Polygonal Wire Adapter for Wheel Rim Impact Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing adapters for rolling assemblies are prone to cracks and breakage due to inadequate mechanical stiffness and inability to absorb large deformations, especially when encountering potholes, leading to residual plastic deformation and damage.
Innovation Solution
An adapter with an outer reinforcing element made of a polygonal section metal wire coated in elastomer composition, wound contiguously around a support in both axial and radial directions, providing enhanced resistance to compressive loading and impact without buckling, and featuring an axially outer end that delimits an adapter seat to support the tyre bead, allowing radial deformation during impacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the adapter uses a conventional outer reinforcing element structure, then the adapter can be manufactured with simpler processes, but the adapter is prone to cracks and breakage due to inadequate mechanical stiffness when encountering potholes
Solution Approach 1:
The outer reinforcing element is constructed as a composite structure combining metal wires (for strength and stiffness) with elastomer composition coating (for flexibility and shock absorption). This composite design enables the adapter to resist impact and compressive loading from potholes while preventing cracks and breakage, directly resolving the contradiction between strength and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The metal wire is wound contiguously around the support in multiple directions (axial and radial winding at least twice in each direction), creating a three-dimensional mesh structure. This multi-dimensional configuration distributes stress uniformly throughout the outer reinforcing element, significantly enhancing impact resistance without requiring excessive material or complex assembly processes.
2Reliability
If the adapter outer end has high stiffness to resist shocks, then the adapter can withstand pothole impacts, but residual plastic deformation and breakage still occur due to excessive stress concentration
Solution Approach 1:
The elastomer composition coating on the metal wire is configured with specific thickness parameters (comprised between 0.05 mm and 0.3 mm) to optimize the balance between stiffness and flexibility. This parameter control allows the outer reinforcing element to withstand shock loads while preventing stress concentration that leads to plastic deformation and breakage, thereby improving reliability without compromising structural stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastomer composition acts as a pre-configured cushioning layer between the rigid metal wire structure and the tyre bead. This cushioning effect absorbs and dissipates impact energy from potholes before it can concentrate on the metal wire, preventing cracks and breakage while maintaining the adapter's ability to resist shocks.
3Force
If the metal wire diameter is increased to improve compressive loading resistance, then the adapter can better withstand tyre inflation pressure, but the volume and weight of the outer end increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing wire diameter in one dimension, the solution uses multi-directional winding (axial and radial directions) to create a dense three-dimensional mesh structure. This distributes the compressive load across multiple thinner wires arranged in space, achieving high compressive resistance without increasing the overall volume of the axially outer end beyond necessary limits.
Solution Approach 2:
The outer reinforcing element is segmented into multiple individual metal wires (each of diameter D1) rather than using a single thick wire. This segmentation allows the compressive load to be distributed across many smaller elements, maintaining force resistance while reducing the volume occupied by each individual wire and allowing more efficient packing within the constrained space of the axially outer end.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The adapter significantly increases resistance to impact and reduces the risk of damage by maintaining cohesion and stability, optimizing tyre operation and reducing mechanical loadings on the rolling assembly.
Implementation Method 1
the said adapter comprising: an axially outer end comprising an outer reinforcing element and intended to come into contact, via a substantially radial axially inner face, or bearing face, with a bead
Implementation Method 2
The wire is wound in such a way as to form turns. An adapter, the element connecting tyre and rim, allows a rolling assembly, during running, to have sufficient radial deformations at the bead of the tyre to afford the desired protection against lateral impacts.
Data Source
AI summary
An adapter for a rolling assembly having an axis of rotation (YY′), the rolling assembly comprising a tyre having two beads, and a rim having two rim bead seats, for each bead, provides the connection between the bead and the rim, the said adapter comprising an axially inner end connected to the rim, an axially outer end comprising an outer reinforcing element and intended to come into contact, via a substantially radial axially inner face, or bearing face, with a bead, a body connecting the axially outer end to the axially inner end so as to form a single piece, comprising at least one main reinforcement providing the connection between the outer reinforcing element and the inner reinforcing element, and comprising a substantially axial adapter seat intended to come into contact with a bead. The outer reinforcing element is completely axially on the outside of the bearing face, and the outer reinforcing element is a substantially annular structure, referred to as a bead wire, of polygonal section, comprising an individual metal wire of diameter D1, the said wire being coated in an elastomer composition and wound contiguously around a support at least three times in an axial direction and at least twice in a radial direction.