A pneumatically operated gas valve mounted on a vessel containing pressurized gas. The gas valve includes a piston positioned in a cylinder with one closed end so that the piston seats against a gas outlet to close the gas valve. A control reservoir is formed in the cylinder between the piston and the closed end of the cylinder. Upon filling vessel, some of the pressurized gas enters the control reservoir to provide a control pressure behind the piston. Actuating the control mechanism vents the control reservoir, resulting in the gas valve opening rapidly to release the pressurized gas in the vessel through an exhaust port of the gas valve.

A tire changer apparatus for the assembly or disassembly of tires from a rim of a wheel of a vehicle, said tire changer apparatus comprising: a base; a drive unit movable along a predetermined direction and configured to rotate, around a rotation axis, a wheel of a vehicle; a frame emerging from the base. The rotation axis of the wheel and the predetermined direction define an ideal plane of movement of the drive unit. The apparatus also comprises a first and a second device, each of which comprises: an arm hinged to the frame and configured to rotate around a respective axis parallel to the rotation axis of the wheel, a tool configured to operate on a rim and/or a tire of a wheel; the first and second devices are configured to arrange the respective tools on opposite sides with respect to said ideal plane.

The present invention regards a device for assembling and/or disassembling a support ring (SR) within or from a tyre (T), such device including a base, a column or pillar rising from said base and a grip and release group and/or an extraction group.

A method for inflating a tyre mounted on a corresponding wheel rim comprises the following steps in sequence; placing a tool at an operating position, where a first bead of the tyre is interposed between the tool and a second bead of the tyre, and one end of tool is positioned axially between a first flange of the rim and a first rib of the rim and positioned radially between an outside surface of the rim and a tread of the tyre; blowing a gas under pressure through an inflation valve of the tyre into a chamber delimited by the tyre and by the rim, with the tool at the operating position, so that the first sidewall of the tyre is pressed against the end of the tool; removing the tool from the operating position.

A nozzle for seating a tubeless tire on a rim using pressurized gas includes a coupling neck configured to accept the pressurized gas from a pressurized tank, a choke point adapter connected to the coupling neck and a nozzle body configured with a nozzle output. Pressurized air introduced into the coupling neck pass through the nozzle and exits the nozzle output in a burst of the pressurized gas that is directed between the tubeless tire and the rim to inflate the tire. The choke point adapter has a chokepoint surface with a chokepoint angle of sufficient angle to aid in reducing the recoil of the tubeless tire seating device.

A tire spreader has a pair of tire engaging members pivotally interconnected at a coupling location, each supporting a tire engaging element for contacting a sidewall of a tire. The tire engaging members can be pivotally actuated relative to one another from a neutral position, in which the sidewalls are spaced apart at a regular spacing, to a self-retaining spreading position in which the tire engaging elements are spaced further apart than in the neutral position so as to spread the sidewalls further apart from their regular spacing. First and second pivotally interconnected links are provided, with one of the links connected to the first tire engaging member between the coupling location and the tire engaging element of this first member, while the other one of the links is connected to the second engaging member spaced from the coupling location in a direction distal to the tire engaging element thereof.

A nozzle for seating a tubeless tire on a rim using pressurized gas includes a coupling neck configured to accept the pressurized gas from a pressurized tank, a choke point adapter connected to the coupling neck and a nozzle body configured with a nozzle output. Pressurized air introduced into the coupling neck pass through the nozzle and exits the nozzle output in a burst of the pressurized gas that is directed between the tubeless tire and the rim to inflate the tire. The choke point adapter has a chokepoint surface with a chokepoint angle of sufficient angle to aid in reducing the recoil of the tubeless tire seating device.

A tool for seating a tubeless tire on a rim using pressurized gas includes a cylindrical pressure tank with a nozzle affixed to it, and a rapid opening gas valve. The nozzle includes a jet configured to receive pressurized gas from the cylindrical pressure vessel into a chamber of the nozzle. As the stream of gas enters the chamber, the Venturi effect causes air to enter the chamber through air intake ports and the stream of gas and air from the air intake ports is blown out of the outlet of the nozzle. The tire is seated on the rim by positioning the system so that the air from the nozzle rapidly blows into the tire between the bead of the tire and the rim upon the valve being opened.

A pneumatic tire seater configured to seat a tubeless tire on a rim has a manual internal slip (MIS) valve mounted on the end of a tank. A nozzle is mounted on one end of the MIS valve, and the other end extends partially into the air tank. The MIS valve has a slotted chamber with slotted chamber holes, and a slip cylinder that fits within the slotted chamber and has slip cylinder holes. A compression spring in the MIS valve exerts force on the slotted cylinder, pushing it forward to line up the cylinder holes with the slotted chamber holes and release the high pressure air from within the tank which goes through the MIS valve and out the nozzle.

Methods of inflating a tire on a wheel assembly having a rim, an inflation port in the rim, a bead seat band over the inflation port, an O-ring between the rim and the bead seat band, at least one radial port in the bead seat band and the tire over the bead seat band may include obtaining at least one bead band clamp including a main clamp portion, a band portion extending from the main clamp portion, a rim portion extending from the main clamp portion in spaced-apart relationship to the band portion, a first rim engaging assembly carried by the rim portion and a second rim engaging assembly carried by the main clamp portion; aligning the at least one radial port in the bead seat band with the O-ring; deploying the at least one bead band clamp in place on the wheel assembly by engagement of the band portion with the bead seat band and engagement of the first rim engaging assembly and the second rim engaging assembly with the rim; inflating the tire; and removing the at least one bead band clamp from the wheel assembly. A bead band clamp which facilitates inflation of a tire on a wheel assembly is also disclosed.