TIRE COMPONENT

Abstract

A tire component is disclosed that is made of a thermoplastic composition that is based upon a cross-linkable composition. The composition includes, per 100 parts by weight of the thermoplastic elastomer, 100 phr of a thermoplastic elastomer, wherein the thermoplastic elastomer is a block copolymer that comprises an elastomer block and a hard thermoplastic block. The elastomer block is a diene elastomer and the hard thermoplastic block has a glass transition temperature greater than 80° C. The composition further includes a reinforcing filler and a curing system. In particular embodiments the reinforcing filler may be carbon black, silica or combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A tire comprising a tire component, the tire component comprising a thermoplastic composition that is based upon a cross-linkable composition comprising, per 100 parts by weight of the thermoplastic elastomer: 100 phr of a thermoplastic elastomer, wherein the thermoplastic elastomer is a block copolymer that comprises an elastomer block and a hard thermoplastic block, wherein the elastomer block is a diene elastomer and the hard thermoplastic block has a glass transition temperature greater than 80° C.; between 5 phr and 40 phr of a reinforcing filler; and a curing system.

2. The tire of claim 1, wherein the filler is selected from a carbon black, a silica or combinations thereof.

3. The tire of claim 1, wherein the filler is carbon black.

4. The tire of claim 1, wherein the elastomer block is a highly unsaturated diene elastomer.

5. The tire of claim 4, wherein the unsaturated diene elastomer is selected from those resulting from isoprene, butadiene or combinations thereof.

6. The tire of claim 1, wherein the hard thermoplastic block is selected from polystyrenes, polyamines, polyurethanes or combinations thereof.

7. The tire of claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic block copolymer is selected from styrene/butadiene (SB) thermoplastic elastomers, styrene/isoprene (SI) thermoplastic elastomers, styrene/butadiene/isoprene (SBI) thermoplastic elastomers, styrene/butadiene/styrene (SBS) thermoplastic elastomers, styrene/isoprene/styrene (SIS) thermoplastic elastomers, and styrene/butadiene/isoprene/styrene (SBIS) thermoplastic elastomers, and mixtures thereof.

8. The tire of claim 1, wherein the cross-linkable composition further comprises a plasticizer.

9. The tire of claim 8, wherein the plasticizer is selected from a plasticizing resin, a plasticizing oil or combinations thereof.

10. The tire of claim 1, wherein the tire component is a tread.

11. The tire of claim 1, wherein the reinforcing filler is between 10 phr and 30 phr.

Description

EXAMPLE 1

[0042] Thermoplastic elastomer compositions were prepared using the components shown in Table 1. The amount of each component making up the thermoplastic elastomer compositions shown in Table 1 are provided in parts per hundred parts of thermoplastic elastomer by weight (phr).

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Formulations Formulation Group FG1 FG2 FG3 TPE D-1102 100  TPE D-1192 100  TPE D-1165 100  N234 0-90 0-90 0-90 Resin 0 0 0 Oil 0 0 0 Wax 2 2 2 Stearic Acid 1 1 1 Zinc Oxide 1 1 1 CBS 1 1 1 Sulfur 1 1 1

[0043] The thermoplastic resins were manufactured by Kraton Polymers. The Kraton thermoplastic resins were D-1102, an SBS linear triblock copolymer based on styrene and butadiene having a polystyrene content of 28%; D-1192, an SBS linear block copolymer based on styrene a butadiene with mound styrene of 30%; and D-1165, a linear triblock copolymer based on styrene and isoprene with a polystyrene content of 29%.

[0044] Each formulation group included thermoplastic elastomer compositions that were the same except for the amount of carbon black added. Each group included formulations that contained between 0 phr, 10 phr, 20 phr and so forth to 90 phr of carbon black. Therefore, for example, formulation FG1.sub.20CB contained 20 phr of carbon black.

[0045] The formulations were prepared by mixing the components in a Banbury mixer having a jacket temperature of 80° C. and a rotor speed of 55 RPM. The elastomer was first added, then after the temperature reached around 60° C. the other components were added other than the sulfur. Mixing continued until a temperature of about 160° C. was reached, when the mixture was dropped and cooled. The sulfur was then added to the mixture on a mill.

[0046] Vulcanization was then effected as follows. For FG1, the formulations were vulcanized for 55 minutes at 150° C. For FG2, the formulations were vulcanized for 40 minutes at 150° C. For FG3, for formulations FG3.sub.0CB through FG3.sub.40CB the formulations were vulcanized for 30 minutes at 150° C.; for formulations FG3.sub.80CB and FG3.sub.90CB the formulations were vulcanized for 16 minutes at 150° C.; and for formulations FG3.sub.80CB and FG3.sub.90CB the formulations were vulcanized for 5 minutes at 150° C.

[0047] The elongation property was measured for the cured samples as elongation at break (%) and the corresponding elongation stress (MPa), which is measured at 23° C. based on ASTM Standard D412 on dumb bell test pieces. These results are shown in Table 2.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Elongation Properties 0 10 20 30 40 50 70 90 phr phr phr phr phr phr phr phr FG1 Elonga- 266 327 511 377 333 261 161 88 tion, % FG1 Force, 7.4 12.3 24.9 20.7 20.7 19.9 19.8 17.2 MPa FG2 Elonga- 405 527 600 506 444 311 244 133.3 tion, % FG2 Force, 10.3 18.6 26.2 23.2 20.7 18.8 18.5 17.8 MPa FG3 Elonga- 618 792 778 618 541 347 298 250 tion, % FG3 Force, 12.8 21.2 23.0 18.7 16.6 13.9 14.5 13.9 MPa

[0048] The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” as used in the claims and specification herein, shall be considered as indicating an open group that may include other elements not specified. The term “consisting essentially of,” as used in the claims and specification herein, shall be considered as indicating a partially open group that may include other elements not specified, so long as those other elements do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed invention. The terms “a,” “an,” and the singular forms of words shall be taken to include the plural form of the same words, such that the terms mean that one or more of something is provided. The terms “at least one” and “one or more” are used interchangeably. The term “one” or “single” shall be used to indicate that one and only one of something is intended. Similarly, other specific integer values, such as “two,” are used when a specific number of things is intended. The terms “preferably,” “preferred,” “prefer,” “optionally,” “may,” and similar terms are used to indicate that an item, condition or step being referred to is an optional (not required) feature of the invention. Ranges that are described as being “between a and b” are inclusive of the values for “a” and “b.”

[0049] It should be understood from the foregoing description that various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments of the present invention without departing from its true spirit. The foregoing description is provided for the purpose of illustration only and should not be construed in a limiting sense. Only the language of the following claims should limit the scope of this invention.