Tire RFID Tag Placement Between Rim Strip and Sidewall Rubber
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tires with embedded electronic components, such as RFID tags, face functional failure due to stress and distortion during deformation, as these components are often positioned at vulnerable boundaries within the tire structure.
Innovation Solution
The electronic component is strategically placed between the rim strip rubber and the side-wall rubber, covered by a coating rubber sheet with a higher modulus than the side-wall rubber but lower than the rim strip rubber, to minimize the impact of stress and distortion, and is positioned within a specific range relative to the boundary surface to maintain functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the electronic component is arranged at the boundary surface of two different substances (carcass ply and side-wall rubber), then it is possible to perform production control and usage history management, but the electronic component is affected by stress and distortion during tire deformation, causing functional failure
Solution Approach 1:
A coating rubber sheet is introduced as an intermediary layer between the rim strip rubber and side-wall rubber, where the electronic component is embedded. This mediator protects the electronic component from direct exposure to stress and distortion at the boundary between different rubber types, while still allowing the component to maintain its communication function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different rubber materials with different modulus values to different regions: the coating rubber sheet has a specific modulus range (0.3-0.7 times the side-wall rubber modulus) to locally optimize stress distribution at the electronic component location, while the rest of the tire structure maintains its original design.
2Reliability
If the electronic component is positioned at the boundary surface between rim strip rubber and side-wall rubber, then stress and distortion are reduced, but the component requires precise positioning within a specific range to maintain functionality
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic component is embedded in the coating rubber sheet before the final tire assembly process. This preliminary action allows the component to be positioned and secured in a controlled environment, reducing the need for high-precision positioning during final tire assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The coating rubber sheet acts as a flexible carrier for the electronic component, allowing the component to be embedded within a thin, conformal layer that adapts to the tire's curvature and deformation, reducing the need for rigid precision positioning.
3Reliability
If the coating rubber sheet has a modulus between the rim strip rubber and side-wall rubber, then stress and distortion on the electronic component are minimized, but the selection of rubber material becomes more constrained
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies a quantitative range for the coating rubber sheet modulus (0.3-0.7 times the side-wall rubber modulus) to optimize stress distribution. This parameter change provides clear design criteria while maintaining flexibility in material selection within the specified range.
Solution Approach 2:
The coating rubber sheet can be formulated as a composite material combining different rubber compounds to achieve the desired modulus value within the specified range, allowing optimization of both mechanical properties and compatibility with adjacent rubber layers.
Data Source
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AI summary
A tire is provided which is capable of maintaining the performance of an embedded electronic component, by arranging the electronic component at a position in the tire structure which hardly receives the influences of stress and distortion. A tire includes: a bead core (21); a bead filler (22) which extends to an outer side in a tire-radial direction of the bead core (21); a carcass ply (23) which extends from the bead core (21) to another bead core (21) and is folded around the bead core (21); a rim strip rubber (32) which is arranged at least at an outer side in a tire-width direction of the carcass ply (23) which has been folded back around the bead core (21); and a side-wall rubber (30) covering a part on an outer side in the tire-width direction of the rim strip rubber (32), in which an RFID tag (40) serving as an electronic component is provided between the rim strip rubber (32) and the side-wall rubber (30).