Method of laser cleaning a tire inner surface, and a tire

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10099440-B2
Application number	US-201514955294-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2015
Priority date	Dec 1, 2015
Publication date	Oct 16, 2018
Grant date	Oct 16, 2018

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method of cleaning an innermost surface of a pneumatic tire, the surface having a residue deposited thereon, comprising the steps of: activating a laser to generate laser radiation; directing a pulse of laser radiation to impinge on an area of the innermost surface, the pulse of radiation having a pulse width and a fluence sufficient to remove at least part of the residue in the area to form a cleaned area; repeating the step of directing the pulse of radiation sequentially over the innermost surface to form a sequence of cleaned areas, the sequence of cleaned areas defining a stripe, the stripe following a continuous nonlinear path extending at least one circumference about the inner surface, the stripe having a stripe width W 2 . The invention is further directed to a tire made by the method.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of cleaning an innermost surface of a pneumatic tire, the surface having a residue deposited thereon, comprising the steps of:
activating a laser to generate laser radiation;
directing a pulse of laser radiation to impinge on an area of the innermost surface, the pulse of radiation having a pulse width and a fluence sufficient to remove at least part of the residue in the area to form a cleaned area;
repeating the step of directing the pulse of radiation sequentially over the innermost surface to form a sequence of cleaned areas, the sequence of cleaned areas defining a stripe, the stripe following a continuous nonlinear path extending at least one circumference about the inner surface, the stripe having a stripe width W 2 .

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the residual matter comprises at least one of a tire release agent, dirt, and a rubber compound additive.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the continuous nonlinear path comprises a sinusoidal path having a period and an amplitude.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the ratio of period distance to amplitude distance ranges from 1.5 to 2.5, and the ratio of the amplitude to the stripe width ranges from 2.5 to 3.5.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the stripe width ranges from 5 mm to 15 mm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stripe follows a continuous nonlinear path extending for a plurality of circumferential windings about the inner surface, the plurality of circumferential windings extending axially for a predetermined axial width W 1 .

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein each circumferential winding of the stripe is offset in the circumferential direction from its axially adjacent winding of the stripe by one half period distance.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the minimum axial separation between axial adjacent windings of the stripe is 0.5 times the stripe width.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse has a cross sectional shape selected from circle and square.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse has a pulse width ranging from 0.25 to 0.75 mm.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each cleaned area is adjacent to at least one other cleaned area.

12. The method of claim 1 , where each cleaned area overlaps with at least one other cleaned area.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the axial width W 1 corresponds to one of a tread width distance, a shoulder-to-shoulder width distance, and a bead-to-bead distance.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluence ranges from 1 to 3 J/cm 2 .

Assignees

• Goodyear Tire & Rubber

Inventors

• Helfen Thomas Benedikt
• Griffoin Jean-Claude Patrice Philippe

Classifications

• B23K2103/30

  Organic materials · CPC title

• B29D2030/0077

  Directly attaching monitoring devices to tyres before or after vulcanization, e.g. microchips · CPC title

• B29D30/0005 Primary

  Pretreatment of tyres or parts thereof, e.g. preheating, irradiation, precuring · CPC title

• B23K26/402

  involving non-metallic material, e.g. isolators · CPC title

• B29D30/0685 Primary

  Incorporating auto-repairing or self-sealing arrangements or agents on or into tyres (auto-repairing or self-sealing arrangements or agents B29C73/16; puncture preventing arrangements B60C19/12) · CPC title