The invention relates to a vehicle wheel with a non-pneumatic tyre intended for a wheeled vehicle. In this type of tyres, air or other gas pressure for maintaining tyre resilience is not used, but tyre resilience is achieved by the use and specified shape of resilient material of a vehicle tyre.

There is a number of known wheel constructions with non-pneumatic tyres for vehicles, whereas they belong to two basic types, where the first type is tyres filled inside, and the second type is tyres where tyre material contains slits or cavities, or a tyre is specially shaped, comprising voids enabling tyre material to be strained. The solution according to the invention belongs to the second type of solutions.

According to the solution disclosed in US patent specification No. US 5,139,066, a non-pneumatic tyre of a vehicle wheel comprises an annular body of resilient construction having a radially inner peripheral portion. A circumferential web extends between, and is connected to, the radially inner and outer portions. To each side of the circumferential web there is a set of circumferentially spaced ribs. Each rib extends between and is connected to the radially inner and outer portions of the tyre. Each rib is also connected to the web. A characterising feature of the tyre is that the web comprises consecutive web sections extending in alternate directions. Between the ribs there are voids comprising cushioning members of the tyre.

Another solution of a vehicle wheel with a non-pneumatic tyre for a vehicle is disclosed in the patent specification of international application publication No. WO 2008/009042. According to this known solution, a tyre comprises a body of elastomeric material, the body having two opposed side faces and a plurality of voids formed in the body. Said voids comprise a first set of voids opening onto one side face and a second set of voids opening onto the other side face. Each void comprises a first void section being of larger cross-sectional area than the second void section. The first void section, opening onto the respective outer side face, is connected by the second end with the second smaller void section. In this solution the described circumferential set of void sections comprises a cushioning system for the tyre.

Another solution of a resilient structure of a vehicle wheel tyre is disclosed in the patent specification of international application No. WO 2007/057975. According to this known solution, the weight of an automobile is supported not by pneumatic pressure but by an elastic structure to achieve sufficient ride quality. The tyre has an annular structure body and an arch cover. The structure body is an assembly of arch- shaped ribs and inner layer rings and outer layer rings and belts of elastic material. The elastic material is an annular corrugated elastic body formed by alternating crests and roots. The inner layer ring is an elastic belt-like body connecting the roots of the arch-like rib to cover the inner circumferential edge of the rib. However, the outer layer ring is an annular elastic belt-like body connecting tops of the crests of the arch-shaped rib to cover the outer circumferential edge of the rib. Therefore, the circumferentially arch-shaped rib with roots and crests is formed in a closed torus space. In this known solution, the tyre fulfils its function by maintaining an elastic structure with sufficient load capacity between two circumferential endless strips of material.

Another known solution of a vehicle wheel with a non-pneumatic tyre is disclosed in the specification of international application No. WO2010/049963. According to this known solution, this type of tyre intended for road vehicles comprises a tread with rolls contacting a road surface, and a reinforcing strip made of elastomeric material for reinforcing the tread inside. The reinforcing strip is located inside the tread and has a number of adjacent blocks movable with respect to one another, and another circumferential forcing device for exerting force on the blocks.

According to the invention, a vehicle wheel with a non-pneumatic tyre comprises a support disc perpendicular to the wheel rotation axis and an irremovable tyre, fixedly mounted on the disc. The non-pneumatic tyre has the form of a disc body of flexible material having a symmetry axis coincident with the wheel rotation axis fixedly mounted on the support disc. The tyre contains a working portion comprising a peripheral flat tread.

The vehicle wheel, according to the invention, is characterised in that the annular body of flexible material comprises joint with its outer peripheral edge, at least one hollow cylindrical flange of flexible material.

The outer surface of the tyre cylindrical wall comprises a tread improving traction properties of the tyre.

The outer surface, comprising the tread, of said tyre flange is convergent from the peripheral edge of the tyre body of flexible material towards the wheel rotation axis. Near the peripheral edge of the tyre body of flexible material, the body comprises inside at least one peripheral chamber containing a cushioning medium.

The tyre body of flexible material may comprise joint with it on its both sides two cylindrical flanges. Two said flanges are mounted on a common symmetry axis coincident with the symmetry axis of the vehicle wheel.

The outer surface, containing the tread, of each of the two cylindrical flanges of the tyre is convergent from the peripheral edge of the body of flexible material towards the vehicle wheel rotation axis.

In another variant of the solution according to the invention, a vehicle wheel with a non-pneumatic tyre comprises a support disc perpendicular to the wheel rotation axis and an irremovable tyre, fixedly mounted on the disc. The tyre has the form of a disc body of flexible material having a symmetry axis coincident with the wheel rotation axis. The tyre disc body comprises a peripheral working wall with a flat outer tread. According to the invention, the vehicle wheel in this variant of the invention is characterised in that the tyre body inside the working portion of the tyre comprises a peripheral channel, wherein the support disc comprises on the outer edge a peripheral annular cavity on which the working portion of the tyre is arranged in the form of a peripheral flange comprising the outer tread.

The extreme peripheral edges of the working portion of the tyre according to the invention are mounted on the extreme peripheral edges of the peripheral cavity of the support disc. According to the invention, in this variant of the tyre according to the invention, the peripheral wall of the tyre with the tread in a central part has a smaller diameter than the diameter of both peripheral edges of the wall.

According to this variant of the invention, inside at least one peripheral edge of the tread wall at least one peripheral channel containing a cushioning medium is located. Preferably, each of both peripheral edges of the tread wall comprise at least one said peripheral channel containing a cushioning medium.

According to the invention, a new design of a non-pneumatic tyre is proposed. The tyre according to the invention enables the automatic regulation of the contact surface of the tread with the ground when driving. When driving the optimum contact surface of the tyre with the ground is created depending on the vehicle speed, so on the rotational speed of the wheel.

As the rotational speed increases, the centrifugal force acting on the cylindrical, hollow tyre flange with a tapering, slightly conical outer surface increases. The increase in the rotational speed of the wheel causes a gradual stretching of walls of the cylindrical, hollow, slightly conical tyre flange, and thus an increase in the contact surface of the tyre with the ground.

As the rotational speed of the wheel decreases, the centrifugal force acting on the cylindrical, hollow tyre flange with a tapering, slightly conical outer surface

decreases. The decrease in the rotational speed of the wheel causes a gradual return of the cylindrical, hollow, slightly conical tyre flange to its original shape, and thus a decrease in the contact surface of the tyre with the ground.

A similar phenomenon to the described above occurs in the second variant of the solution according to the invention. In this variant of the tyre, an increase in the contact surface of the tread is due to an increase in the diameter of the central tread band located between two extreme peripheral edges of the tyre with an increase in the rotational speed of the wheel. However, a decrease in the contact surface of the tread is as a result of a decrease in the diameter of the central tread band located between two extreme peripheral edges of the tyre with a decrease in the rotational speed of the wheel. For this purpose, the tyre wall with an outer tread in this variant of the invention in the central band is thicker, and therefore heavier than in extreme bands of the working surface of the tyre. This facilitates a change in the periphery of the central band of the tyre due to the action of the variable centrifugal force at a variable rotational speed of the wheel according to the invention.

A decrease in the contact surface of the tyre to the ground at a decreased driving speed affects a decrease in fuel consumption.

The tyre according to the invention is not vulnerable to puncture effects which occur in a conventional pneumatic tyre. The support disc, constituting the equivalent of a wheel rim in the solution of the wheel according to the invention, during a collision does not cause tyre depressurisation, as in the case of a conventional pneumatic tyre.

The tyre disc, according to the invention, together with the tyre comprises an integral monolith which makes that replacement of wheels is easier, including replacement of wheels with wheels with summer or winter tyres.

The monolithic complete vehicle wheel, according to the invention, can be manufactured in a single manufacturing cycle, which reduces the cost of its manufacture.

The object of the invention is shown in the embodiments in the accompanying drawings in which the individual figures show:

Fig. 1 - The vehicle wheel with one side cylindrical surface in a perspective view of the support disc,

Fig. 2 - The wheel, according to Fig. 1 , in a perspective view of the interior of the cylindrical surface,

Fig. 3 - A cross-section of the vehicle wheel, according to Fig. 1 ,

Fig. 4 - The vehicle wheel with two side cylindrical surfaces in a perspective view, Fig. 5 - A cross-section of the vehicle wheel, according to Fig. 4,

Fig. 6 - The vehicle wheel with the convex peripheral side edges and the concave central peripheral tread band,

Fig. 7 - A cross-section of the vehicle wheel, according to Fig. 6. Example I

As shown in Fig. 1 , Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, a vehicle wheel comprises a metal support disc

1 perpendicular to the wheel rotation axis and a tyre 2 fixedly mounted on the disc 1. The tyre 2 is fixedly connected with the disc 1 and in the described embodiment the tyre is non-replaceable. As shown in the conditions of Fig. 1 , Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, the disc 1 comprises fixing holes 3 for fixing the wheel on the vehicle axle. The tyre 2 has the form of a disc body 4 of flexible material having a symmetry axis coincident with the wheel rotation axis. The tyre 2 contains a working portion in the form of a peripheral flat tread 5. The tyre 2 body 4 of flexible material is mounted on the support disc 1 , as shown in Fig. 3. The tyre 2 body 4 has the form of a circular disc, as shown in Fig. 1 , Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 , Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, with an outer peripheral edge 6 of the tyre 2 body 4 it is connected by means of one hollow working portion in the form of a cylindrical flange 15 of flexible material. As shown in the accompanying drawings, the cylindrical flange 15 of the tyre 2 comprises inside a hollow space bounded by the bottom in the form of the metal support disc 1 embedded into the tyre 2 disc body 4. Therefore, the tyre 2 with the disc body 4 and the support disc 1 comprise a monolith and in this solution, if the tyre

2 is damaged, the whole vehicle wheel according to the invention is replaced. In this embodiment, the wheel has the cylindrical flange 15 only on one side of the tyre 2 disc body 4. The support disc 1 in this embodiment is made of steel, but other embodiments do not exclude the support disc 1 made of other metal, plastics or composites. However, the tyre 2 is made of elastic polymer, what does not preclude the use of other materials for this purpose in other embodiments. As shown in Fig. 3 in the illustrated embodiment, on the periphery of the tyre disc body of flexible material, the material comprises inside four peripheral channels 8.

The channels 8 are filled with cushioning gel to obtain initial cushioning properties.

Other embodiments as a cushioning medium do not exclude the use of liquids or cushioning foams for this purpose.

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show that the tyre 2 flange 15 comprising the outer tread is convergent from the peripheral edge 6 of the tyre 2 body 4 towards the vehicle wheel rotation axis A. This convergence is clearly visible in Fig. 3, where the outer diameter of the tyre 2 circumference measured in the disc body 4 area is bigger than the diameter of the flange 15 measured in the area of the free edge of the cylindrical portion 7 of the tyre 2.

Example II

The vehicle wheel according to the invention is shown in the second example in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. These drawings show the tyre according to the invention comprising, in contrast to the first example, two flanges 15 on both sides of the disc body 4. The tyre according to the invention makes it possible to obtain better load symmetry on the vehicle wheel axle.

Example III

Another, third example of the vehicle wheel with the non-pneumatic tyre is shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7.

According to this variant of the vehicle wheel according to the invention, the support disc is made up of two mirrored circular members 8. The two made up members 8 are arranged so as to form on the outer edge a peripheral annular cavity 9 on which the tyre working portion 10 is formed in the form of the flange 15 comprising the outer tread 5 improving traction properties of the tyre.

As shown in Fig. 7, extreme peripheral edges 11 of the tyre working portion 10 are mounted on peripheral edges 12 of the peripheral cavity 10 of the support disc . The tyre 2 disc body 4 inside the tyre working portion 10 comprises a peripheral channel 13, whereas in this variant of the solution according to the invention, the peripheral tread 5 in the cylindrical working portion of the tyre, in its central part 14 has a smaller diameter than the diameter of the extreme peripheral tyre 2 edges 11.

As shown in Fig. 6, in this example, each of both peripheral tyre edges 11 comprises inside one peripheral channel 7. The peripheral channels 7 contain a flexible cushioning medium in the form of elastomeric gel. In other examples, other cushioning medium can be used to fill the peripheral channels 7. The peripheral channel 13, also provided in example III, can also be in further examples filled with a cushioning medium. Fig. 7 also shows that the flexible material in the tyre 2 working wall is irregular in thickness, and is the thickest in the central peripheral concave part 14 of the tyre 2 flange 15.

List of designations in the figures

1. Support disc.

2. Tyre.

3. Fixing hole.

4. Disc body.

5. Tread.

6. Peripheral edge of the tyre body.

7. Cushioning channel.

8. Support disc member.

9. Peripheral annular cavity.

10. Tyre working portion.

11. Extreme peripheral tyre edge.

12. Edge of the peripheral cavity.

13. Peripheral channel.

14. Central part of the wheel.

15. Tyre flange.

A. Vehicle wheel rotation axis.