Airless tire

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9248697-B2
Application number	US-201414247775-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2014
Priority date	May 7, 2013
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

An airless tire has a tread ring having a footprint, a hub positioned on a radially inner side of the tread ring and formed to be fixed to an axle, and a spoke connecting the tread ring and the hub and having a tread connection portion connected to an inner-circumferential surface of the ring and a hub connection portion connected to an outer-circumferential surface of the hub. The ring and the tread connection portion of the spoke satisfy 0≦E1≦0.5, 0<E2≦1.0 and 0≦E3<0.3, where E1, E2 and E3 represent ratios of first, second and third regions on the inner-circumferential surface of the ring and the first, second and third regions are divided based on a tire axial component length of the tread connection portion measured at a point in a circumferential direction of the ring.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An airless tire, comprising:
a tread ring having a footprint;
a hub positioned on a radially inner side of the tread ring and configured to be fixed to an axle; and
a spoke connecting the tread ring and the hub and having a tread connection portion connected to an inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring and a hub connection portion connected to an outer-circumferential surface of the hub,
wherein the tread ring and the tread connection portion of the spoke satisfy 0≦E1≦0.5, 0<E2≦1.0 and 0≦E3<0.3, where E1 represents a ratio of a first region on the inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring, E2 represents a ratio of a second region on the inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring, E3 represents a ratio of a third region on the inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring, the first region is a circumferential region occupying around an entire circumference of the airless tire and having a component length being zero times a tire axial-direction width on the inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring, the second region is a circumferential region occupying around the entire circumference of the airless tire and having the component length in a range of greater than zero times and smaller than 0.6 times the tire axial-direction width, the third region is a circumferential region occupying around the entire circumference of the airless tire and having the component length in a range of 0.6 times or greater and 1.0 times or less the tire axial-direction width, and the component length is a tire axial component length of the tread connection portion measured at a point in a circumferential direction of the tread ring.

2. The airless tire according to claim 1 , wherein the tread ring is set to have a longitudinal spring constant in a range of 0.01˜100.00 kN/mm.

3. The airless tire according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio of an entire volume, Vs, of the spoke to a volume, Va, of a space between the inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring and the outer-circumferential surface of the hub is set at Vs/Va=0.001˜0.4.

4. The airless tire according to claim 2 , wherein the ratio of an entire volume, Vs, of the spoke to a volume, Va, of a space between the inner-circumferential surface of the tread ring and the outer-circumferential surface of the hub is set at Vs/Va=0.001˜0.4.

5. The airless tire according to claim 1 , wherein the spoke comprises at least one row of spoke blades extending in the circumferential direction, and the spoke blades are inclined with respect to a tire axial direction and aligned in the circumferential direction.

6. The airless tire according to claim 2 , wherein the spoke comprises at least one row of spoke blades extending in the circumferential direction, and the spoke blades are inclined with respect to a tire axial direction and aligned in the circumferential direction.

7. The airless tire according to claim 3 , wherein the spoke comprises at least one row of spoke blades extending in the circumferential direction, and the spoke blades are inclined with respect to a tire axial direction and aligned in the circumferential direction.

8. The airless tire according to claim 5 , wherein the spoke blades are inclined at the same inclination angle with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other.

9. The airless tire according to claim 6 , wherein the spoke blades are inclined at the same inclination angle with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other.

10. The airless tire according to claim 7 , wherein the spoke blades are inclined at the same inclination angle with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other.

11. The airless tire according to claim 5 , wherein the row of spoke blades includes a plurality of first inclination spoke blades inclined to a first side with respect to the tire axial direction and a plurality of second inclination spoke blades inclined to a second side with respect to the tire axial direction, and the first inclination spoke blades and the second inclination spoke blades are positioned alternately in the circumferential direction.

12. The airless tire according to claim 6 , wherein the row of spoke blades includes a plurality of first inclination spoke blades inclined to a first side with respect to the tire axial direction and a plurality of second inclination spoke blades inclined to a second side with respect to the tire axial direction, and the first inclination spoke blades and the second inclination spoke blades are positioned alternately in the circumferential direction.

13. The airless tire according to claim 7 , wherein the row of spoke blades includes a plurality of first inclination spoke blades inclined to a first side with respect to the tire axial direction and a plurality of second inclination spoke blades inclined to a second side with respect to the tire axial direction, and the first inclination spoke blades and the second inclination spoke blades are positioned alternately in the circumferential direction.

14. The airless tire according to claim 5 , wherein the spoke comprises first and second rows of spoke blades, the first row of spoke blades comprises a plurality of first inclination spoke blades inclined to a first side with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other, and the second row of spoke blades comprises a plurality of second inclination spoke blades inclined to a second side with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other.

15. The airless tire according to claim 6 , wherein the spoke comprises first and second rows of spoke blades, the first row of spoke blades comprises a plurality of first inclination spoke blades inclined to a first side with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other, and the second row of spoke blades comprises a plurality of second inclination spoke blades inclined to a second side with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other.

16. The airless tire according to claim 7 , wherein the spoke comprises first and second rows of spoke blades, the first row of spoke blades comprises a plurality of first inclination spoke blades inclined to a first side with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other, and the second row of spoke blades comprises a plurality of second inclination spoke blades inclined to a second side with respect to the tire axial direction and positioned parallel to each other.

17. The airless tire according to claim 1 , wherein the spoke comprises at least one circumferential-direction spoke blade extending continuously in the circumferential direction.

18. The airless tire according to claim 17 , wherein the circumferential-direction spoke blade is formed such that the circumferential-direction spoke blade is extending in a zigzag line in the circumferential direction.

19. The airless tire according to claim 17 , wherein the circumferential-direction spoke blade is formed such that the circumferential-direction spoke blade is extending in a straight line in the circumferential direction.

Assignees

• Sumitomo Rubber Ind

Inventors

• Iwamura Wako

Classifications

• B60B2900/1216

  due to air-drag · CPC title

• B60C2007/146

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60B2900/131

  Vibrations · CPC title

• B60C7/18

  disposed radially relative to wheel axis · CPC title

• B60B19/10

  with cooling fins · CPC title