Tire Decorative Ridges Absorb Light to Conceal Damage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tire decorative features, such as blades, are prone to damage like chipping and rubber bareness, making damaged areas conspicuous and reducing contrast.
Innovation Solution
A tire with a decorative region featuring ridges of varying height and width, arranged with specific pitch distances and shapes to absorb and diffuse light, making damaged areas less noticeable and maintaining high contrast.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If blades or tufts are provided on the tire surface to increase contrast, then the contrast of the decorative region is improved, but the blades are liable to be partially damaged by chipping off of rubber and bareness
Solution Approach 1:
The decorative region is segmented into multiple ridges with variable heights and widths, creating a distributed pattern rather than continuous blades. This segmentation allows damage to be isolated to individual ridge segments while maintaining overall pattern integrity and contrast.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the ridges have different heights and widths (variable geometry), creating local variations in light absorption. The minimum and maximum height/width portions are strategically positioned to optimize both contrast and damage concealment in different locations.
2Reliability
If ridges with variable height and width are provided, then damaged portions become less noticeable, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ridges exhibit periodic patterns of minimum and maximum height/width portions along their lengths, with pitch distances between 0.1 to 5.0 mm. This periodicity provides a systematic approach to variable geometry that can be manufactured using standard molding techniques with periodic cavity variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The ridge dimensions (height and width) are varied within specific ranges (height: 0.05-0.55 mm, width: 0.05-0.55 mm) rather than using extreme variations. This controlled parameter change achieves damage concealment while remaining within manufacturable limits for standard tire production processes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The tire's design effectively conceals damage and maintains high contrast by using ridges with variable dimensions and arrangements that absorb and diffuse light, making damaged areas inconspicuous and preserving aesthetic appeal.
Implementation Method 1
the incident light on the decorative region is absorbed and diffused by the ridges
Implementation Method 2
the incident light on the decorative region is absorbed and diffused by the ridges
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A tire 1 has a visible outer surface provided with a decorative region 9. The decorative region 9 is provided with parallel ridges 10. Each of the ridges 10 has a variable height along its length direction f1 so that the ridge 10 has a minimum height portion 14 and a maximum height portion 15 which are repeated along the length direction f1, and/or a variable width along its length direction f1 so that the ridge 10 has a minimum width portion 12 and a maximum width portion 13 which are repeated along the length direction f1. A pitch distance p1 between the minimum width portions 12 and the maximum width portions 13 is in a range from 0.1 to 5.0 mm.