Innovations to Reduce the Weight of Tires

Reducing the weight of tires without sacrificing high-speed stability and durability. The tire design has properties that allow for lighter weight while still maintaining performance. Key features are having a belt layer, tread rubber, and tire dimensions that satisfy specific relationships. The tire needs to have a belt layer, tread rubber, and dimensions that permit lighter weight without sacrificing high-speed stability and durability.

Tire design for reducing tire weight and improving ride comfort without sacrificing durability. The tire has a tread with rubber layers that contain a rubber component, reinforcing fillers like carbon black and silica, along with compounding agents. The rubber composition has specific properties of a tan delta value of 0.15 or less and a complex elastic modulus of 8.0 MPa or less at 30°C. This composition reduces heat generation and energy loss for better ride comfort. The tire also has a low weight to maximum load capacity ratio of 0.0150 or less, which can be achieved by various methods like reducing rubber thickness.

A pneumatic tire design that reduces weight while ensuring proper fitment on a rim. The tire achieves this by omitting the bead filler while maintaining rim fitment through a specific bead wire arrangement. The bead wires have a unique cross-sectional shape that prevents the tire from slipping off the rim.

A spoke wheel with reduced weight while maintaining stiffness compared to conventional spoke wheels. The rim has raised portions that extend outward from the spoke connection points. This provides additional material and stiffness at the critical spoke-to-rim junctions while allowing the center of the rim to be thinner and lighter.

A sensor mounting system for straddle-type vehicles like motorcycles that allows wired sensors to be attached to detect tire state without increasing wheel weight or air resistance. The sensors are mounted to the fender, which extends over the tire. This reduces weight versus attaching to the wheel, allows wired connection, and minimizes wind hitting the sensors to avoid increasing aerodynamic drag.

High-performance hybrid tire cord, made of PET and aramid, to improve tire performance, including stability during high-speed and long-distance travel. The hybrid cord has an aramid yarn length of 1-1.1 times the PET length after untwisting, and the PET and aramid yarns have the same twist number. This provides fatigue resistance to prevent cord failure during repeated tension/compression. An adhesive coats the yarns. The hybrid cord has excellent durability, strength of 8-15 g/d, and elongation of 5-15%. It is used as a lightweight, high-strength reinforcement in tire carcasses.

A tire with improved performance, durability, and traction on rough terrain, while keeping the weight low and fuel efficiency high. The tire has a series of annular projections that surround the sidewall and a series of side blocks that protrude radially outward. The annular projections protect against damage to the sidewall when driving over rocks or other obstacles. The side blocks provide traction in snow, mud, or sand by shearing into the ground.

Pneumatic tire design that has reduced weight and rolling resistance while ensuring desired stiffness. The design includes a carcass ply with a main body portion that extends between the tire's cores and turned-up portions that wrap around the cores. The length from the core/apex boundary to the outer apex end is 10-15 mm. This specific shape of the main body portion allows for reducing weight and rolling resistance while still providing the desired stiffness.

Pneumatic tire with partial tie rubber layer between carcass and inner liner to reduce weight and rolling resistance. The tire has reduced vulcanization defects by optimizing the partial tie layer geometry and position. The tie layer has inclined ends to prevent air pockets during curing. The tie layer is also segmented and positioned radially outward from other components to maintain steering stability. This allows reducing the tie layer thickness and amount without sacrificing performance.

Twisted yarn cord for tire reinforcement that provides a uniform twist structure for reduced tire weight while maintaining strength. The cord is made from organic fibers with a total fineness of 5000-15000 dtex. The key is controlling yarn tension during twisting to minimize fiber damage. A feed tension of 0.01-0.3 cN/dtex is used. This prevents over-stressing or wearing the fibers, thus allowing higher twisting tension for better alignment. Adjusting the feed tension during twisting maintains uniformity and prevents damage.

A non-toxic, biodegradable, and effective tire ballast composition for adding weight to vehicle tires to improve traction. The composition comprises a solvent, lignin, and hemicellulose from non-wood sources, and a sugar compound derived from hemicellulose. The composition is free of corrosive chlorides and has a low freezing point. It provides weight similar to other ballasts like calcium chloride but without environmental harm.

A spoke for non-pneumatic tires with apertures through the elastomeric joint bodies of the spoke to reduce mass and improve energy efficiency. The spoke has an outer support element and an outer elastomeric joint body connecting the support element to the tire. The joint body has a thickness and contains one or more apertures positioned near one surface.

Vehicle wheels with reduced weight compared to conventional wheels by optimizing the loading arrangement. The wheel has an annular main section, a mounting section, and a tapered connecting section between them. The main section has a thinner wall thickness than conventional wheels due to the tapered connection that reduces bending moments. The optimized loading arrangement allows for reducing the disc thickness without compromising performance. The main section with bead seats connects to the mounting section offset from the flange.

A pneumatic tire with reduced weight and improved durability by optimizing the bead area construction. The tire has bead cores, a carcass layer, and a rim cushion rubber. The bead cores are wound bead wires surrounded by the carcass layer turned back over them, and the rim cushion rubber covers the turned-back carcass layer. The turned-back carcass layer forms a closed region around the bead cores. The tire reduces weight and material use by minimizing rubber occupancy in the closed region while maintaining durability with a specific wire arrangement and contact height ratio.

A heavy-duty truck tire designed for improved retreadability and durability. The tire has a lighter-weight crown reinforcement combined with a specific tread pattern and material to reduce road hazard damage and increase retreading potential. The tread has two circumferential cutouts that create a central tread region comprising 35-70% of the total width. This concentrates wear in the center and reduces damage risk from road debris. The tread material layers are optimized with an inner layer having higher elongation than the outer layer to further absorb impacts. The crown reinforcement can also have an additional triangulation layer using ultra-high tensile strength (UHT) cords angled above 60 degrees for puncture resistance.