Pneumatic tire assembly

Claim 1

A pneumatic tire assembly capable of supporting a vehicle wheel rolling for a limited distance when the air contained in said assembly has escaped, including a wheel rim with flanges forming bead seats on the lateral sides of said rim, a pneumatic tire having bead portions mounted on said bead seats, and an annular elastomeric insert extending around the circumference of said rim inside said pneumatic tire, said insert having radially inner edges mounted on the flanges of the rim and engaging said beads of the said pneumatic tire, said pneumatic tire assembly characterized by said annular insert having (1) a plurality of spaced apart first sections disposed about the circumference of said insert, each of said first sections having a rectangular radially outward wall substantially concentric with the tread of said pneumatic tire and having four side edges, two of said side edges being each substantially parallel with one of said radially inner edges of the insert engaging said beads of said tire, each of said first sections also having a first pair of sidewalls extending between said two side edges of said radially outward wall and said radially inner edges of the insert, and further having a second pair of sidewalls extending radially inwardly from the other two of said four side edges of said rectangular radially outward wall, each of said sidewalls being substantially perpendicular to said radially outward wall, and (2) a plurality of circumferentially spaced second sections connecting said first sections together, said second sections having lateral walls extending between said second pairs of side walls of said first sections and extending radially outwardly and axially toward each other from the radially inner edges of said insert engaging said beads of said tire.