Directional Tire Tread Pattern for Balanced Wear and Grip
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional pneumatic tires face challenges in achieving well-balanced improvements in wet performance, dry performance, and uneven wear resistance, with enhanced lug groove components often compromising dry performance and wear resistance.
Innovation Solution
A pneumatic tire design featuring an annular-shaped tread portion with strategically positioned main grooves and lug grooves, where the lug grooves are closed at both ends within ribs, optimizing their placement and dimensions to enhance steering stability and wear resistance on both dry and wet surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If lug groove components are added to improve wet performance, then wet performance is improved, but uneven wear resistance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Different groove designs are applied to different local regions of the tread: the first and fourth lug grooves in shoulder regions have different configurations compared to the second and third lug grooves in central regions. This local differentiation optimizes water evacuation where needed while preserving wear resistance in high-contact areas.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional tread pattern is used, then manufacturing is simple, but it cannot simultaneously improve wet performance, dry performance, and uneven wear resistance
Solution Approach 1:
The tread pattern is designed to simultaneously achieve multiple functions: water evacuation (wet performance), steering stability (dry performance), and wear resistance. The coordinated arrangement of four lug grooves with specific pitch ratios and positions enables the tire to fulfill multiple performance requirements through a single integrated design.
Data Source
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AI summary
A pneumatic tire is provided that is capable of improving wet performance, dry performance, and uneven wear resistance in a well-balanced manner. In the pneumatic tire, for which a mounting direction is designated when the tire is mounted on a vehicle, a first main groove and a second main groove extending in a tire circumferential direction are provided in a tread portion. A distance GL1 of the first main groove is set so as to be 6% or less of a ground contact half width TL/2, a distance GL2 of the second main groove is set so as to be from 40% to 65% of the ground contact half width TL/2, and a first rib, a second rib, and a third rib are defined in the tread portion. Further, a plurality of first lug grooves, a plurality of second lug grooves, a plurality of third lug grooves, a plurality of fourth lug grooves, and a plurality of fifth lug grooves are provided in the tread portion, each of the first lug grooves being positioned between a ground contact edge on an inner side of the vehicle and the second main groove and both ends thereof being closed, one end of each of the second lug grooves being communicated with the second main groove and the other end thereof being closed, one end of each of the third lug grooves being communicated with the first main groove and the other end thereof being closed, each of the fourth lug grooves being positioned between a ground contact edge on an outer side of the vehicle and the first main groove and both ends thereof being closed, and each of the fifth lug grooves being positioned between the ground contact edge on the outer side of the vehicle and the fourth lug groove and both ends thereof being closed.