Making rumble strips from reclaimed tire tread strips

Abstract

A basic tire tread strip product is reclaimed from tire carcasses by cutting away and discarding opposed sidewalls at a position leaving a flat central tread portion exclusive of resiliently biased downwardly extending tread portions at outer edges, thereby to form a product that lies flat on utility surfaces including roofs, floors, roadways and multilayered tread strips forming beams and parking stops. This product ideally serves as a rumble strip for adhering to flat roadway surfaces as a tough, long-wearing structure that encounters vehicle wheels with a distinctive audible warning signal, particularly since it can be removed and reused for example in the winter time to avoid being damaged by snow plows. Also tread strip laminations ideally rest flatly on top of each other to form multi-layered beams of precision widths of the type that may be employed as parking stops for statically intercepting and impeding vehicle wheels in parking lot locations for example.

1 . A method of producing a tread strip product of designated length, thickness and width reclaimed from a substantially toroid shaped outer periphery of a discarded tire carcass characterized by a substantially flat central treaded portion terminating on opposite edges in downwardly curved outer edges forming an upper extremity integral with two downwardly-directed sidewall portions, said outer edges retaining pre-conditioned elastic bias tending to curve the flat central treaded portion downwardly from the intervening flat central treaded portions at the opposite edges, comprising in combination the steps of: 
 removing with the two sidewall portions adjacent said downwardly directed outer edges with the retained elastic bias adjacent to the resulting intermediate tread strip product, and    forming said longitudinal tread strip product from said intervening flat central treaded portion of the tire carcass exclusive of adjacent downwardly curved opposite tire carcass edge extremities whereby the resulting longitudinal tread strips lie in an unstressed flat configuration on a contiguous flat surface.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the longitudinal tread strip product is cut to a width spanning three inches or less on opposite sides of a tread pattern centerline on said outer periphery.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , including the step of supplying the longitudinal tread strip product with an adhesive layer integrally applied upon the inward carcass surface of the strip opposite the tread surface for adhering the tread strip product onto said accompanying flat surface.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  with the modified step of applying a pressure sensitive adhesive layer.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3  including the step of adhesively attaching the longitudinal tread strip in position as a rumble strip to a flat road surface for intercepting the tires of an approaching motor vehicle to produce an audible warning signal.  
     
     
         6 . A structural building member formed of a strip of tire tread with opposed continuously straight lateral edges cut from the central treaded periphery of an abandoned tire carcass of a width extending between and excluding opposing tread shoulders that carry a pre-disposed downwardly directed bias thereby producing a relaxed structural strip member disposed to lie unstressed in a flat configuration upon an adjacent flat surface.  
     
     
         7 . The structural building member of  claim 6  having an adhesive substance on a mounting surface for retaining the building member firmly in place upon an adjacent substantially flat surface.  
     
     
         8 . A laminated assembly of a plurality of said structural building members in  claim 6  adhered together surface to surface into a multi-layered unit.  
     
     
         9 . A rumble strip system comprising a plurality of the structural building members defined in  claim 6  having the strips of tire tread secured in a pattern on a driving surface as a warning system for emitting acoustical signals to a vehicle driver overrunning said pattern for indicating a special road location, said straight lateral edges providing a tough, resilient, long-wearing edge profile of a thickness that produces said acoustical warning signal when encountered by the overruning tires of a moving vehicle.  
     
     
         10 . The rumble strip system of  claim 9  having the structural building members firmly affixed by an adhesive substance to said driving surface.  
     
     
         11 . The rumble strip system of  claim 10  wherein said adhesive substance is a pressure sensitive material firmly adhered to said driving surface.  
     
     
         12 . The rumble strip system of  claim 10  wherein said adhesive substance has a peel adhesion factor that permits non-destructive release of the tire tread strips from said driving surface for reuse.  
     
     
         13 . The method of adhering a system of a plurality of elongated rumble strips in a pattern upon a substantially flat roadway driving surface for providing an acoustic warning of a special road condition to a moving car driver driving over the adhered rumble strips, comprising in combination the steps of: 
 cutting a longitudinal strip of tread having a tread side and opposed casing side from a reclaimed tire of appropriate length and thickness to serve as at least a longitudinal portion of one of said elongated rumble strips,    preparing a pattern upon the roadway driving surface for receiving adjacent thereto of the casing side of said rumble strips comprising the step of cleaning and smoothing the driving surface pattern to produce substantially flat contiguous surfaces at the roadway surface and the casing side of said strips of tread,    preparing the casing side of said rumble strips for receiving an adhesive layer for affixing the rumble strips securely to the driving surface in said pattern,    securing said adhesive layer to said casing side of the rumble strips for securely affixing the rumble strips in a position in the driving surface pattern to thereby withstand normal wear and tear of vehicle tires passing over the rumble strip system, and    affixing the rumble strip adhesive layer to the driving surface pattern.    
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising the steps of applying said adhesive as a pressure sensitive substance to the casing side of the rumble strips, and affixing the adhesive layer to said roadway surface by applied pressure is said step for affixing the layer to the driving surface pattern.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising the steps of applying said adhesive layer of a characteristic peeling factor permitting non-destructively removal of the rumble strips from the roadway surface pattern.