3D Sipe Projections for Tire Block Stiffness and Drainage
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Solution Overview
Problem
3D sipes in pneumatic tires improve stiffness but can reduce drainage efficiency when their walls come into close contact, counteracting the intended gripping performance on icy roads.
Innovation Solution
Forming sipes with pairs of projections on inclined surfaces that oppose each other, using a vulcanizing mold with blades having inclined surfaces and through holes, to maintain stiffness while allowing water drainage by keeping non-projection areas open.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If 3D sipes with inclined surfaces are formed to improve block stiffness, then the sipe walls come into close contact under longitudinal force, but this closes the water channel and reduces drainage efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The sipe structure is segmented into multiple functional zones: upper inclined surfaces for stiffness enhancement and lower substantially horizontal surfaces for drainage maintenance. This segmentation allows different portions of the sipe to fulfill different functions simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between stiffness and drainage efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the sipe are given different geometric properties: the upper portion has inclined surfaces that provide stiffness through wall contact, while the lower portion has horizontal surfaces that maintain open water channels. This local differentiation of structural qualities enables both stiffness improvement and drainage preservation
Data Source
AI summary
A pneumatic tire is molded by using a vulcanizing mold in which blades 20, each composed of a metal thin plate having an inclined portion 20a in the depth direction and a plurality of through holes 20G with the same sectional form as that of projections to be formed in the sipe in the inclined portion 20a are buried in a groove portion corresponding to the tire block of the vulcanizing mold, thereby forming 3D sipes having unevenness in the radial direction of the block and a plurality of pairs of projections in the inclined portion in the block of the tire. Thereby, when longitudinal force is applied to the tire, adjacent small blocks of the block come into close contact with each other only at the positions of the projections of the 3D sipes, thereby making it possible to ensure the block stiffness of the pneumatic tire 10 without reducing the drainage function.