Patent ID: 8534335

Claim:
A self-inflating tire assembly comprising: a tire having a tire cavity, first and second sidewalls extending respectively from first and second tire bead regions to a tire tread region; at least one air tube connected to the tire and having a plurality of adjacent diaphragm segments containing respective adjoining diaphragm chambers and an air passageway extending through the air tube and the diaphragm chambers, at least one adjacent pair of the adjoining diaphragm chambers separated by a one-way check valve allowing a directional passage of air through the valve from an inlet valve side to an outlet valve side, the air tube being composed of an elastic material operative to sequentially at least partially collapse adjacent diaphragm segments passing near a rolling tire footprint to pump air through the one-way valve between the adjoining diaphragm chambers along the air passageway; an inlet device positioned within the air passageway operative to pass air into the air passageway; an outlet device positioned within the passageway operative in an open position to pass air within the air passageway into the tire cavity; wherein the adjacent diaphragm segments have respective volumes sized to compress one segment at a time in a rolling tire; and wherein the adjacent diaphragm segments have a respective segment length substantially equivalent to a segment length of the air tube flattened by a tire footprint deformation.