Pneumatic Tire Tread Pattern for Snow Traction and Even Wear
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Solution Overview
Problem
All-season tires face challenges in providing both on-snow performance and steering stability while maintaining even wear resistance, as lug grooves enhance snow traction but reduce tread rubber rigidity, leading to uneven wear.
Innovation Solution
A pneumatic tire design featuring inclined lug grooves and sipes in specific patterns across land portions, which balance snow traction and wear resistance by offsetting lug groove connections and distributing rigidity evenly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If lug grooves are formed in the land portions, then on-snow performance is improved through snow column shear force, but the rigidity of tread rubber is reduced leading to uneven wear
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making the lug grooves inclined at different angles in different circumferential positions. Specifically, lug grooves in the shoulder land portion are inclined at a different angle than those in the middle land portion, creating localized variations in rigidity distribution that prevent uneven wear while maintaining snow traction performance
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asymmetry by designing the lug groove inclination angles to be non-uniform across the tread width. The inclination angle varies from the shoulder land portion to the middle land portion, creating an asymmetric rigidity distribution pattern that balances snow column shear force generation with prevention of localized wear
2Reliability
If lug grooves are formed to improve snow traction, then snow column shear force is obtained, but rigidity distribution becomes uneven in the tire circumferential direction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates local quality variations by assigning different inclination angles to lug grooves in different land portions. The shoulder land portion lug grooves have one inclination angle while middle land portion lug grooves have another, creating localized rigidity characteristics that collectively achieve uniform overall rigidity distribution
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameter of lug groove inclination angle to optimize performance. By varying the inclination angle parameter across different circumferential positions and land portions, the patent achieves both effective snow column shear force and uniform rigidity distribution
Data Source
AI summary
A pneumatic tire tread pattern includes, on a first side in a width direction relative to a tire centerline, first lug grooves in a shoulder land portion extending from an outer side in the width direction toward and connecting with a shoulder side main groove; and second lug grooves in a middle land portion between the shoulder side main groove and a center side main groove, the second lug grooves extending from a portion of the shoulder side main groove between connection positions of circumferentially adjacent first lug grooves with the shoulder side main groove, toward the center side main groove, and being closed within the middle land portion. The first lug grooves are inclined, at the connection position, to one side in the circumferential direction relative to the width direction. The second lug grooves are inclined to be parallel with an inclination direction of the first lug groove.