Rolling Assembly Adapter With Composite Bead Wire
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing adapters for rolling assemblies, which connect tires to rims, suffer from inadequate mechanical stiffness, leading to damage from repeated shocks like potholes, causing cracks and potential breakage due to insufficient absorption of large deformations.
Innovation Solution
A new adapter with a varying stiffness along the circumferential, axial, and radial axes, featuring an annular outer reinforcing element with alternating layers of composite and metallic materials, and a rubber compound, designed to reduce shear stresses and enhance mechanical travel, stability, and load distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the adapter is made of reinforced rubber compounds to ensure flexibility and protection, then the tyre can perform conventional functions and protect from damage, but cracks may appear or spread in the outer reinforcer due to repeated shocks
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter employs a composite structure combining rubber compound with reinforcing elements (fabric reinforcement and/or steel belt reinforcement). This composite material approach provides both the flexibility needed for tyre function and the strength to resist cracking under repeated shock loads, resolving the contradiction between softness and durability.
Solution Approach 2:
The adapter features non-uniform thickness distribution, with greater thickness at the axially outer end where shocks are most severe, and reduced thickness toward the axially inner end. This local quality variation optimizes the balance between shock absorption capability at critical locations and overall flexibility, preventing crack propagation while maintaining protective function.
2Ease of manufacture
If the adapter has uniform thickness to simplify manufacturing, then production is easier, but it cannot optimally absorb large deformations from pothole shocks
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter incorporates variable thickness across its structure, with the axially outer end having greater thickness to absorb pothole shocks and the axially inner end having reduced thickness. This local quality differentiation optimizes shock absorption performance while the overall simple annular form maintains ease of manufacturing through conventional molding processes.
3Weight of moving object
If the adapter uses low mass materials to reduce weight, then the rolling assembly becomes lighter, but the adapter lacks sufficient stiffness to absorb large deformations
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter uses a composite construction with rubber compound providing lightness and flexibility, combined with fabric reinforcement and/or steel belt reinforcement providing stiffness and strength. This composite approach achieves the desired stiffness-to-weight ratio, allowing the adapter to absorb large deformations from pothole shocks without excessive mass.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcement elements are strategically positioned within the adapter structure, with higher reinforcement concentration at the axially outer end where shock loads are greatest. This local quality optimization provides maximum stiffness where needed while keeping overall mass low, resolving the contradiction between weight and deformation absorption capability.
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 effectively absorbs shocks, reduces the risk of damage by distributing mechanical loads and maintaining stability through elastic deformation, while minimizing shear stresses and ensuring the adapter's durability during pothole encounters.
Implementation Method 1
the adapter... elastic deformation while at the same time having a stiffness that varies according to the circumferential, axial and radial axes
Implementation Method 2
The adapter effectively absorbs shocks, reduces the risk of damage by distributing mechanical loads and maintaining stability through elastic deformation
Implementation Method 3
allows a rolling assembly, during running, to avoid excessively high shear stresses in the core of the reinforcing element
Data Source
AI summary
An adapter for a rolling assembly having an axis of rotation (YY′) includes an axially inner end connected to a rim, an axially outer end including 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, including at least one main reinforcement providing the connection between the outer reinforcing element and the inner reinforcing element, and including a substantially axial adapter seat intended to come into contact with a bead. The outer reinforcing element (15) is completely axially on the outside of the bearing face (21), and the outer reinforcing element (15) is a substantially annular structure, referred to as a bead wire, of substantially polygonal section, including at least two first layers of composite and/or metallic material, and at least two second layers of rubber compound, the first and second layers being arranged mutually parallel and in alternation with each other and parallel to the axis YY′.