The tire sealant system of the present invention is particularly, but not exclusively, useful as a device and method for repairing a puncture in a tire. The water soluble bag delivery system allows application of a various compositions of dry materials and liquids to be applied to tires, thereby providing puncture protection. After placement of the bag into the tire cavity, water, a water/propylene glycol combination or other liquids may be added to produce the sealant solution. This type of delivery system is previously unknown to the tire industry, tire sealant industry, or heavy equipment industry. Allowing the use of varying amounts of freeze protection as needed by local climate extremes results in a lower application cost and extended storage life of the sealant composition. A dry material powder may be shipped without a large volume of water and antifreeze, eliminating hazards of spillage of sealant solution while reducing shipment gross weight by 200 to 500%.
Previous methods of applying sealant protection required various expensive pump mechanisms to place the sealant solutions in the tire cavity. The most common installation method requires high viscosity solutions be pumped with a hand pump through the tire stem assembly. The core assembly must be removed from the stem assembly prior to the pumping procedure, and then thick sealant solution is pumped via a laborious pumping procedure through the stem orifice. These hand pumps, over time, often rust or become inoperable, adding to the cost of treatment and deterring customers from considering treatment to their tires. After treatment of the tires, sealant solutions often plug the valve core assembly making it difficult to remove air from the tire when major repair or replacement is required.
Distributors and users of sealant solutions are plagued with numerous issues causing industry sales and applications to be limited in comparison to market place potential. Manufacturers of sealant solutions must ship heavy 5-gallon pails (50 to 75 lbs) of solution across the country, often at premium rates because they are transporting deleterious chemicals. Sealant solutions are often stored in user stock rooms or on distributor shelves for prolonged periods of time, making them ineffective or unusable while consuming large storage space. These 5-gallon pails and associated lids are expensive and seldom recycled.
Sealant manufacturers ship solutions from their factory with freeze protection included for maximum temperature extremes (usually xe2x88x9250xc2x0 F.). This means two thirds of the liquid is glycol for maximum freeze protection, regardless of local temperatures where the sealant solution is actually used. For most manufacturers, the cost of glycol is the single highest cost factor in producing tire sealant solution.
A serious added expense for the user of sealant solution lies in the purchase of more sealant than is actually needed for the application. Minimum purchase for most applications is 5 gallons of sealant, yet many tires require only 1 quart to one-half gallon. Therefore, users are often left with several gallons of solution to be stored for later use. This often results in the user electing not to treat tires with sealant, or deciding have a tire supplier apply sealant resulting in greater end-user cost. To provide the user with sealant protection, the tire dealer may buy a 55-gallon drum instead of a 5-gallon pail requiring a major inventory investment and shipment of a heavy drum from the sealant manufacturer. Sealant solutions often sit for extended periods of time in storage and dry up. These associated costs and inefficiencies have severely limited the appeal of tire sealant to users and distributors, especially because these sealant solutions only protect xc2xc inch punctures in the tire tread.
Puncture protection of xc2xc inch or less requires that larger punctures must be repaired. Tire repair is made significantly more complicated with the presence of high-viscosity glue like solutions. High viscosity glue sealant solutions require accurate measurement of solution to be properly applied to tires (especially below 11-inch rim diameter). Service personnel often add extra solution to make certain of adequate protection. This increases treatment cost in both time and materials. Pumping of liquids from a closed pail with a hand pump into the closed cavity of the fire requires a certain amount of guesswork on the part of the person applying the sealant liquid. When larger tires are treated, the hand pump approach is so time consuming that service personnel would rather pour sealant solution directly out of 5-gallon pails into the tire prior to completion of mounting the tire on the wheel. This process is wasteful and inaccurate, yet it is the only practical way to apply large amounts of high-viscosity liquids.
Some other higher density sealant solutions required a high shear mixing apparatus to congeal or manufacture the finished liquid in the field or shop. This mixing procedure is often cumbersome and susceptible to spills that could create additional work by mixing personnel. Mixing a solution in this fashion occasionally allows dust particles of the constituents to become airborne and potentially ingested by mixing personnel. Chemical dust from inefficient mixing is also deposited on surrounding surfaces, requiring clean up after the mixing project is completed.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tire sealant system-and method of application therefor which obviates the need for a hand pump when using the system to seal and/or repair a tire. It is another object of the present invention to provide a tire sealant system and application method which can seal and/or a repair tire puncture without removal of the tire stem. It is another object of the present invention to provide an application method for the tire sealant system which is quickly and easily accomplished with a minimum of waste. Another object of the present invention is to provide a tire sealant system that is relatively easy to manufacture in a cost effective manner.
A tire sealant system in accordance with the present invention includes a tire sealant powder, a water soluble bag and a predetermined volume of water. The powder includes a plurality of heavy metal inorganic salt particles, a plurality of silicate clay particles, a plurality of mica particles and a thickening agent.
The powder is hermetically sealed within the bag until deployment. For deployment, the bag is placed within a tire well, and a predetermined volume of water corresponding to the amount of powder within the bag is poured into the well. The water soluble bag dissolves in the water. As the bag dissolves, the enclosed powder contacts the water and dissolves therein, forming an aqueous suspension. The tire is then mounted to a wheel rim and is inflated. The above-listed particles in the suspension seal any subsequent punctures in the mounted tire.
The device and method of the present invention is also used to repair punctures in tires which have already been mounted to a wheel rim. To do this, a bead of the tire is dislodged from the rim. The bag and water are placed in the tire well to form the aqueous suspension as described above. Next, the bead is remounted on the rim and the tire is inflated. As the tire is inflated, the particles deposit in the puncture and seal the puncture.
This invention provides a revolutionary delivery system by effectively delivering and dispensing various tire treatments. Performance of a sealant solution is enhanced by use of a revolutionary delivery system that incorporates a water-soluble bag polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) bag as a means to locate sealant constituents in the tire cavity. The PVOH bag dissolves almost instantly (within 2 minutes) in the tire when water and, or, water and antifreeze is added, yielding a homogeneous sealant solution.
This delivery system accomplishes several functions:
1. Eliminates spill conditions normally encountered with sealant solutions.
2. Allows larger particles to be used in the formulation that previously plugged the tire stem when pumped through the stem assembly. This invention utilizes larger particles improving sealant protection as these larger particles bridge larger punctures in the fire. Management of fluid-loss both in the tire and in application to the tire results in a more-effective and less costly tire puncture protection while sealing bigger punctures with greater reliability than previous tire sealants. Once the PVOH bag and a measurable amount of liquid are added directly into the tire cavity, the tire does the mixing as it rotates.
3. The proper amounts of dry material and, or, liquids can be easily applied giving the user the option to add water and or freeze protection specific for local climate extremes. Specific incremental adjustments in dry material can be applied for every specific tire size offering minimal cost to the user. Application methods of this invention are more reliable and cost effective because the water-soluble bag provides a means to apply precise amounts dry materials and liquids at the distributor location or user facility. If desired, the PVOH bag with the properly selected particle size may be dissolved in a pail and pumped through the stem assembly. Placing a bag(s) in the tire cavity eliminates the time consuming pumping procedure and costly equipment, required to pump liquids through the stem assembly.
4. The use of a dry powder material or liquid may be applied via the invention delivery system eliminating previous concerns of limited shelf life associated with the use of high-viscosity tire sealant solutions. The water-soluble bag may be selected to allow application of specific liquids such as a biocide that will not dissolve the PVOH bag. This allows placement of a smaller water-soluble bag inside the larger PVOH bag, which then dissolves after the initial PVOH bag is dissolved.
5. Utilization of dry materials packaged in the water-soluble bag eliminates the need for control of air-borne dust particles making this product the safest and most effective delivery system available to the tire industry.
6. Shipping costs have been reduced to a minimum by shipment of dry bio-friendly materials, eliminating the need to ship water and freeze protection in pails or drums. Some of these earlier solutions are potentially hazardous or unknown materials. Conventional ground shipping methods can be used to easily ship the invention worldwide. Size and weight of packaging has been reduced by 50 to 100% resulting in a dramatic weight, size and cost reduction from most all previous manufacturing methods.
7. The 5-gallon pail which liquid sealant manufacturers are required to use to package their products is no longer a necessity. This reduces cost of manufacturing and weight of the shipment.
8. Propylene glycol can be added after application to the tire. Freeze protection can be applied later in the event equipment is relocated to a colder climate.
Countries around the world located near and around the equator will be able to use this delivery system without the high cost of shipment or content of antifreeze. With ecological concerns becoming more prevalent, use of costly and toxic glycol solutions has become an issue for most all sealant manufacturers.