica-interactive functional groups that impart polymer-filler interaction to the natural rubber domains in the composition, resulting in enhanced properties from both the natural rubber and the functionalized synthetic polyisoprene.

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Polysaccharide-elastomer masterbatch for making reinforced rubber compositions with reduced water content. The masterbatch is made by mixing a polysaccharide dispersion with an elastomer latex and then coagulating and drying the mixture. This avoids adding water during masterbatch production, allowing lower water content in the final rubber compound. The polysaccharide provides reinforcement and reduces rolling resistance compared to carbon black. The masterbatch can be used in applications like tires, belts, footwear, coatings, etc.

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Rubber composition for high mileage truck tires with improved wear resistance and aging properties. The composition contains a specific combination of curing accelerators - sulfenamide, dithiocarbamate, and thiazole/thiuram polysulfide accelerators - along with natural rubber, polydiene rubber, carbon black, and a curative system. This accelerator blend provides optimal tire wear and aging without significant loss in other properties like processing.

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