A tire having reduced mass and low rolling resistance and a method of manufacture thereof achieves reduced weight by using thin layers of thermoplastic polyurethanes (“TPU's”) to heat seal the carcass, breaker, and tread layers of the tire to each other, rather than embedding the layers in conventional, relatively thicker and heavier layers of sulfur cured vulcanized carbon filled elastomers. Creep and “spring-back” of the thermoplastic polyurethanes during cure is avoided by maintaining the adhered layers under pressure until the assembly cools below its glass transition temperature. In embodiments, the heat sealing can be performed on the forming drum, and in some embodiments cool rollers are applied to the heat-sealed carcass so as to accelerate the cooling to below the glass transition temperature.
Light weight heat-sealed tire
2021-03-02
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B60C VEHICLE TYRES , Fahrzeugreifen |
Online Contents | 1996
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