Lightweight Tyre with Internal Crown Layer for Drift Rigidity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current tire manufacturing processes for motorcycles often result in heavy tires that compromise endurance and high-speed performance, as they require extensive materials and complex architectures to achieve satisfactory drift rigidity and traction.
Innovation Solution
A lightweight tire design featuring radially positioned carcass reinforcement layers with reinforcing elements forming angles greater than 40°, allowing for reduced material usage and simplified production, while maintaining or improving drift rigidity and supporting high speeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If extensive materials and complex architectures are used to achieve satisfactory drift rigidity and traction, then the tire structure becomes stronger and more stable, but the tire weight increases and endurance performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The tire structure is divided into functionally distinct layers: a carcass layer providing structural support and a crown layer providing surface performance. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized independently, reducing the need for excessive material in any single layer while maintaining overall drift rigidity.
Solution Approach 2:
The crown layer is positioned radially inside the carcass structure, creating a nested configuration where the crown layer is embedded within the carcass layer arrangement. This nesting reduces the overall material volume required while maintaining structural integrity through the hierarchical organization of reinforcing elements.
2Reliability
If more materials are used to improve traction and drift rigidity, then the tire performance improves, but the manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The crown layer is specifically positioned at the tread region where traction is most critical, concentrating reinforcing elements in the area that requires them most. This local quality approach ensures adequate traction performance while avoiding unnecessary material usage in regions where it is not needed.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of uniformly distributing reinforcing elements throughout the entire tire structure, the invention applies reinforcement selectively in the crown layer where it provides maximum benefit for traction. This partial action approach achieves satisfactory traction with reduced overall material consumption.
3Speed
If a complex carcass architecture is used to achieve high-speed performance, then the tire can support higher speeds, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The crown layer is installed on the tire blank before the final shaping and vulcanization processes. This preliminary action allows the crown layer to be positioned and secured in its optimal radial position early in manufacturing, simplifying subsequent processing steps and reducing overall manufacturing complexity while enabling high-speed performance.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a tyre comprising at least one reinforcing structure of the carcass type (6, 7) and comprising a crown reinforcing structure (8) consisting of at least one working layer. According to the invention, at least one working layer is radially on the inside of at least one carcass layer, in the side walls, the tyre comprises at least two portions of carcass reinforcement layer extending over a radial distance at least equal to 50% of the radial distance between one shoulder end and the radially inner end of the radially innermost circumferential reinforcing element, at least in the equatorial plane, the reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement (6, 7) make an angle less than 80° and the reinforcing elements (8) of the working layer cross with the reinforcing elements of the reinforcing structure of the carcass type by an angle in excess of 40°, when the tyre comprises at least two working layers radially on the inside of at least one carcass layer, the reinforcing elements of the said at least two working layers crossing by an angle of at most 5° and when the tyre comprises at least one working layer radially on the outside of the reinforcing structure of the carcass type, the reinforcing elements of the said at least one working layer crossing with the reinforcing elements of at least one working layer radially on the inside of at least one carcass layer by an angle of at least 30°.