JPH0450164Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea] "Technical field" The present invention relates to improvements in tire chains.

"Prior art and its problems" Various technologies related to tire chains have been proposed in the past. For example, there are those made of a mesh-like rubber net, and those made of multiple rubber anti-slip pieces connected in a ladder shape that span the width of the tire.
Both have been put into practical use. All of these tire chains are used in place of steel chains in regions with relatively little snowfall.
In other words, the above-mentioned conventional chain suffers from the problems that steel chains have, namely, that it is heavy, and when installing the tire, it must be done by hand winding, which is cumbersome, and it must be done by jacking up, making the installation work extremely difficult. It was put into practical use in response to the desire to improve the existing issues, reduce manual labor, and make the installation process easier.

However, even with the conventional tire chain mentioned above, it is not possible to attach it to the tire in a so-called one-touch manner. Wrap the unwrapped parts by hand and tighten the inner end of the chain near the outer surface of the tire with a wire, or tie multiple parts of the inner end of the chain with rubber string to secure it. A considerable amount of manual winding work remained. Furthermore, since the main bodies of the conventional tire chains described above are all made of rubber, they are difficult to apply to so-called ice burns, even though they are mainly effective on snowy roads.

``Purpose of the invention'' The present invention reduces the number of manual winding operations required in conventional tire chains, and allows the winding operation to be performed with one touch.

"Summary of the invention" The tire chain of the invention includes a chain body 11 that is generally plate-shaped and is wrapped around the outer circumference of a drive-side tire, and a chain body 11 that overlaps each other when wrapped around the outer circumference of the tire. , protrusions 16 and 17 extending from both ends of the chain body 11, and these protrusions 16 and 17.
an engagement means for releasably connecting the protruding pieces 16; A pair of hooks 20 provided with claw portions 22, the protruding piece 16 protrudes between these hooks 20 in a tongue shape, and when the protruding pieces 16 and 17 are overlapped, the chain It is characterized in that the plate thickness is approximately the same as that of the main body 11.

When installing the tire chain of the present invention, first, the hook 20 is pushed in to sandwich both sides of the drive-side tire, and the hook 22 at the tip is locked to the inner circumference of the tire. At this time, the protrusion 16 protruding like a tongue between the hooks 20 comes into contact with the tire, so its tip is curved downward and pressed against the outer peripheral surface of the tire. In this state, when the vehicle is moved forward or backward and the tires are gradually rotated in a direction that involves the tire chain, the protrusions 16 are placed under the tires and become entangled in the tires. When the tire rotates once in this manner, the protrusions 16 and 17 forming both ends of the chain body 11 overlap each other and are laid under the tire, and the protrusions 16 and 17 are connected by the engagement means to the tire of the chain. is installed. Therefore, unlike conventional chains, there is no need to manually wind the chain, making the installation process easier. In addition, the projecting piece 16,1
The thickness of the part where 7 overlaps is the chain body 1.
Since the wall thickness is approximately the same as that of No. 1, there is no difference in level and a good riding comfort can be maintained.

"Embodiment of the invention" An embodiment of the invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the chain body 11 attached to the outer circumferential surface of the tire T on the driving side has a plate shape as a whole and is made of an elastic member such as synthetic rubber. This chain body 11 has a plate-like portion 1
2 and mesh portions 13 alternately, and are connected by beam portions 14 on both sides. In this embodiment, an appropriate distance is maintained between the plate-shaped portion 12 and the net-shaped portion 13, but the plate-shaped portion 12 and the net-shaped portion 13 may be brought into close contact with each other. The plate-shaped portion 12 and the beam portion 14 are integrally formed, and the chain body 1
1. The overall strength is increased. The mesh portion 13 is also fixed to the beam portion 14 on both sides by suitable fastening means. The ground surface of the plate-shaped portion 12 is formed in an uneven shape (the plane is omitted in the figure), and spikes 15 are attached to the convex portion.
has been planted, making it suitable for so-called ice burns. Further, the intersecting portions of the mesh portion 13 are fastened with a stopper, so that the mesh portion 13 can be mainly applied to snowy roads. Therefore, the chain body 11 is configured to be applicable to both snowy roads and icy roads.

Projections 16 and 17 are formed at both ends of the chain body 11. These projecting pieces 16 and 17 are parts that overlap and connect with each other when the chain body 11 is wrapped around the outer peripheral surface of the tire T, and when they overlap, they have a thickness that is approximately the same as the plate thickness of the chain body 11. Each of them is formed to become a thin plate toward the tip. Among these, a large number of protrusions 18 whose heads are enlarged in diameter are formed on one surface of the protruding piece 16 (on the ground surface side of the chain body 11). Further, the protruding piece 17 is formed with a large number of engagement holes 19 into which the protrusions 18 are fitted. In this case, it is preferable that the engagement holes 19 be formed randomly without corresponding to the projections 18, and that the number of the engagement holes 19 be greater than the number of the projections 18. Then, by fitting the protrusion 18 into the engagement hole 19, the protrusion piece 16 and the protrusion piece 17 are connected.

A hook 20 is formed on the protruding piece 16 from the side thereof toward the tip. This hook 20 holds the tire T from both sides, and has a claw portion 22 at its tip that is engaged with the inner circumferential surface of the concave portion 21 of the tire.
have. This claw portion 22 is covered with a non-slip material made of an elastic member, for example, to improve the adhesion with the concave portion 21 of the tire T. Such a hook 20 is preferably made of elastic metal or the like.
By pressing the claw portion 22 against the outer peripheral end of the tire T, the claw portion 22 is engaged with the concave portion 21 of the tire T, and the hook 20 clamps both sides of the tire T by its elastic force. It's becoming like that.

A plurality of curved pieces 23 are embedded in a line in the beam portion 14 at equal intervals along the length direction.
This curved piece 23 is buried in a curved manner toward the contact surface side with the tire T, and when the chain body 11 is viewed in cross section as shown in FIG. I'm trying to bend back. and,
The curved piece 23 functions to further warp the beam portion 14 toward the tire T when a load is applied by the tire T, as shown by the two-dot chain line, and also prevents the chain body 11 from being bent when it is flat. I also work.

In addition, a wire 2 is placed near the end of the beam portion 14.
4 is slidably inserted. This wire 2
4 squeezes the beam portion 14 and presses it against the side surface of the tire T when the chain body 11 is wrapped around the tire T, and has a hook portion 24a at one end and a ring portion 24b at the other end. by hooking it on the ring part 24b, the chain body 11
is adapted to be attached closely to the outer peripheral surface of the tire T. The wire 24 only needs to be inserted through at least one beam portion 14;
4 on one of the beam portions 14, it is preferable to position the wire 24 on the outer side surface of the tire T when the chain body 11 is installed in order to facilitate the tightening work. Note that the wire 24 is preferably elastic.

The tire chain having the above configuration is attached to the tire T as follows.

The curved surface of the chain body 11 of the beam portion 14 is the upper side, that is, the side in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the tire T,
The claw portion 22 is brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the tire T. Of course, the tire T in this case is on the driving wheel side. When the hook 20 is pressed against the tire T in this state, the claw portion 22 comes into contact with the side surface near the outer peripheral surface of the tire T, and then engages with the inner peripheral surface of the concave portion 21, and the expanded hook 20 , pinches both sides of the tire T by its elastic force. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, the protrusion 16 protruding like a tongue between the hooks 20 comes into contact with the tire T, so the tip thereof is curved downward to prevent the tire T.
Press it against the outer circumferential surface of the This is chain body 1
1 is the installation preparation stage. Then, when the car is moved forward or backward and the tire T is rotated as shown by the arrow in the figure, the hook 20 also rotates together with the tire T, and the protrusion 16 is drawn between the tire T and the ground. . With this, the chain body 11 gradually wraps around the outer peripheral surface of the tire T, and when the tire T rotates once, the protruding pieces 16 and 17 overlap. In this state where the two overlap, the weight of the vehicle is applied to the overlapping part via the tire T, so the protrusion 1
8 is fitted into the engagement hole 19 and the protruding piece 16 and the protruding piece 17
are connected and fixed. At this time, the circumferential side of the tire T exerts strong pressure on the curved piece 23 due to the weight of the vehicle, so the beam portion 14 is further warped toward the tire T. Finally, by manually tightening the wire 24 and locking the hook portion 24a to the ring portion 24b, the chain body 11 is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the tire T in close contact with it. That is, in the tire chain of the present invention, the chain body 11 can be easily attached by two simple manual operations: locking the tire T with the hook 20 and tightening and locking the beam portion 14 with the wire 24. It can be attached to the tire T.

Furthermore, in order to release the attachment of the chain body 11, the connecting portion between the protruding piece 16 and the protruding piece 17 is removed from the position underlayed by the tire T, and the locking between the hook portion 24a and the ring portion 24b is released. , by separating the protruding piece 17 from the protruding piece 16. In order to do this easily, it is preferable to form a handle hole 25 at the tip of the protruding piece 17. The chain body 11 can now be easily removed from the tire T.

``Effects of the invention'' As explained above, according to the invention, the hooks sandwich both sides of the tire, and the protrusion protruding between the hooks is curved downward and brought into contact with the tire. When the car is driven forward or backward and the tires are rotated, the protrusions are placed under the tires and become rolled up, allowing the chain to be wrapped around the tires without manual intervention. Then, when the tire rotates approximately once, the protrusions at both ends of the chain overlap each other and are connected by the engagement means. Therefore, the chain can be easily wrapped around the tire. Furthermore, since the thickness of the portion where the protrusions overlap is approximately the same as the thickness of the chain body, it is possible to reduce the difference in level and maintain a good riding comfort.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the tire chain according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a side view of Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a side view of Figure 1.
The figure is a cross-sectional view showing the connected state of the protrusion parts in Figures 1 and 2, Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the - line in Figure 1, and Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view showing how the tire chain in Figure 1 is connected to the tire. It is a side view of a stopped state. 11... Chain body, 12... Plate-shaped part, 1
3...Network part, 14...Beam part, 15...Spike, 16, 17...Protrusion piece, 18...Protrusion, 19
...Engagement hole, 20...Hook, 21...Concave portion,
22...Claw part, 23...Curved piece, 24...Wire, 24a...Hook part, 24b...Ring part,
T...Tire.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A generally plate-shaped chain body 11 that is wrapped around the outer circumference of a drive-side tire, and a chain body 11 that overlaps each other when wrapped around the outer circumference of the tire. , protrusions 16,1 extending from both ends of the chain body 11
7, an engaging means for removably connecting these protruding pieces 16 and 17, and an engaging means extending from the base side of one of the protruding pieces 16 to sandwich both sides of the tire; A pair of hooks 20 provided with claw portions 22 that lock onto the inner circumference of the tire.
The protruding piece 16 protrudes between these hooks 20 in a tongue shape, and the protruding piece 1
6 and 17 are overlapped, the tire chain has a thickness that is approximately the same as the plate thickness of the chain body 11. (2) Utility Model Registration In claim 1, the tire comprises a protrusion 18 formed on one protrusion 16 and an engagement hole 19 formed on the other protrusion 17. Chain. (3) In claim 1 or 2 of the utility model registration claim, on both sides of the chain body 11,
A tire chain in which a plurality of curved pieces that curve toward the contact surface with the tire are embedded in a line and facing each other.