Tire Tread Groove Texture for Wear Indicator Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tire tread designs face challenges in achieving uniformity and accessibility to wear indicating means, as the placement of textures in grooves can lead to non-uniformity and difficulties in locating the wear indicating feature, which are not adequately addressed by previous solutions.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a tread with repeating design units having principal grooves with textures on the wall surfaces and bottom, except around the wear indicating mean, which creates contrast and improves accessibility, and the texture volume compensates for the reduced groove volume, ensuring improved uniformity and aesthetics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a wear indicating mean is provided as a ridge in the groove, then wear indication function is achieved, but non uniformity of the tire and molding defects occur due to varying rubber volume circumferentially
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing the wear indicating mean only in specific repeating design units (every fourth unit) rather than uniformly in all units. This localized placement ensures the wear indication function is achieved while the overall groove volume remains relatively uniform across different circumferential positions, preventing molding defects and tire non-uniformity.
2Reliability
If the wear indicating mean is placed in the groove, then wear indication is provided, but accessibility to locate the wear indicating mean becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the color changes principle by providing a texture in the groove that contrasts with the contact face in terms of surface characteristics. This contrast makes the groove and the wear indicating mean within it more visually detectable and accessible to users, solving the problem of difficulty in locating the wear indication.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If a texture is provided in the groove to improve accessibility, then wear indication detectability is improved, but non uniformity of the tread worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by restricting the texture to specific regions: the groove bottom and transition areas, but excluding the wear indicating mean itself and the contact face. This selective texturing improves accessibility to the groove while maintaining uniformity by avoiding excessive rubber volume variation in other critical areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by providing the texture only in certain repeating design units (those without wear indicating means) and only in specific regions within those units (groove bottom and transition areas). This partial texturing achieves the accessibility improvement without the excessive rubber volume variation that would result from universal texturing.
Data Source
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AI summary
Present invention provides a tread for a tire having a contact face and comprising a plurality of repeating design units successively placed in circumferential orientation, the plurality of repeating design unites having at least two different circumferential length, each the plurality of repeating design units comprising at least one principal groove, the principal groove comprising two opposed wall surfaces being connected by bottom surface, at least four repeating design units comprising a wear indicating mean in the principal groove provided as to decrease a depth of the principal groove at least partly, the principal groove in the repeating design units without the wear indicating mean is provided with a texture comprises a plurality of elements that protrude from and/or are recessed into two opposed wall surfaces and/or the bottom surface, the principal groove in the repeating design units containing the wear indicating mean is devoid of the texture.