A reinforcement strand (400) comprises a core (403) around which steel filaments (404) are twisted all with the same final lay length and direction. The steel filaments are arranged in an intermediate layer comprising N first steel filaments and an outer layer of 2N steel filaments circumferentially arranged around the intermediate layer. In the intermediate layer filaments will contact one another at a closing lay length that is determined by the number of steel filaments N in the intermediate layer, the diameter of the core and the diameter of the first steel filaments. By choosing the final lay length and direction equal to the between two and six times the closing lay length gaps will form between the intermediate layer filaments. The 2N outer layer filaments are further divided into a group of smaller (408) and a group of larger (406) diameter steel filaments.

A cord for reinforcing elastomers excellent in adhesion to elastomers such as rubber is provided. The cord is a cord for reinforcing elastomers (10) that includes metallic filaments (1) and a resin filament (2) twisted together, the resin filament (2) being made from a polymeric material having a melting point or softening point of 80 to 160 C. The cord for reinforcing elastomers includes a core and at least one sheath layer, wherein, after vulcanization, a distance w between metallic filaments (1b) forming an outermost sheath layer is 100 m or less, and, on a cross section of the cord taken along a direction orthogonal to an axial direction, a filling ratio, which is a ratio of an area of a polymeric material (3) derived from the resin filament (2) to a gap region is 52 to 120%, where the gap region is defined as a portion occupied by a material other than the metallic filaments (1) within a region formed by connecting the centers of the individual metallic filaments (1b) constituting the outermost sheath layer.

Provided is a multi-twisted steel cord for reinforcing a rubber article, the steel cord having cord strength with a small loss as compared to the total strength of filaments constituting the cord and a high rubber penetration. The steel cord includes a plurality of twisted strands in a multi-twisted structure, each strand including a plurality of twisted filaments in two or more layers, in which at least some of the filaments have a tensile strength of 3,000 MPa or more, the steel cord satisfying a filament occupancy of 48% or more and less than 54%, a cord twist angle of 78 or more and less than 84, an average crossing angle between adjacent filaments other than wrapping filaments of less than 17, and a gap between adjacent sheath filaments constituting the strand of 0.065 mm or more.

A steel cord and a manufacturing process are disclosed. The steel cord includes a steel core wire located in the center and having a diameter of d; and M sheath-layer steel wires arranged around the steel core wire in the center, tangent to the steel core wire, and having a diameter of d1, at least two gaps L existing between the M sheath-layer steel wires, where M is 4; d, d1, and L satisfy the following relationship: 0.420<(d/d1)<0.800, d1 is between 0.20 mm and 0.44 mm, and L0.0008 mm. The steel cord of the present invention may allow rubber to be fully penetrated into the gaps, thereby reducing air content in the steel cord, avoiding point contact friction between the layers of steel wires due to insufficient rubber penetration, and further solving the problem of failure of the bearing capacity of the steel cord due to abrasion.

A steel cord for reinforcing a breaker or belt ply in a rubber tire having a core group and a sheath group. The core group consists of two to four core steel filaments with a first diameter dc and the sheath group consists of one to six sheath steel filaments with a second diameter ds. The ratio dc/ds of the first diameter dc to the second diameter ds ranges from 1.10 to 1.70. The two core steel filaments are untwisted or have a twisting step greater than 300 mm. The sheath group is twisted around the core group with a cord twisting step in a cord twisting direction. The ratio of the difference in residual torsions of the core group and the sheath group to the difference in saturation level between the core group and the sheath group ranges from 0.10 to 0.65, preferably from 0.10 to 0.60.

A cord of a band of a tire has a single-stranded structure in which steel filaments are stranded, and the number of the filaments is not less than three and not greater than six. In a cross-section of the cord, when represents a diameter of a smallest circle that surrounds cross-sections of the filaments, and represents a diameter of each filament, a gap is formed between the filaments such that the diameter is not less than three times the diameter and not greater than six times the diameter in the case of the number of the filaments being three or four. An initial elongation of the cord is not less than 0.1% and not greater than 1.5%.

Provided is a steel cord for reinforcing a rubber article which can further improve cut resistance when applied to a tire. Provided is a steel cord for reinforcing a rubber article including: one core strand 11 having a layered-twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of steel filaments 1; and a plurality of sheath strands 12 having a layered-twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of steel filaments 2, wherein the sheath strands are twisted around the core strand. A ratio S1/S of the sum S1 of cross-sectional areas of outermost layer sheath filaments constituting an outermost layer sheath of the core strand to the sum S of cross-sectional areas of all filaments constituting the core strand is from 0.69 to 0.74, and a ratio Ps/P of the sum Ps of strengths of the sheath strands to strength P of the cord as a whole is from 0.81 to 0.85.

Provided is a steel cord for reinforcing a rubber article which can further improve cut resistance when applied to a tire while maintaining the amount of steel to be used. A steel cord for reinforcing a rubber article comprising: one core strand 11 having a two-layered layered-twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of steel filaments 1; and a plurality of sheath strands 12 having a layered-twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of steel filaments 2, wherein the sheath strands are twisted around the core strand. A ratio dc/ds of a diameter dc of a sheath filament constituting the sheath of the core strand to a diameter ds of an outermost layer sheath filament constituting the outermost layer sheath of the sheath strand is more than 1.25 and not more than 1.50.

Provided is a pneumatic tire in which the crack propagation resistance of crossing belt layers is improved without deterioration of the cutting resistance and the irregular wear resistance. The pneumatic tire includes a belt composed of at least three belt layers 103 on the tire radial-direction outer side of a carcass 102, the at least three belt layers 103 including two crossing belt layers that are inclined in the opposite directions across the tire equatorial plane. In this pneumatic tire, a reinforcing material of crossing belt layers 103a and 103b is a steel cord which has a layer-twisted structure including a core composed of two core filaments and a sheath composed of eight sheath filaments that are twisted together around the core, and a steel cord amount in the crossing belt layers 103a and 103b, which is represented by the following Equation (1), is 23 to 49: Steel cord diameter (mm)Steel cord end count (steel cords/50 mm) (1).

A compact steel cord is provided. The cord includes a core-filament I steel wire with a diameter of d0, and four middle-layer M steel wires with a diameter of d1 and eight outer-layer O steel wires with a diameter of d2 that are twisted around the core-filament I steel wire in the same lay direction and the same lay length. Gaps L are reserved between the outer-layer O steel wires, an average width of the gaps L is not smaller than 0.02 mm, and the total size of the gaps L is larger than d0 and smaller than d1. The steel cord of a stable structure can be obtained by controlling the proportion of the sizes of all layers of monofilaments, the rubber coating performance of a tire cord can also be improved, the corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, impact resistance and adhesion retention of a tire are improved.