[Disclaimer: I am not making any comment on this one. I will leave it all to you. This is from KAIT-TV’s (Jonesboro, Ark.) Web site, and concerns a Leachville, Ark., man’s recent tire balancing patent. Click on the Web link to see the actual video.]
http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=12119293
KAIT-TV – Leachville Man Earns Patent for No Lead Tires
Most of us have at least once in our lives thought about getting a patent on some idea.
Perry Cude of Leachville had an idea and acted on it.
As far as going green goes, Perry Cude’s idea should make him a hero in California… Which has recently done away with lead weights on tires.
This patent that Cude recently received was based on an idea for airplane tires.
"I started out to fix tires for airplanes so that they were spinning before they touched the ground."
But somebody patented that idea back in 1931. So still thinking about his half moons on airplane tires.
"You lowered your landing gear and the wheel would spin."
Cude realized that these cups on the tires would be trimmed to reduce weight and be balanced since you can’t use weights on airplane tires…..suddenly the light came on.
"That’s the way to eliminate lead wheel weights on land tires."
Cude is not a big fan of wheel weights. He says they don’t do wheels any good and leave marks when they come off. California banned the weights because after getting ground up on roads the remains were washing into the ground and possibly into their limited water supplies.
So how does his idea work?
Basically you take a grinder or some kind of shaving tool and remove a little rubber on the inside of a tread line or a cross cut expansion joint.
"You’re not interfering with the circumference of the tire. You’re down inside the channels and no more than you take off. It doesn’t affect the life of the tire."
Cude says this balancing could be done at the manufacturer’s with a quick final balance at the tire shop. Balancing is actually a pretty simple process.
Cude has sent his patent to several manufacturers and now he waits to see if they and the public will go for the idea.
And like any prospective inventor, Cude would like to make some money off his idea.
"We use 300 million tires in the United States each year. I only want 2 dollars a tire."
Cude says he is thinking of new ideas all the time. His next patent he says will involve farm machinery.
