Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TIRE PACKAGING
Background of the Invention
This invention relates generally to tire
packaging, and more specifically to the packaging of
I, large tires having beads that are susceptible to
- damage by lifting hooks or fork trucks during
shipment.
It is widely recognized in the tire and shipping
industries that tires for heavy equipment having, for
example, nominal bead diameters of 508 millimeters
(20 inches) and larger are very susceptible to damage
when they are handled by fork trucks or lifting hooks
during shipment. The use of such handling equipment
is necessitated by the heavy weights of these tires
which can typically range from about 225 kilograms
(500 pounds) to about 6,800 kilograms (15,000 pounds).
Damage frequently occurs to the bead portions of the
'' tire because the fork truck forks, or lifting hook,
pick up the tire by the bead portions.
Tire manufacturers have made various attempts at
packaging tires for heavy equipment to prevent or
minimize damage to the bead portions of tires during
shipment, but each of the prior art tire packages has
its own drawbacks. One packaging approach has been
the use of wooden disks having diameters larger than
the beads of a tire located on each side of the tire
and fastened to one another by straps. Nile the disk
approach does protect the inside of the tire as long
as the disks remain intact, there is no hole in the
disk for fork lift handling and the packaging is
expensive. Furthermore fork lift operators have often
punctured or removed the disks to facilitate handling
and damage results to the tire. Another approach has
been to place extruded rubber tubes slit to form,
1~32878
U-shaped channels around the bead portions of a tire,
place axially oriented wood spacers between the beads,
and staple straps extending radially around and
through the tire to the wooden spacers. This
packaging is difficult to install, expensive because
it is very labor intensive, and-can result in tire
- damage if the wooden spacers split during shipment.
Yet another approach has been the use of a metal rim
base/flange with foam rubber or Styrofoam padding
between the metal rim base/flange and the tire bead;
one metal rim base/flange is used for each tire bead,
and they are connected to one another by tension
members. This last approach is not only expensive,
but can result in damage to the tire if the metal rim
base/flange is kinked or distorted resulting in a
rough edge during handling because the metal is not
flexible or elastic enough to distort with the tire
beads during handling and then return to its original
shape when the tire bead does.
The expense of the packaging approaches described
above is an important consideration because tires for
heavy equipment are frequently shipped to distant
countries making the return of the packaging materials
to the tire manufacturer for reuse impractical. Of
course, even if the tires are shipped a shorter
distance the reuse of the packaging material is
minimized by the frequent occurrence of damage to the
packaging as has already been described.
A plastic bead protector and a tire package
according to the present invention overcome the
problems of high cost, difficult installation, and
inadequate protection of the tire bead portions of
prior art packaging. The reduced weight of a plastic
bead protector and tire package according to the
I 2 3 2 8 7 8
present invention, in respect to the prior art
packaging, also contributes to reduced shipping costs.
There is provided in accordance with one aspect of
the invention a tire package having an axis of rotation
and comprising:
a. an uninflated tire having a pair of annular
bead portions, each said bead portion having a
radially inner surface of a predetermined axial
width that is oriented at a predetermined angle
of between about 5 and about 15 with respect
to said axis, each said bead portion further
comprising an axially outer surface extending
in a generally radial direction, projections of
the radially inner and axially outer surfaces
of said bead portions intersecting one another
at the sharp diameter of the bead portions;
b. a pair of annular plastic bead protectors, each
of said bead protectors being slide ably
inserted inside a bead portion of said tire,
each said bead protector comprising an annular
bead seat with a generally radially extending
flange located at the axially outermost end of
the beat seat with respect to said tire
package, the bead seat of each bead protector
having a radially inner surface of a bead
portion of said tire with the flange having an
axially inner surface that is adjacent to the
axially outer surface of the bead portion of
the tire, the radially outer surface of the
each bead protector being oriented at sub-
staunchly the same angle with respect to said
axis as the radially inner surfaces of the bead
portions of said tire, projections of the
radially outer surfaces of said bead seats and
axially inner surfaces of said flanges inter-
sooting one another at a sharp diameter that is
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in the range of 0.0 to 3.75 millimeters less
than the sharp diameter of the bead portions of
said tire; and
c. a plurality of elastic tension members exerting
an axially inwardly directed force on each of
said bead protectors.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Various advantages and features of the invention
ply
1~3287~3
will be apparent in the following description and
claims, considered together with the drawings forming
an integral part of the specification and in which:
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a bead protector
according to the invention; `'`
~~-~ Fig. 2 is a radial cross-sectional view of a tire
- package according to one aspect of the invention; and
Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a tire package in
accordance with another aspect of the invention.
Detailed Desert lion of the Invention
Referring first to Fig. 1, there is shown a
perspective view of a bead protector lo for use in
packaging a tire. The bead protector 10 of Fig. 1 is
intended to be used for protecting the bead portions
of a tire having a conventional horseshoe shaped
radial cross-section such as that illustrated in
radial cross-section in Fig. 2.
The tire 20 illustrated in Fig. 2 has a pair of
annular bead portions 21. Each annular bead portion
21 of the tire has a radially inner surface 22 of a
predetermined axial width that is oriented at a
predetermined angle with respect to the axis of
rotation of the tire. Each bead portion 21 also has
an axially outer surface 23 that extends in a
generally radial direction. The radially inns and
axially outer surfaces of each bead portion are
connected to one another by a curved surface 24.
Protections of the radially inner and axially outer
surfaces of the bead portions of the tire intersect
one another at the predetermined sharp diameter of the
bead portions. The sharp diameter of the bead portion
of a tire, rounded to the nearest one-half inch, is
often referred to in the tire art as the nominal bead
diameter of a tire. The dimensions and orientation of
1232~378
the surfaces of the bead portion of a tire are
selected by a tire engineer in accordance with well
known engineering practices so that the bead portions
will mate properly with a rim that the tire is
designed to be mounted upon. Nile it is believed
I_- that the present invention may be most advantageously
- practiced in cooperation with tires for heavy
equipment, such as earth movers, having, for example,
nominal bead diameters in the range of from about 508
lo millimeters (20 inches) to about 1,450 millimeters (57
inches), it is understood that any tire fitting the
above general description may be-protectively packaged
according to the invention regardless of its size.
As used herein and in the appended claims "axis"
refers to the axis of rotation about which a tire,
tire package or bead protector may normally rotate,
and "axial" and "axially" refer to directions parallel
to said axis. "Radial" and "radially" refer to
directions that are perpendicular to said axis.
A bead protector 10 according to the invention
can best be described by referring to Fig. 1 in
conjunction with Fig. 2, which is a radial
cross-sectional view of a tire package according to
one aspect of the invention. The bead protector 10 is
an annular plastic structure comprising a bead seat 11
extending in a generally axial direction with a
generally radially extending flange 12 located at one
axial end of the bead seat. The bead seat 11 of the
bead protector 10 has a radially outer surface 13 with
an axial width that is preferably at least as great as
the axial width of the radially inner surfaces 22 of
the bead portions of a tire that the bead protector is
intended to protect. The radially outer surface 13 of
the bead seat 11 of the bead protector is oriented at
substantially the same angle with respect to the axis
7- 1~3~8~8
of the bead protector as the radially inner surfaces
22 of the bead portions of the tire are oriented with
respect to the axis of rotation of the tire. It is
understood that in a tire package according to the
invention the tire and the bead protectors are
Jo coaxial. These surfaces are normally oriented at
- angles of between about 5 and about 15 with respect
to their respective axes, so that the bead seat 11 has
one axial end that is located radially outwardly of
the other axial end of the bead seat. The flange 12
of the bead protector is located at the radially
outermost axial end of the bead seat.
The radially outer surface 13 of the bead seat 11
and the axially inner surface 14 of the flange 12 are
connected by a curved surface 15, and projections of
each of these surfaces intersect one another at a
sharp diameter that is equal to or less than the sharp
diameter of the bead portions of the tire. Preferably
the difference between the sharp diameter of the bead
portions of the tire and the sharp diameter of the
bead protector is no greater than 3.175 millimeters
(1/8 inch). Put another way, the difference between
the two sharp diameters should be in the range of 0.0
to 3.175 millimeters (1/8 inch) so that the bead
protector can be slide ably inserted inside the bead
portion of the tire and still have relatively little
movement in a radial direction that could eventually
result in the distortion of the protector when the
tire is handled during shipping.
The radial height of the flange 12 of the bead
protector should preferably be about the same as that
of the radially oriented portion of the side
protecting flange of a rim that the tire is designed
to be mounted upon, but in any event it must be long
enough to extend radially outwardly of the curved
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surface 24 at the heel of the bead portion of the tire
when the bead protector is inserted into the bead
portion of a tire.
Preferably a plastic bead protector according to
the invention is comprised of polyethylene. Bead
Jo protectors according to the invention have been
- satisfactorily manufactured by rotational molding of
Medium-Density Polyethylene Rotational Molding Resin
DNDA-7148 Natural, which is distributed by the Union
Carbide Corporation. Bead protectors manufactured
using this particular resin performed satisfactorily
when they were manufactured two be between about 6.35
millimeters (1/4 inch) and about 9.52 millimeters (3/8
inch) thick. Plastic bead protectors of this
construction had both sufficient strength and
flexibility to protect and distort with the tire
without breaking or becoming displaced when handled by
fork trucks or lifting hooks during shipping.
Furthermore these bead protectors, and the tire
package, are much less expensive than the prior art
tire packages described herein. However, it is
understood that a bead protector according to the
invention may be made of any flexible plastic material
and by any manufacturing method without deviating from
the scope of the invention.
A tire package according to the invention
comprises a tire of the type that has already been
described with reference to Fig. 2, a pair of annular
plastic bead protectors as had already been disclosed
with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, and a plurality of
elastic tension members exerting an axially inwardly
directed force on each of the bead protectors to hold
them in position with respect to the bead portions of
the tire. Referring now to Fig. 2, a tire package 30
according to the invention is manufactured by
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providing a tire 20 of the type already described;
slide ably inserting a plastic bead protector 10 inside
of each bead portion 21 of the tire such that the
radially outer surface 13 of the bead seat 11 of the
bead protector is adjacent to toe radially inner
~~~ surface 22 of a bead portion of the tire and the
- axially inner surface 14 of the flange 12 of the bead
protector is adjacent to the axially outer surface 23
of the bead portion of the tire. Preferably the
radially outer surface of the bead seat of each bead
protector has an axial width that is greater than the
axial width of the radially inner surfaces of the bead
portions of the tire, as shown in Fig. 2, and the bead
seats have a plurality of circumferential spaced
apart holes 16 there through. The holes 16 are
disposed at an axial distance from the axially inner
surface of the flange that is greater than the axial
width of the radially inner surfaces of the bead
portions of the tire. An elastic tension member 17,
such as a strip of inner tube or a spring, is then
secured to each of the bead protectors by a means for
fastening 18, such as an S hook, that extends through
one of said holes. If the means for fastening are S
hooks it is preferable that they be crimped shut, as
shown in Fig. 2.
A tire package according to another aspect of the
invention may also be manufactured as illustrated in
Fig. 3, even if the radially outer surfaces of the
bead seats of the bead protectors are not as wide as,
or wider than, the radially inner surfaces of the bead
portions of the tire. The elastic tension members 41
may be straps that extend completely around and
through the tire 42 and bead protectors 43 in a plane
that is substantially perpendicular to the axis of
rotation of the tire package 40.
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I I 87~
While certain representative embodiments and
details have been shown for the purpose of
illustrating the invention, it will be apparent to
those skilled in the art that various changes and
modifications may be made therein without departing
_- from the sprier scope of the-invention.
10
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