A pneumatic radial tire for passenger vehicles of the present disclosure includes a carcass toroidally spanning between a pair of bead portions and including plies of radially arranged cords. A sectional width SW and an outer diameter OD of the tire satisfy a predetermined relational expression. At least one noise reducer is provided on an inner surface of the tire. A ratio L (mm)/S (mm.sup.2) is in a range from 0.02 to 1.5, where L (mm) denotes a circumferential length of the noise reducer and S (mm.sup.2) denotes a cross-sectional area of the noise reducer.

A pneumatic radial tire for passenger vehicles of the present disclosure includes a carcass toroidally spanning between a pair of bead portions and including plies of radially arranged cords. A sectional width SW (mm) and an outer diameter OD (mm) of the tire satisfy a predetermined relational expression. At least one noise reducer is provided on an inner surface of the tire. The noise reducer is provided at least in the center region and the shoulder region. Among thicknesses of the noise reducer measured in a direction perpendicular to the inner surface of the tire, a maximum thickness Ts in the shoulder regions is larger than a maximum thickness Tc in the center region.

The invention relates to a vehicle wheel assembly, comprising 1) a wheel rim having two opposed circular rim flanges; 2) an outer tire having two beads secured at the circular rim flanges; 3) an inlay; 4) a non-pneumatic inner tire comprising expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (E-TPU), which inner tire is enclosed by the outer tire, the inlay and the wheel rim. The inner tire in the assembly is in a compressed state S1, which state is compressed as compared to a relaxed state S2 when the inner tire is not enclosed by the outer tire, the compression being such that the cross-sectional surface area SA of the inner tire, which area is perpendicular to the plane of the tire, is smaller in state S than in state S2.

Disclosed herein are kits for use in adding degradable foam to a tire, methods for preparing a degradable foam-containing tire, tires containing degradable foam, and methods for degrading the degradable foam in tires containing degradable foam. The degradable foam comprises a combination of (i) at least one di- or polyisocyanate, (ii) at least one polysiloxane diol, at least one polysiloxane diamine, or a combination thereof, and (iii) optionally at least one polyol.

The disclosure relates to a road noise reducing system including a wheel rim having a barrel, a first layer of acoustic metamaterial with a first plurality of open cells mounted on the barrel, and, optionally, a second layer of acoustic metamaterial with a second plurality of open cells in contact with the first layer of acoustic metamaterial. The system optionally includes a pneumatic tire with a hollow, wherein the tire is mounted on the wheel rim such that the hollow forms a closed cavity and can incorporate additional elements including an elastomeric membrane, a noise-absorbing foam, and/or a resonator. The system has a sound transmission loss of at least 20-35 dB at frequencies of 50 Hz to 2,000 Hz and can reduce tire-road interaction noise by at least 50-70%. Also disclosed are methods of making road noise reducing wheel and tire assemblies, automobiles incorporating the same, and methods for reducing tire-road interaction noise.

Filling element (“mousse”) for tires of off-road motor vehicles. The filling element is provided with circular grooves. It is made of expanded polymeric material for longlife even under extreme conditions of external temperature, speed of the vehicle and hardness of the ground. It provides improved driving performances in terms of stability and adherence of the tire to the ground even on rough grounds of great hardness.

A pneumatic vehicle tire (1) having a profiled tread (2) that merges at either side into sidewalls (3), the end of which is formed by a tire bead (5, 6) insertable in an airtight manner into a wheel rim (7) of a vehicle wheel (8), wherein an absorber (10) has been integrated into the pneumatic vehicle tire (1) for sound absorption and the cohesive bond consists of an adhesion promoter (11) applied between the absorber (10) and the inner surface (9) of the pneumatic vehicle tire (1), has been further developed in accordance with the invention in that the inner surface (9) of the pneumatic vehicle tire (1) has mutually alternating adhesion promoter sections (12) and adhesion promoter-free sections (13), the adhesion promoter-free sections (13) having been coated with a separating agent (14).

A pneumatic tire includes: an annular-shaped tread portion extending in a tire circumferential direction; a pair of sidewall portions disposed on both sides of the tread portion; and a pair of bead portions disposed on an inner side in a tire radial direction of the sidewall portions; and a band-like sound absorbing member being adhered on an inner surface of the tread portion in the tire circumferential direction; wherein the band-like sound absorbing member has a plurality of cuts, and both terminals of the cuts terminate at an inner side of the band-like sound absorbing member.

This disclosure relates to tire-forming flexible tubes with first and seconds ends configured to be joined together to form a tire, as well as to locking assemblies, connecting mechanism and method for utilizing same.

Provided is a pneumatic tire, which includes a tread portion having an annular shape and extending in a tire circumferential direction, a pair of sidewall portions disposed on both sides of the tread portion, a pair of bead portions disposed on inner sides of the pair of sidewall portions in a tire radial direction, and a band-like sound absorbing member bonded to an inner surface of the tread portion along the tire circumferential direction. The band-like sound absorbing member includes a plurality of cuts in an outer circumferential surface of the band-like sound absorbing member. At least one end of each of the cuts terminates within the band-like sound absorbing member.