Colored Tread and Groove Structures for Tire Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tires and other articles lack a reliable, affordable, and durable method to alter the color of their tread and groove elements, which hinders visibility and safety enhancements.
Innovation Solution
The use of colored bands or sleeves that can be attached to the grooves and treads of tires, as well as colored materials for footwear and floormats, to create high-contrast visibility through different colored raised and recessed portions, optionally with lighting capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If traditional single-color (black) tires are used, then manufacturing is simple and cost-effective, but visibility and safety are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The tire is segmented into raised portions (tread elements) and recessed portions (grooves), with each segment assigned a different color. This segmentation allows the tire to have multiple colors without requiring completely different tire designs, thus improving visibility while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through modular coloring approaches.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the tire receive different color treatments locally. The raised portions are colored differently from the recessed portions, creating high-contrast visibility zones. This local quality approach allows color differentiation where it matters most for visibility without requiring the entire tire structure to be complex.
2Illumination intensity
If colored bands or sleeves are attached to grooves and treads, then visibility and safety are enhanced through high-contrast color differentiation, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Colored bands or sleeves serve as intermediary elements that are attached to the tire's grooves and treads. These intermediaries provide the color differentiation function without requiring fundamental changes to the tire manufacturing process. The bands and sleeves are separate components that can be applied to existing tires, thus enhancing visibility while limiting the increase in overall device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The colored bands and sleeves can be dynamically added or removed from the tire, allowing for flexible visibility enhancement. This dynamic approach means the color differentiation system can be adapted or adjusted without permanently altering the tire structure, thereby managing device complexity while maintaining visibility benefits.
3Illumination intensity
If lighting capabilities are added to tire elements, then visibility is further enhanced, but energy consumption and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
If lighting capabilities are incorporated into the tire elements, they can operate periodically or on-demand rather than continuously. This periodic action reduces energy consumption while still providing enhanced visibility when needed, such as during nighttime or low-visibility conditions. The lighting system can be activated only when visibility enhancement is required.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates color-changing materials or lighting elements that can alter their optical properties. This allows the tire to enhance visibility through color differentiation without always requiring active lighting, thereby reducing energy consumption. The color changes themselves provide visibility enhancement in many conditions without the need for additional energy input.
Data Source
AI summary
Articles with raised-portions and recessed-portions, like tires, soles-of-footwear, floormats, vehicle-liners, and coasters, have at least some of the raised-portions be a color and have at least some of the recessed-portions be a different color. This coloring difference enhances visibility of the given article. For tires this may be done by fitting a colored tire-band within a groove of a tire; by fitting a colored sleeve over at least a portion of a tire; or by a machine operating upon an initially untreaded tire to form a treaded tire. For soles-of-footwear, floormats, vehicle-liners, and coasters, this may be done by a machine operating upon an initial article without recessed-portions to form those recessed-portions or upon an initial article without raised-portions to form those raised-portions. The machines may be CNC or 3D printing machines. Light-emitting-element(s) may also be added to bottoms of the recessed-portions.