5-Rib Tire Sipe Layout for Steering Stability and Low Noise
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current 5-rib tires fail to adequately address the need for improved steering stability and noise performance, particularly in stringent regulatory environments like Europe, where vehicle exterior noise regulations are strict.
Innovation Solution
A 5-rib tire design featuring four circumferential grooves and five land portions, where each land portion has no groove wider than 2.0 mm and is equipped with sipes, including inclined shoulder and middle sipes that maintain specific angle relationships to enhance stiffness and noise reduction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional 5-rib tire designs are used, then basic steering functionality is maintained, but steering stability and noise performance are insufficient to meet stringent regulatory requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating sipe configurations across different land portions. Shoulder land portions have sipes extending beyond tread ends with specific inclination angles, while middle land portions have sipes fully traversing the land portion. Each land portion's sipes are locally optimized to control noise generation at specific contact zones while maintaining steering stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes geometric parameters of sipes including inclination angles (where the absolute value of the inclination angle of sipes on the shoulder land portion is smaller than that of sipes on the middle land portion), lengths (extending beyond tread ends vs. fully traversing), and positions (from circumferential grooves to beyond tread ends). These parameter variations optimize the balance between steering stability and noise reduction.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If sipes are added to land portions, then noise performance is improved, but steering stability may be compromised without proper geometric control
Solution Approach 1:
Different land portions have locally optimized sipe configurations: shoulder land portions have sipes extending beyond tread ends with smaller inclination angles for noise reduction at contact zones, while middle land portions have sipes fully traversing with larger inclination angles to maintain structural integrity and steering stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The sipe configurations exhibit asymmetry in their geometric parameters - shoulder sipes have different lengths and inclination angles compared to middle sipes. This asymmetric design allows each region to contribute differently to noise reduction and stability, with shoulder sipes optimized for noise and middle sipes for structural support.
Data Source
AI summary
A tread portion 2 includes four circumferential grooves 3 and five land portions 4. Each of the five land portions 4 is provided with no groove having a groove width greater than 2.0 mm, and is provided with only sipes 9. The four circumferential grooves 3 include a shoulder circumferential groove 5. The five land portions 4 include a shoulder land portion 11 and a middle land portion 13. The middle land portion 13 is provided with a plurality of middle sipes 30. The shoulder land portion 11 is provided with a plurality of shoulder sipes 20 each extending from the shoulder circumferential groove 5 to a position beyond a tread end. At least one of the shoulder sipes 20 includes an inclined portion 21. A maximum angle of the inclined portion 21 with respect to a tire axial direction is not greater than a maximum angle of the middle sipe 30 with respect to the tire axial direction. A difference between the maximum angle of the inclined portion 21 and the maximum angle of the middle sipe 30 is not greater than 5°.