Air maintenance pump

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10144255-B2
Application number	US-201615332227-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2016
Priority date	Aug 13, 2015
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

An air maintenance tire assembly includes a tire having a tire cavity bounded by first and second sidewalls extending to a tire tread region and air pumping means for generating pressurized air for maintaining air pressure within the tire cavity at a preset pressure level. The air pumping means includes an upper mounting plate fixed to a vehicle rim, a lower mounting plate fixed to the rim and diametrically opposed to the upper mounting plate, a dynamic mass pivotally attached to the upper mounting plate at a first end of the dynamic mass, and a pump fixed to the lower mounting plate and pivotally attached to a second end of the dynamic mass.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for pressurizing a tire cavity of a pneumatic tire, the method comprising the steps of:
fixing an upper mounting plate to a first location on a vehicle rim;
fixing a lower mounting plate to a second location on the vehicle rim, the second location being diametrically opposed to the first location;
closing the tire cavity with the vehicle rim and first and second sidewalls extending from a bead region to a tire tread region of the pneumatic tire;
pivoting a dynamic mass relative to the vehicle rim thereby generating pressurized air;
forming the dynamic mass into a 180° arcuate pivot arm; and
pumping the pressurized air to the tire cavity for maintaining pressure in the tire cavity at a preset pressure level.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the step of attaching the first end of the dynamic mass to the upper mounting plate by a first hinge.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 further comprising the step of attaching the second end of the dynamic mass to the lower mounting plate by a second hinge.

4. The method as set forth in claim 3 further comprising the step of linearly moving a piston relative to a cylinder by the dynamic mass thereby generating pressurized air.

5. The method as set forth in claim 4 further comprising the step of causing the dynamic mass to rotate relative to the vehicle rim.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5 further comprising the step of constraining the pivotal motion of the dynamic mass relative to the vehicle rim.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 further comprising the step of constraining the dynamic mass at a 90° location.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7 further comprising the step of creating the pressurized air by rotation of the vehicle rim and the pneumatic tire.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the step of limiting pivoting motion between the dynamic mass and the upper mounting plate.

Assignees

• Goodyear Tire & Rubber

Inventors

• Gau Jin-Shy Steve
• Lin Cheng-Hsiung

Classifications

• B60C23/12 Primary

  operated by a running wheel · CPC title

• B60C23/004

  the control being done on the wheel, e.g. using a wheel-mounted reservoir · CPC title

• B60C23/131 Primary

  activated by force of gravity · CPC title

• B60C23/126

  the pumps being mounted on the wheel rims · CPC title

• B60C2200/04

  for road vehicles, e.g. passenger cars · CPC title