Pneumatic Tire Saw-Tooth Tread for Ice Traction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pneumatic tires with existing shallow grooves and recesses in the tread do not adequately enhance travel performance on frozen road surfaces without altering their structural features.
Innovation Solution
A pneumatic tire design featuring parallel shallow grooves forming a saw teeth shape with edges and recesses between them, which enhances edge effects for improved traction on frozen surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If shallow grooves and recesses are formed in the tread to eliminate water film on frozen road surfaces, then on-ice braking performance is improved, but travel performance on frozen road surfaces cannot be further improved without changing the tread structure
Solution Approach 1:
The tread is segmented into multiple functional elements: shallow grooves extending in parallel, recesses formed between them, and edges created at the apexes of the saw teeth shape. This segmentation allows each element to contribute differently to ice contact and water film elimination, improving overall travel performance on frozen surfaces while maintaining the basic tread structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The shallow grooves are configured to form an asymmetric saw teeth shape in cross-section, with edges at the apexes. This asymmetric geometry creates directional edge effects that enhance penetration into ice and improve traction, while the recesses positioned between edges provide additional ice contact points, collectively improving travel performance without altering the fundamental tread structure.
2Device complexity
If the conventional tread structure with shallow grooves and recesses is maintained, then structural simplicity is preserved, but travel performance on frozen road surfaces is limited
Solution Approach 1:
Specific local features are introduced into the tread: edges are formed at the apexes of the saw teeth shape created by parallel shallow grooves, and recesses are positioned between these edges. These localized structural modifications enhance ice contact and edge effects in critical areas, improving travel performance on frozen surfaces while keeping the overall tread structure relatively simple and maintaining ease of manufacture.
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 edge effects from both shallow grooves and recesses improve travel performance on frozen roads, providing superior steering stability and traction without altering the conventional tread structure.
Implementation Method 1
an edge effect is exerted by the edges of the shallow grooves and the recesses, each of which is formed between the two edges
Data Source
AI summary
In a pneumatic tire which is formed with plural shallow grooves 40 and plural recesses 32 in a tread and in which the plural shallow grooves 40 extend in parallel, the plural shallow grooves 40 form a saw teeth shape as a cross-sectional shape of the tread in a direction orthogonal to an extending direction of the shallow grooves 40, portions corresponding to apexes of the saw teeth shape are formed as edges 44, and the recess 32 is formed between the two edges 44.