WO2010008338A1

WO2010008338A1 - Tyre with valve device

Info

Publication number: WO2010008338A1
Application number: PCT/SE2009/000368
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jan Wallenius
Original assignee: Jan Wallenius
Priority date: 2008-07-15
Filing date: 2009-07-14
Publication date: 2010-01-21
Also published as: SE0801690L; SE532584C2

Abstract

The invention relates to a vehicle tyre with a valve device permitting filling up of the tyre with compressed air through a non-return valve (21) in the valve device (11). The tyre has a tube-shaped part (6) provided with a fine channel (7), which part, with the exception of a short channel interruption forming two openings to end portions (9', 10') of the channel (7), extends around the inner periphery (5) of the tyre, and which channel at a flattening of the tyre against a roadway to a tread area exceeding a prescribed area (A) is squeezed to an air-tight closure such that at rolling of the tyre air is displaced ahead of the closure towards a channel end portion (9') that is connected to the interior of the tyre and air is sucked into the channel (7) behind the closure through a channel end (10') that communicates with the atmosphere. According to the invention one end (9') of the channel is connected to a second non-return valve (22) located in the valve device (11), which non-return valve opens into the interior of the tyre, which both non-return valves are connected in series in the valve device (11) with an intermediate chamber (30) to which said first mentioned end portion (91) is connected, and the other end portion. (10') of the channel is arranged to open either into a duct (31, 32) in the valve device (11) communicating with the atmosphere or, as an alternative, into the interior of the tyre.

Description

TYRE WITH A VALVE DEVICE.

The present invention relates to a vehicle tyre of the kind stated in the preamble of the following patent claim 1.

As is well known it is important that a vehicle tyre always has a correct air pressure adapted to the load. Underinflation is most injurious but is in spite of that most frequent due to a slow leakage of compressed air from the tyre and failure to compensate for the leakage. Also in case of an increase of the load the air pressure often becomes too low due to failure to filling up with compressed air for adjustment of the pressure to the increased load. Experiments have been carried out with devices for automatic control of supply of compressed air from pump devices on the vehicle to each tyre via rotating connections, but these devices have proved to be too complicated and costly to be of a greater use.

Experiments have also been carried out since the year 1897 (patent specification DE 98536) to arrange simple peristaltic pump devices in the interior of an air-filled tyre to achieve pumping to a correct pressure in the tyre during the rolling of the tyre, for instance at leakage due to a minor puncture of the tyre, and at occasional increase of the load of the tyre. Further examples can be mentioned, as patent specifications DE 3 433 318, DE 4 323 835, WD 2007/134556, WO 2005/012009, WO 03/049958 and RU 2 106 978. A complete tyre of this type with a valve arrangement permitting mounting of the tyre on a wheel rim as simple and reliable as is the case with conventional tyres, and further with a valve arrangement that permits repair and adjustment of valve parts from outside, has not been disclosed by these known embodiments. The object of the invention is to achieve a better and less complicated tyre of the type mentioned above by way of introduction, which does not suffer from the above mentioned drawbacks.

This has been achieved according to the invention by the fact, that the tyre is characterized as stated in the characterizing part of claim 1. Hence, all the valve arrangement is located in the valve device, which consequently in connection with the mounting of the tyre on a wheel rim can be attached to the rim in the usual way, and the valves are accessible from outside. The valve device may also be provided with a pressure regulator arranged to sense the pressure in the tyre and at a pressure exceeding a prescribed maximum value let out the overpressure by a duct in the valve device, which duct communicates with the atmosphere.

Hence it follows that the tyre has a tube-shaped part made of mainly flexible material, including a fine channel with a short channel interruption, that extends around the inner periphery of a part of the tyre, the outer periphery of which is arranged to roll against a roadway, and an inlet opening to the channel coπmunicating with the atmosphere, and an outlet opening from the channel connected to the interior of the tyre, which channel has a wall with a radially inwards directed stiffening that contributes to a local squeezing and closing of the channel at a flattening of the tyre against the roadway to a tread area exceeding a prescribed area and displacement of air in the channel towards the channel opening connected to the interior of the tyre at the rolling of the tyre in the intended forward direction. The stiffening brings about that the channel is locally squeezed more or less between the stiffening and the rather elastic wall material located outside the channel. At the rolling of the tyre forwards the pressure in the tyre can increase, and at suitable dimensioning and suitable choice of elasticity of the material, is it possible to achieve that the airtight squeezing of the channel and thus the pumping action is interrupted when the prescribed tread area is obtained. This means, thus, that the flattened tread area of the tyre has an area corresponding to the necessary tyre pressure, which area in contrast to the tyre pressure should be constant at different loads.

The valve device is moreover, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, provided with a pressure regulator arranged to sense the pressure in the tyre and at a pressure exceeding a prescribed maximum value let out the overpressure by a duct in the valve device, which duct communicates with the atmosphere.

Also a bicycle is a vehicle, and the invention comprises accordingly also a tubeless tyre designed in a corresponding way as described above, but also a bicycle tyre that comprises an inner tube in which the tube- shaped part with a fine channel is attached to an inner peripheral wall portion of the inner tube with an outer side of said wall portion bearing on an inner periphery of the tyre.

The invention is described in more detail in the following with reference to the attached drawings which schematically disclose different examples of embodiments of vehicle tyres according to the invention, on which Figure 1 is a front view of a vehicle wheel with a tyre, Figure 2 is the wheel in Fig.l in section along the line H-II in Fig.l with two enlarged detail drawings, Figure 3 is a cross section with an enlarged detail drawing of the upper part of the tyre in Fig.2 just ahead of the valve device of the tyre, Figure 4 is a perspective view of the tyre in Fig.2 with a part of the tyre cut away for showing said tube-shaped part, Figure 5a is a longitudinal sectional view of a valve device, Figure 5b is a schematic view of an alternative embodiment of the tube-shaped part, Figure 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a valve device provided with a pressure regulator, Figure 7 is a perspective view with two enlarged detail drawings of a tubeless bicycle tyre with a part cut away for showing the valve device and the tube-shaped part of the tyre, Fig.8 is a front view of a bicycle wheel, Figure 9 is a sectional view along the line IX-IX with three enlarged detail drawings of the bicycle wheel in Fig.8, Figure 10 is a view of a valve device, Figure 11 is a sectional view along line XI-XI of the valve device in Fig.10, Figure 12 is a perspective view with two enlarged detail drawings of a bicycle tyre with an innertube.

Figure 1 discloses a vehicle wheel 1 which is meant to roll on a support 2 in the shape of a roadway. As is evident from Fig.2 the wheel is provided with tyre 45 which is tubeless and mounted in the usual way on a vehicle rim 3. The tyre has an outer periphery 4 with a patterned surface, which bears on the roadway 2, and an inner periphery 5 around which a tube-shaped part 6 extends secured to the inner periphery. The flexible tube-shaped part 6 has, as is evident from chiefly Fig.3, a fine channel 7 that extends around the inner of all the part 6 with the exception of a short interruption 8 where end portions 9¹ and 10', Fig.2, of the channel are connected to each a tube 9,10, which lead to a valve device 11 mounted on the rim 3. The tube-shaped part 6 is ring-shaped and has an outer part 6 ' of flexible material containing the channel 7 and extends into a ring-shaped recess 12 in the inner periphery of the tyre where it is vulcanized or in any other suitable way secured to the tyre 45. The tube-shaped part 6 is, moreover, designed with an inner part 6' ' which is arranged to form a stiffening acting as a counter force for the part 6 ' . The essentials of the tyre is that at all loads of the tyre , it must present a flattening against the roadway 2 that has a constant tread area A, as is shown in Fig.2. If the flattening is larger it means that the pressure in the tyre is too low, and as a consequence the channel 7 in the part 6 ' becomes squeezed and sealed against the stiffening part 6 ' ' . If the tyre is supposed to roll in counter clockwise direction in

Fig.2 the part in front of the squeezing point will become a pressure channel 7 ' , and the part behind the squeezing point a suction channel 7 ' ' . The tube 9 which is connected to the pressure channel 7 ' therefore is connected to a pressure inlet 15 of the valve device 11, and the tube 10 which is connected to the suction channel 7 ' ' therefore is connected to a suction outlet 16 of the valve device 11. The valve device is a modified conventional valve device with a flange 17 for an airtight fastening to the rim 3. As is shown in Fig.5a the valve device 11 has a conventional house 20 in which in addition to the conventional non-return valve 21 with ducts belonging to it a further non-return valve 22 of the same type is arranged in series with and coupled to the first mentioned valve. The valve device 11 is further provided with a conventional protection cap 23 which here is bored up and provided with an air-pervious filter 24. The valve 21 has in the usual manner a valve seat 26 and a spindle 25 which opens against the action of a spring. Also the valve 22 has a valve seat 28 and a spindle 27 which opens against the action of a spring.

The pressure inlet 15 is by a duct 29 connected to a chamber 30 surrounding the valve spindle 27. When compressed air flows from the pressure channel 7 ' through the flexible tube 9 , the pressure inlet 15 and chamber 30, the valve is pressed to open position and the compressed air flows through a duct 42 to the interior of the tyre.

At the same time air is sucked into the suction channel 7 ' ' via the flexible tube 10, the suction outlet 16, a duct 31 in the valve house 20 and a chamber 32 surrounding the valve spindle 25 and communicating in the usual manner directly with the atmosphere when the protection cap 23 is removed or via the filter 24 when the protection cap is stuck on to the valve device. When the end of the valve spindle 25 is pushed in, both the valve spindles 25 and 27 are moved such that air either can be pressed into the tyre from an external compressed air pump or can be let out from the tyre.

As long as the flattening of the tyre has a tread area exceeding the prescribed value a supply of compressed air takes place to the tyre from the pressure channel 7 ' . When the tread area decreases to the prescribed value the squeezing ceases to seal against the air pressure in the pressure channel 7¹ such that the displacement of compressed air ceases and the tyre has obtained the air pressure corresponding to the load. If the load of the vehicle should increase this will result in an increase also of the tread area of the tyre on the roadway, such that the channel 7 in the tyres becomes squeezed and sealed , and the pressure channel 7 ' starts displacing air to the interior of the tyres until the prescribed tread area is obtained. The above described embodiment is schematically shown in Fig.5b with solid lines. The tyre is supposed to rotate in clockwise direction in the forward direction of the vehicle, in which case the channel end portion 9' becomes an outlet end. At reverse drive, air can be sucked in through the outer non-return valve and pressed out through the channel end 10' to the atnospere. As an alternative the channel end portion 10' can be arranged to open into the interior of the tyre, as shown with dashed lines. In that case the tyre is supposed to roll counter-clockwise in the forward direction of the vehicle, in which case air can be sucked in through the outer non-return valve and pressed into the interior of the tyre through the channel end portion 10 ' , which is a less complicated embodiment due to the fact that the valve device does not need a special duct to the atmosphere. At reverse drive air can be sucked through the channel end portion 10 ' from the interior of the tyre and pressed back to the interior of the tyre via the channel end portion 9¹ and the inner non-return valve. In order to eliminate the risk of too high pressure in the tyre from a comfort point of view or with respect to prescribed maximum pressures it may be suitable to have a pressure regulator integrated with the valve device. Such a regulator is shown in Fig.6 integrated with an extension 33 of the house 20 protruding into the interior of the tyre. The pressure regulator has a valve spindle 34 in a chamber 35 with a valve seat 36. The valve spindle is movable in opening direction against the action of a spring 37 by means of a piston 38 having an outwards directed end exposed to the air pressure in the tyre. At the opening of the pressure regulator the duct 31, communicating with the atmosphere and located in the valve device 20, is set in connection with the pressure inlet 15 in the valve house 20 by a duct 40 in the house extension 33, an opening 41 in the wall of the chamber 35, and the opened valve seat 36, by which means the compressed air from pressure channel 7¹ is led to atmosphere. Figure 7 discloses a tubeless bicycle tyre, which is designed to work essentially in the same manner as described above with the exception that the tyre 50 by a bottom part 51 is completely closed and a valve device

52 is airtight vulcanized in an opening in the bottom part. In a corresponding manner as described above the inner periphery of the tyre is secured to a flexible tubeshaped part 6 with a fine channel 7 having an interruption

53 for connecting a flexible pressure tube 9 and a flexible suction tube 10 to the valve device 52. Fig.8 discloses a front view of the tyre in Fig.7 mounted on a rim 54. Fig.9 is a section along the lines IX-IX in Fig.8. The flattened area A is here larger than the prescribed area and pumping of the tyre is obtained by the pressure channel 7 ' at the rolling of the wheel in counter-clockwise direction.

The valve device 52 is shown in Fig.10 and 11 and has a valve house 60 with an inlet channel 61 to which a pump for compressed air can be connected for supply of compressed air to the interior of the tyre through a non-return valve 63 provided with a movable piston 62 and openings 64 to a surrounding chamber 65 and further through a duct 66 to a second nonreturn valve 67 with a movable piston 68, which after a movement is arranged to expose openings to ducts 69 opening into the interior of the tyre. The flexible tube 9 from the pressure channel 7 ' is intended to be connected to an opening 70 leading to a channel, not shown, which opens into an opening 71 in the duct 66, and the flexible tube 10 frjm the suction channel T ' is arranged to be connected to an opening 72 to a channel, not shown, leading to an opening 73 located just below a clamp ring 74 for securing the valve house to the wheel rim. When compressed air is supplied to the valve device from the pressure channel 7 ' through the opening 71 the piston 62 is pressed to closed position at the same time as the piston 68 is pressed to open position. When the compressed air ceases, the pressure in the interior of the tyre is through notches 75 exposed to the bottom surface of the piston 68 and keeps the piston in closed position.

A bicycle tyre may also, as shown in Fig.12, have a conventional tyre 80 with an inner-tube 81 designed essentially as shown with the embodiment with the tubeless tyre in Fig.7 with the same type of valve device 52 airtight vulcanized at an opening in the inner-tube 81,

The invention is obviously not limited to the embodiments shown and described above but may be modified in different ways within the scope of the invention defined by the claims. This is in particular applicable to the arrangement of the flexible tube-shaped part 6 with the fine channel 7 and the stiffening part active as a counter force member. The joining and the choice of material for forming the fine channel 7 can be carried out in many ways depending on technical knowledge within specially the rubber field. If i vehicle with the tyres according to the invention has been heavily loaded and accordingly has get the pressure in the tyres increased during driving until the prescribed tread area has been achieved, and after that has been unloaded, the pressure in the tyres has to be decreased. This is rapidly achieved by a press of short duration on the outer valve spindle of each tyre after removal of the protection cap. As soon as the driving of the vehicle then starts the pressure will increase automatically until the prescribed tread area is achieved. As an alternative it is possible to rely on normally occurring leakage by tyre and valve device or an artificial, slow leakage through a valve designed to leak only when the tyre rotates and in that case only with a flow less than the flow from the pressure channel 7 ' of the flexible tube-shaped part .

Claims

C L A I M S

1. Vehicle tyre with a valve device permitting filling up of the tyre with compressed air through a non-return valve (21) in the valve device ( 11 ) , comprising a tube-shaped part ( 6 ) made of mainly flexible material and including a fine channel ( 7 ) , which part , with the exception of a short channel interruption forming two openings to end portions (9',1O¹) of the channel (I)₁ extends around the inner periphery ( 5 ) of the tyre ( 45 ) having an outer periphery ( 4 ) arranged to roll against a roadway ( 2 ) , which two openings are connected one to the atmosphere and the other to the interior of the tyre , in addition to which the channel ( 7 ) has a wall ( 6 ' ) with a radially inwards directed stiffening ( 6 ' ' ) that contributes to a local squeezing and closing of the channel (7) at a flattening of the tyre against the roadway to an area exceeding a prescribed area (A) and displacement of air in the channel (7) towards the channel opening connected to the interior of the tyre at the rolling of the tyre in the intended forward direction , characterized by the fact that one end portion ( 9 ' ) of the channel (7) is connected to a second non-return valve (22) located in the valve device (11) and opening into the interior of the tyre, and by the fact that the both non-return valves (21,22) are connected in series in the valve device (11) with an intermediate chamber (30) to which said one end portion (9¹) is connected, and the other end (10¹) of the channel is arranged to open either into a duct (31,32) in the valve device (11) connected to the atmosphere, or, as an alternative, into the interior of the tyre.

2. Vehicle tyre according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the valve device (11) is provided with a pressure regulator (34-38) arranged to sense the pressure in the tyre and at a pressure exceeding a prescribed maximum value let out the overpressure by a duct (31,40) in the valve device (11), which duct communicates with the atmosphere.

3. Vehicle tyre according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the fact that the inner periphery (5) of the tyre is provided with a peripheral recess (12) in which the tube-shaped part (6) is received and secured.

4. Vehicle tyre, especially a bicycle tyre, according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the fact that the tyre comprises an inner tube (81) in which the tube-shaped part (6) with a fine channel is attached to an inner peripheral wall portion of the inner tube (81) with an outer side of said wall portion bearing on the inner periphery of the tyre (80).

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