Bent Sipe Tyre Tread for Dry and Ice Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tires designed for improved steering stability on ice/snow roads compromise stiffness on dry roads due to sipes connecting lug grooves and traversing the land portion, leading to suboptimal performance on both surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A tire tread design featuring bent sipes with inclined sipe elements and strategically arranged recesses, which enhance edge effect and stiffness distribution, ensuring balanced steering stability on dry roads and on-ice/snow performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sipes connect lug grooves and traverse the land portion completely, then on-ice/snow performance is improved, but steering stability on dry roads deteriorates due to decreased land portion stiffness
Solution Approach 1:
The sipes are divided into multiple bent elements rather than being continuous straight lines. Each sipe consists of multiple line segments connected at bent portions, creating a segmented structure that maintains cutting edges on ice/snow while reducing overall stiffness impact on the land portion.
Solution Approach 2:
The sipes are designed with bent portions that create curved paths through the land portion rather than straight traversing lines. This curvature allows the sipes to maintain effectiveness for ice/snow cutting while reducing their stiffening effect on the land portion, as the bent configuration distributes stress more effectively.
2Reliability
If sipes traverse the land portion completely, then edge effect on ice/snow is enhanced, but steering stability on dry roads is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
Complete traversing sipes are segmented into multiple bent elements. The sipes still extend from one edge to the other maintaining edge effect, but the segmented bent structure reduces their adverse impact on steering stability by allowing more flexible deformation characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The geometry parameters of the sipes are changed from straight continuous lines to bent multi-segment lines. This parameter change modifies the mechanical properties of the sipes, reducing their stiffness contribution while maintaining their cutting effectiveness on ice and snow surfaces.
Data Source
AI summary
A tyre includes a tread portion including a first land portion having a circumferentially extending first edge and a circumferentially extending second edge on its ground contacting surface. The first land portion is provided with sipes each extending from the first edge to the second edge. The sipes include bent sipes each including two or more sipe elements joined with each other to form a bent portion. The bent sipes include first sipes and second sipes. Each first sipe, as the sipes elements, includes at least one first sipe element inclined in a first direction with respect to a tyre axial direction and at least one second sipe element inclined in a second direction opposite to the first direction with respect to the tyre axial direction. All sipe elements of each second sipe are inclined in the first direction with respect to the tyre axial direction.