A new type of tire is presented, in which there is no air leakage when nails puncture the tire. The broken part is repaired automatically by a self-repairing mechanism. The self-repairing unit consists of two rubber sheets with internal lattices. Polymer particles, which expand their volume on adding water, are inserted into the lattices. The unit is adhered to the inside wall of the tire. Coolant fluid diluted with water is introduced to the polymers uniformly. In this system, the polymer particles expand with water-diluted coolant fluid, and become gel. Hence, they stop air leakages in the tire. The appropriate proportion of the weight of the adhesive material to that of polymer was about 30 percent, and the appropriate proportion of the polymer to fluid was 80 percent. The sealing effect was large when the thickness of polymer sealant was large. The appropriate thickness was about 4 mm from an economical point of view. There was no air leakage at 0.4 MPa (the truck tire) when the tire was pierced by a nail of 5.25 mm diameter. There was also no air leakage after one hundred days of running (running length = 3 000 km) when the tire was pierced by a nail of 3.4 mm diameter.
Tire with self-repairing mechanism
Reifen mit sich selbst reparierendem Mechanismus
2006
6 Seiten, 15 Bilder, 4 Quellen
Article (Journal)
English