JPH0625001U - Tire and rim combination for land vehicles now driven on soft or irregular support surfaces - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Objective] The object of the present invention is to provide a tire-rim combination for a land vehicle adapted to be driven on a soft bearing surface or an irregular bearing surface. Is to provide. The combination of the present invention comprises a low-pressure tire 48 having a thin-walled torus 50 made of an elastic material, and a respective opposite side adapted to engage each side of the tire when the tire is deformed or flattened. Support rim 1 having a pair of support flange means 30, 32 extending in the axial direction and in the axial direction
2, and when the tire contacts a soft or irregular bearing surface under axle loading, the torus 50 deforms and flattens, which facilitates the vehicle to move on such bearing surface. There is.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

【Technical field】

 The present invention relates to a tire and rim combination for a land vehicle adapted to be driven on a soft bearing surface such as a sandy beach or an irregular bearing surface such as a rock terrain.

[0002]

[Background technology]

For decades, land vehicles and aircraft have used wheels. The wheel has a rim and pneumatic tires attached to the rim. Most prior art tire casings are made of natural or synthetic materials, due to the fairly high angular velocities of these wheels in use and the risk of bursting the tire upon encountering obstacles in the roadway of the wheel. It also had embedded reinforcements in the form of cloth or cord, made of metal or both. In the earliest construction of such pneumatic tires, the tire had a reinforced carcass with a U-shaped cross section. The carcass includes an annular bead that engages the rim. A torus-shaped inner tube was placed inside the tire carcass in contact with the carcass and the outer diameter of the rim. Still widely used, such wheels have the mechanical strength needed for the rim and tire carcass, and the tubes provide the airtight interior space needed during operation. Most recently, tubeless tires have become widely used. The tire carcass is directly sealed to the rim, forming an airtight inner space. Therefore, the inner tube is unnecessary. In order to retain such prior art tires on the rim for sufficient load carrying capacity, and to allow such wheels to withstand the torque applied to drive and control the vehicle, the tire carcass is typically It is very stiff and not as flexible as the inner tube. Both tires, tube tires and tubeless tires, are inflated to fairly high operating pressures. This operating pressure is typically significantly greater than 25 pounds per square inch (1.76 Kg / cm ² ). When such a prior art wheel is mounted on a vehicle and exposed to an axial load, the tire will be slightly flattened, which is generally similar to the appearance of the wheel when flat and undeformed and unloaded. It has an appearance.

Such prior art wheels are particularly suitable for use in vehicles that run on relatively hard yet flat bearing surfaces. However, when a vehicle encounters a soft surface such as a sandy beach or a relatively irregular surface such as rocky terrain, the prior art wheels have not performed well. In particular, the contact surface between the tire of the prior art and the bearing surface on the underside of the tire is so small that the pressure per unit area of the bearing surface on the underside of the tire is too high. Therefore, it is common for at least part of a vehicle wheel to sink into a soft support surface, such as a beach. Due to these prior art tire carcasses, which are relatively stiff and resistant to deformation on irregular surfaces, and the high inflation pressures applied to the tires, it is difficult for the tires to traverse obstacles on the road. As a result, the vehicle cannot move forward with the minimum supply power. In some cases, we continue to use wide, high-priced, high-priced truck tires in self-propelled vehicles to increase the contact area of wide truck tires, resulting in soft or irregular surfaces. But it is easy to move.

In recent years, various vehicles or vehicles have been developed. These vehicles are typically towed by human power or by using self-propelled tractors on soft or irregular surfaces. For example, W. E. U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,933 issued to Tuggle on a yacht carrier reveals a type of carrier suitable for moving a catamaran yacht into the water across a widely lying sandy beach. ing. While the small wheels of the traditional type noted earlier could be used in such haul trucks, moving the tow truck across the beach requires considerable effort. The tire has a very wide contact surface to minimize sinking in soft surfaces, making it a more flexible and flexible tire fuselage, as the tire travels over road surface obstacles. It was necessary to make it easy to deform and to greatly expand the contact area of the tire under load.

[0005]

[Disclosure of device]

 The main purpose of the present invention is an improvement for land vehicles, which makes it easier to drive a vehicle on a soft or irregular bearing surface without requiring more labor than a conventional vehicle assembly. To provide a combined tire and rim.

Another object of the present invention is to ensure a large area for substantially flattening and engaging the lower support surface during normal operation, which area is practically increased as the load on the wheel increases. It is to provide an improved tire and rim combination with low pressure tires that will be larger.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a tire and rim combination that is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to assemble in use.

The aforementioned objects of the present invention are obtained by the embodiments. As such, other desirable objectives and advantages obtained from the disclosed invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited only by the above-mentioned utility model registration claim.

A tire and rim combination according to the present invention comprises a tire support rim having a substantially cylindrical outer surface for contacting the tire and a central opening for engaging a vehicle shaft. ing. Low-pressure tires are attached to the rim. The low pressure tire engages a cylindrical outer surface and includes a thin-walled torus of elastomeric material. The tire walls are virtually free of stiffening elements that limit the elasticity and flexibility of the tire. As used herein, the term "torus" refers to a donut-shaped surface created by orbiting a circle around a line in the plane in which it is drawn without intersecting the line. It means an object. A torus tire has an inner diameter surface that engages the rim and a conventional inflating stem or inflator that inflates the tire to a low pressure, preferably below 10 psi (0.7 Kg / cm ² ). And a needle valve for use. The outer diameter surface of the tire contacts the lower bearing surface, and when loaded, the tire effectively deforms or flattens where it contacts soft bearing surfaces and irregular bearing surfaces. As a result, the vehicle is likely to move on such a supporting surface.

In one embodiment, the wheel rim includes a pair of opposing axially extending support flanges. This support flange can contact the tire on both sides as the tire deforms or flattens during use. Preferably, the support flanges comprise a conical portion which extends radially outwards and an axially extending cylindrical flange projecting from the conical portion, both flanges of which when the tire flattens. It comes in contact with. The rim can be integral or can be split into axially extending halves. The tire also includes a radially inwardly extending flange or tabs that are retained between such halves during wheel assembly.

In order to disperse the load of the vehicle by means of a tire which is substantially flattened and has a wider contact surface, the axial length of the rim is greater than or equal to twice the original radius of the circle of rotation of the torus. Equal and less than π times this radius. Therefore, if the tire is sufficiently flat, the load of the vehicle is distributed over a wide area of the tire, and the contact surface is wide so that damage to the tire itself can be minimized. In order to prevent the tire from coming off the rim during use, the diameter of the cylindrical flange portion is preferably larger than the diameter of the inner diameter surface of the tire, but up to about 3 times.

According to the invention, the vehicle comprises at least one tire and rim combination. The tire and rim combination includes a tire support rim having a generally cylindrical outer surface for engaging the tire and a central opening for engaging the axle. Low pressure tires are attached to this rim. The tire is equipped with a thin-walled torus of elastomeric material. The tire has an inner diameter surface that engages the rim, a means for inflating the torus to a low pressure, and an outer surface for direct contact with the lower support surface. Inflating the tire to such pressures can cause the tire to effectively deform or flatten as the vehicle moves across soft or irregular bearing surfaces and the torus contacts these bearing surfaces.

[0013]

【Example】

 The following is a detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. In the figures, the same reference numbers represent the same structural elements.

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 at the same time. A tire-rim combination (hereinafter "wheel") 10 according to the present invention comprises a tire-supporting rim 12 formed from a pair of substantially identical rim half-pieces 14 and 16. The half part comprises a cylindrical central part 18, 20. These cylindrical central portions are provided with generally cylindrical outer surfaces 22, 24 of diameter d which contact the low pressure tire of the present invention. Central holes 24, 26 are provided in each half-part and can accommodate an axle 28 as shown in phantom. The cylindrical parts 18, 20 are connected to supporting axial flanges 30, 32 whose axially outer ends extend in opposite axial directions. These support flanges are provided with conical portions 34, 36 that extend radially outward at a cone angle α in the range of 20 ° to 80 °. A pair of axially extending cylindrical flanges 36, 38 are connected to the conical portions 34, 36. Each cylindrical flange has a diameter D. This straight diameter is larger than the diameter d, but is preferably about three times the length of the diameter d in order to prevent the low-pressure tire from coming off the rim 12 during use. Between the halves 14 and 16, a cylindrical spacer 40 is housed in a pair of opposed recesses 42 and 44 provided at the inner ends of the cylindrical portions 18 and 20. In some applications, it may be desirable to provide the rim 12 with suitable roller bearings, ball bearings or plain bearings that contact the shaft 28. Finally, the halves of the rim 12 are connected by suitable fasteners such as a bolt and nut set 46. The bolt and nut set passes through the cylindrical portions 18, 20 as shown.

The outer surfaces of the cylindrical outer surfaces 22, 24 and the conical portions 34, 36 contact the easily deformable low pressure tire 48 of the present invention. The tire is equipped with a thin wall torus 50 made of an elastomeric material such as 30% EPDM rubber containing black soot in the furnace. The rubber has a Shore A50, a tensile strength of 1700 psi (119.5 Kg / cm ² ), an elastic modulus under an elongation of 300%, a B die of 500 (material flow meter) tear strength of 150 lbs. It has a feature of (68.0 Kg). In one inflated example, the torus thickness t was approximately 0.125 inches (3.175 mm). The radius r of the rotating circle of the torus is approximately 3.0 inches (7.6 cm), and the total diameter D ′ of the torus is approximately 17. It was 5 inches (44.5 cm). The inner diameter surface 52 of the torus 50 contacts the outer surface of the rim 12 as previously pointed out and has approximately the same diameter. In this example, the diameter d was approximately 8.75 inches (22.23 cm) and the diameter D was approximately 13.75 inches (34.93 cm). Preferably, the axial length l of the assembled rim 12 is twice the radius r in order to create a suitable contact surface between the rim and the tire as the tire deforms during use. Greater than or equal to one, and less than this radius r times π.

The tire 48 comprises means 54 for inflating the tire at low pressure. For example, a conventional valve stem member protruding through a hole provided in the conical portion 34 or an inflating needle valve of a type used for basketball or the like is provided in this step. In use, the tire will flatten, i.e., deform to the condition shown to ensure a large contact area, which reduces rolling friction between the tire 48 and the contact surface, and the vehicle may be soft or irregular. Torus 50 is preferably inflated to about 10 psi (0.7 Kg / cm ² ) so that it can be moved even on the supporting surface. As the load on the tire increases, the contact surface of the tire increases. When the tire 48 is made of a resilient and flexible elastic material and is inflated to such a low pressure, the tire flexes under load to become substantially flat from an unloaded configuration, As it is increased, it continues to flatten. Thus, the contact area between the outer diameter surface of the tire and the soft or irregular bearing surface is large. As a result, rolling friction is reduced. For the same reason, when a tire encounters an obstacle under load, it will substantially deform and spread, thereby reducing tire bounce. Pressures as low as 3 psi (0.2 Kg / cm ² ) have been found suitable for many applications. The bearing surface is directly contacted by the outer diameter surface 56 of the torus 50. The tire 48 can be made by conventional extrusion and molding techniques used in the rubber industry to form inner tubes, bladders, and the like.

Tires made in accordance with the present invention do not require such tubes, but may have a central flange 58 radially inward or a plurality of tabs 18 and 20 oriented in the same direction that are cylindrical. It is retained between the inner edges of the rim to prevent the tire from slipping off the rim. Similarly, reinforcing strands or cords 60 may be placed on the wall of the torus 50 where the tire engages the rim to reinforce that location. However, an important advantage of the present invention is that the use of such stiffeners is not required anywhere on the tire, especially on the wall adjacent the contact surface 56. Such stiffeners limit the ability of the tire to flatten and deform in favorable conditions.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a combination of a tire and a rim according to the present invention, showing a shape in which a torus-shaped tire is deformed and becomes substantially flat when a load is applied to the assembly.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the tire / rim combination according to the present invention as viewed from the left side of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 wheel 12 tire support rim 14,16 rim half part 18,20 central part 22,24 outer part 26 central hole 28 vehicle shaft 30,32 support flange 34,36 conical part 38 flange 40 spacer 42,44 recess 46 bolt And nut sets 48 low pressure tires 50 torus 52 inner diameter surface 54 means for inflating tires 56 outer diameter surface 58 central flange 60 reinforcing strands or cords

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A tire and rim combination for a tire and rim for a land vehicle adapted to operate on a soft bearing surface such as a sandy beach or an irregular bearing surface such as rock terrain. A thin-walled torus of elastic material having an inner diameter surface for engagement, means for inflating the torus into a low-pressure form, and an outer diameter for contacting the soft bearing surface or the irregular bearing surface. A low pressure tire including a surface, a central portion having a substantially cylindrical outer surface to engage an inner diameter surface of the tire, a central opening adapted to engage an axle, and the tire deformed. Or a tire support rim having a pair of support flange means extending in opposite directions and axially adapted to engage each side of the tire when flattened, The support flange means has a radially outwardly-extending conical portion extending from the central portion and an axially extending cylindrical flange extending from the conical portion, the axial length of the rim being An axle load applied to the wheel by the tire support rim, the tire support rim having a length that is not less than twice the undeformed radius of the circle of rotation of the torus but not more than π times the radius. The time and rim combination wherein the torus substantially deforms or flattens when in contact with the support surface, thereby facilitating movement of the vehicle over such support surface. 2. The tire and rim combination of claim 1, wherein the diameter of the cylindrical flange is greater than the diameter of the inner diameter surface but not more than three times the diameter of the inner diameter surface.