The present invention relates to tires for vehicles comprising textile carcass reinforcements. More particularly, it relates to the carcass reinforcements of these tires.
When a tire rolls on the ground in the usual conditions of use (in terms of speed and load), it may sustain impacts on the tread or the sidewalls the frequency and intensity of which are often considerable. It is one of the main functions of a tire to absorb these impacts and to cushion them without the wheel of the vehicle being substantially affected, either in its movement or in its integrity.
However it happens that this absorption capability reaches its limits when the impact conditions are such that the impacted tire sidewall reaches a stop inside the tire chamber, either directly against the rim to which the tire is fitted, or more usually against another area of the tire sidewall that rests on the wheel rim. This is notably the case when the rim has an external radial protrusion from the proper seat. Such a protrusion, (usually called the “rim flange”) is normally provided to prevent the tire bead from coming off the rim under the effect of stresses of axial direction during maneuvers of the wheel.
The impact may then transmit brief but very intense forces that can, in certain cases, reach several tonnes, to the parts of the tire and rim that are in contact, but also, beyond the rim, to the mechanical suspension attachments of the wheel assembly, and even to the body of the vehicle. They are capable of doing serious damage to the suspension members and of permanently deforming the body of the vehicle. Vehicle designers are therefore led to provide damping systems that are sufficient to prevent this damage and to design the body of the vehicles according to normally predictable extreme cases.
Unfortunately, even when the vehicle itself is properly protected, the tire subjected to this type of incident is likely to suffer consequences of the phenomenon that has just been mentioned. In the section affected by the impact, the inner wall of the tire is suddenly folded and pinched between the obstacle and the rim flange (“pinch shock”). This can cause breakage of the wall and loss of inflation pressure which, most of the time, makes it necessary to stop the vehicle. But even when the tire resists, its components may have been damaged by the incident; the expert can deduce from swellings in the sidewalls or other signs that the tire structure has been weakened and that its wall may sooner or later break under the effect of the repeated flexing of its components.
Several ways have been proposed for reinforcing tires in view of this “pinch shock” phenomenon. In most of these tires, the carcass reinforcement is anchored in the bead by means of a turn-up around an annular reinforcement structure provided in the bead. The carcass reinforcement then comprises an “main portion” which extends from one bead to the other traversing the crown of the tire, and two “wrapped-around portions” which extend from the annular reinforcement structure radially outwards. In order to reinforce a tire against “pinch shock”, it is notably known practise to extend the “wrapped-around portions” of the carcass reinforcement so that their radially outer end is sandwiched between the “main portion” of the carcass reinforcement and the crown reinforcement. This configuration is known as “shoulder lock”.
Although an architecture of the “shoulder lock” type effectively makes the tire less vulnerable to “pinch shock”, it has the drawback that it is costly while not allowing a very fine adjustment of the performance of the tire. In addition, this solution amplifies the problems of non-uniformity associated with the welds of the ply forming the carcass reinforcement because a weld is necessarily situated in the same location for the main portion and the wrapped-around portion.
One of the objectives of the present invention is to respond to these concerns and to define a tire that can withstand the “pinch shock” phenomenon while allowing a fine adjustment of its performance and good uniformity.
This objective is achieved by a tire combining a carcass reinforcement that is “under proportioned”, that is to say proportioned so that it cannot on its own, in all the reasonably predictable conditions of use, fulfil all the functions of a carcass reinforcement (withstanding the inflation pressure, support the load, absorb the impacts), and an appropriate additional reinforcement. The functions of the carcass reinforcement are therefore performed by the combination of the carcass reinforcement itself and the additional reinforcement, which makes it possible to optimize separately each of these reinforcements and to obtain an improved cost-performance ratio.
More precisely, the objective is achieved by a tire having an axis of rotation and comprising:
two beads designed to come into contact with a mounting rim, each bead comprising at least one annular reinforcement structure having a point that is radially innermost,
two sidewalls extending the beads radially outwards, the two sidewalls coming together in a crown comprising a crown reinforcement radially surmounted by a tread;
a radial carcass reinforcement consisting of threadlike reinforcing elements having an elongation at break EBC and a force at break FBC, placed at a pitch PC and coated with a rubber composition, the carcass reinforcement extending from one bead to the other, passing through the crown, the carcass reinforcement being anchored in each bead by a turn-up around the said at least one annular reinforcement structure, so as to form an main portion and a wrapped-around portion, the carcass reinforcement being designed so as to satisfy the inequality:
where FBC is expressed in Newton, RS is the radial distance between the axis of rotation of the tire and the radially outermost point of the carcass reinforcement, RE is the radial distance between the axis of rotation of the tire and the axial position at which the tire reaches its maximum axial width, and RT is the radial distance between the axis of rotation of the tire and the radially innermost point of the said at least one annular reinforcement structure, the pitch PC and the radial distances RS, RE and RT being expressed in metres;
each sidewall of the tire also comprising an additional reinforcement consisting of threadlike reinforcing elements having an elongation at break EBA and a force at break FBA, placed at a pitch PA and coated with a rubber composition, the additional reinforcement extending between a radially inner end that is close to the said at least one annular reinforcement structure of the bead extended by the sidewall, and a radially outer end situated radially between the carcass reinforcement and the crown reinforcement,
wherein EBA, FBA, PA, EBB, FBC and PC are chosen such that
it being understood that the forces at break FBA and FBC, and the elongations at break EBC and EBA correspond to the values the reinforcing elements exhibit before they are incorporated into the tire.
Specifically, the combination of an “under proportioned” carcass reinforcement and an additional reinforcement makes it possible to reduce the cost and the weight of the tire and to increase its strength while giving the designer increased flexibility.
The invention makes it possible to reinforce the carcass reinforcement where it is greatly acted upon (that is to say in the sidewalls) while reducing its strength (and consequently its cost) in the zone where it is only slightly acted upon (that is to say in the crown), contrary to the “shoulder lock” which merely doubles the carcass reinforcement in the sidewall. The invention is therefore all the more advantageous if the sidewall is short and the crown wide, as occurs in certain higher performance, low aspect ratio tires.
According to a first preferred embodiment, the crown reinforcement has, in each radial section, two axial ends and the radially outer end of each of the two additional reinforcements is axially inside the axial end of the closest crown reinforcement, the axial distance between the radially outer end of each additional reinforcement and of the axial end of the closest crown reinforcement being greater than or equal to 10 mm. Thus, the reinforcement is well anchored beneath the crown reinforcement which allows it to properly absorb the tensions and relieve the carcass reinforcement itself.
According to a second preferred embodiment, the radially inner end of each additional reinforcement is radially inside the radially outermost point of the wrapped-around portion of the carcass reinforcement and the radial distance DR between the radially inner end of each additional reinforcement and the radially outermost point of the wrapped-around portion of the carcass reinforcement is greater than or equal to 10 mm. This allows a correct anchoring of the additional reinforcement in the bead and consequently a good absorption of the tensions by the additional reinforcement.
According to a particular embodiment, each additional reinforcement extends, in the bead, along the main portion of the carcass reinforcement. This configuration has the advantage of simplifying the tire manufacturing process.
Conventionally, tires are made by placing plies on a drum, in which case the carcass reinforcement and the additional reinforcement each comprise at least one “weld” where the plies overlap. According to a particular embodiment, the weld of the carcass reinforcement is offset, in the circumferential direction, relative to the weld of the additional reinforcement. This embodiment, which cannot be achieved in an architecture of the “shoulder lock” type, makes it possible to improve the uniformity of the tire.
According to an alternative embodiment, each additional reinforcement extends, in the bead, along the wrapped-around portion of the carcass reinforcement. Thus any contact between the additional reinforcement and the annular reinforcement structure is most certainly avoided, even when the length of the additional reinforcement is too great.
According to a particular embodiment, the reinforcing elements of each additional reinforcement are oriented radially. This design makes it possible to retain the overall compromise of performance associated with the radial structure of the carcass reinforcement (the compromise between comfort, rolling resistance, behaviour etc.) while improving the “pinch shock” performance.
According to another particular embodiment, the reinforcing elements of each additional reinforcement are inclined at an angle of between 40° and 80°, and preferably between 40° and 50°, relative to the radial direction. This design makes it possible to increase the vertical rigidity, which is beneficial for “pinch shock” performance while also orienting the reinforcing elements so as to promote the absorption of longitudinal tensions which improves their resistance to pavement impacts.
Notably, it is possible to make the reinforcing elements of the additional reinforcement of PET, of aramid, of aramid-nylon hybrid cords or else of aramid-PET hybrid cords. Reinforcing elements made of aramid or of hybrid cords are rarely used in the carcass reinforcement because they do, not withstand compression very well. The carcass reinforcement is often subjected to compression, above all in tires that have short sidewalls. On the other hand, the additional reinforcement is less subjected to compression, which makes it possible to use these reinforcing elements that are distinguished by their tenacity. The particular advantage of aramid-nylon hybrid cords lies in their high resistance to breakage, that of aramid-PET hybrid cords is that they have the qualities of aramid while having the rigidity of reinforcing elements made of PET.
Naturally, it is possible (and may even be advantageous) to link together several of these embodiments to obtain a particularly high-performance tire.
The invention as described above relates to tires having a turn-up of the carcass reinforcement around an annular reinforcement structure. Naturally, it would be possible to provide an additional reinforcement as described in a tire in which the reinforcement is anchored between a plurality of annular reinforcement structures, such as for example the architectures obtained in the “C3M” method of Michelin, well known to those skilled in the art.
In the use of the term “radial”, several different uses of the word by those skilled in the art need to be distinguished. First, the expression refers to a radius of the tire. It is in this meaning that it is said that a point P1 is “radially inside” a point P2 (or “radially on the inside” of point P2) if it is closer to the axis of rotation of the tire than point P2. Conversely, a point P3 is said to be “radially outside” a point P4 (or “radially on the outside” of point P4) if it is further from the axis of rotation of the tire than point P4. It will be said that a movement is “radially towards the inside (or the outside)” when the movement is in the direction of the shortest (or longest) radii. When radial distances are referred to this meaning of the term also applies.
On the other hand, a thread or a reinforcement is called “radial” when the thread or the reinforcing elements of the reinforcement make with the circumferential direction an angle greater than or equal to 80° and less than or equal to 90°. In the present document, the term “thread” should be understood to have the wholly general meaning and includes the threads that take the form of monofilaments, multifilaments, a cord, a folded yarn or an equivalent assembly, irrespective of the material forming the thread or the surface treatment to promote its connection with the rubber. In the present document, the term “threadlike” should be understood to mean a thread as indicated above, or a cord, or other structure having a length much larger than its thickness, and suitable for performing the reinforcement functions described herein.
Finally “radial section” in this instance means a section on a plane that contains the axis of rotation of the tire.
An “axial” direction is a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the tire. A point P5 is said to be “axially inside” a point P6 (or “axially on the inside” of point P6) if it is closer to the mid-plane of the tire than point P6. Conversely, a point P7 is said to be “axially outside” a point P8 (or “axially on the outside” of point P8) if it is further from the mid-plane of the tire than point P8. The “mid-plane” of the tire is the plane that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the tire and that is situated equidistant from the annular reinforcement structures of each bead.
A “circumferential” direction is a direction that is perpendicular both to a radius of the tire and to the axial direction.
In the context of this document, the expression “rubber composition” is a rubber composition comprising at least one elastomer and one filler.
The tire comprises two sidewalls 30 extending the beads radially towards the outside, the two sidewalls 30 joining in a crown 25 comprising a crown reinforcement formed by the plies 80 and 90. The crown reinforcement is surmounted by a tread 40. In principle, it would be possible also to provide a hooping reinforcement like the hooping reinforcement 100 of the tire shown in
The tire comprises only one radial carcass reinforcement 60 extending from the beads 20 across the side walls 30 to the crown, the carcass reinforcement 60 comprising a plurality of carcass reinforcing elements. It is anchored in the two beads 20 by a turn-up around the bead wire 70 so as to form an main portion 62 and a wrapped-around portion 63. The filling 110 formed of a rubber composition fills the volume between the main portion 62 and the wrapped-around portion 63.
The mid-plane of the tire is indicated using reference 140.
The drawback of this architecture is that it is costly—because it requires using the same reinforcement in the sidewalls and in the crown, although it would be possible to lighten the carcass reinforcement in the crown—while not allowing a very fine adjustment of the performance of the tire. The tire according to the invention of which two embodiments are shown in
The tire according to an embodiment of the invention of
PC is the pitch of the reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement (that is to say 1 divided by the number of reinforcing elements per metre and therefore expressed in metres) in the vicinity of the bead wire 70; the force at break FBC is expressed in Newton.
The meaning of the parameters RS, RE and RT is illustrated in
As suggested in
This difference in the break forces can be obtained by various means known per se to those skilled in the art. It is possible notably to vary the size, the torsion, the material or else the heat treatment undergone by the reinforcing elements in order to obtain the required difference.
The elongation at break EBC of the reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement is greater than or equal to an elongation at break EBA of the reinforcing elements of each of the additional reinforcements (EBC≧EBA).
The forces at break FBA and FBC, and the elongations at break EBC and EBA correspond to the values the reinforcing elements exhibit before they are incorporated into the tire.
Before the measurement is carried out, the reinforcing elements have to undergo a preconditioning treatment; “preconditioning treatment” refers to the reinforcing elements being stored (after drying) for at least 24 hours in a standard atmosphere according to European standard DIN EN 20139 (temperature of 20±2° C., relative humidity of 65±2%) before the measurements are carried out.
Then the force at break and the elongation at break are measured; this is done in a manner well known to those skilled in the art with the aid of an “INSTRON” tensioning machine (see also the ASTM D 885-06 standard). The tested samples undergo tensioning over an initial length L0 (in mm) at a nominal speed of L0 mm/min, under a standard pre-tension of 1 cN/tex (the average for at least 10 measurements). The force at break that is retained is the maximum measured force.
The crown reinforcement has, in each radial section, two axial ends 180 (of which only one is shown). The radially outer end 122 of each of the two additional reinforcements 120 is axially on the inside of the axial end of the closest crown reinforcement, the axial distance DA between the radially outer end 122 of each additional reinforcement and the axial end 180 of the closest crown reinforcement being in this instance equal to 10 mm.
The radially inner end 121 of the additional reinforcement 120 is radially inside the point 64 that is radially outermost of the wrapped-around portion 63 of the carcass reinforcement 60 and the radial distance DR between the radially inner end 121 of the additional reinforcement 120 and the radially outermost point 71 of the wrapped-around portion 63 of the carcass reinforcement 60 is in this instance equal to 16 mm.
In the tire according to an embodiment of the invention shown in
In the tires shown in
The reinforcing elements of the additional reinforcement 120 of the tires shown in
These calculation results have subsequently been confirmed by tire tests.
The scope of protection of the invention is not limited to the examples given hereinabove. The invention is embodied in each novel characteristic and each combination of characteristics, which includes every combination of any features which are stated in the claims, even if this feature or combination of features is not explicitly stated in the examples.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1258513 | Sep 2012 | FR | national |
This application is a U.S. National Phase Application under 35 USC §371 of International Application PCT/EP2013/068690 filed Sep. 10, 2013. This application claims the priority of French application no. 1258513 filed Sep. 11, 2012 and U.S. provisional application 61/740,019 filed Dec. 20, 2012, the content of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2013/068690 | 9/10/2013 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61740019 | Dec 2012 | US |