Tire Tread Sipe Layout for Wet Grip and Rib Rigidity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pneumatic tires with chamfered sipes that communicate with different main grooves in the tire circumferential direction suffer from reduced rib rigidity during initial use, leading to decreased steering stability on dry road surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A pneumatic tire design featuring chamfered and non-chamfered sipes alternately disposed in the tire circumferential direction, with specific ratios and relationships between their distances, lengths, and widths, ensuring that the chamfered sipes communicate with the same main groove, and the land portion bulges outward in the tire radial direction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If chamfered sipes that communicate with different main grooves are alternately disposed in the tire circumferential direction, then wet performance is improved, but rib rigidity deteriorates and steering stability on dry road surfaces declines
Solution Approach 1:
The sipes are segmented into two types: chamfered sipes (communicating with one main groove) and non-chamfered sipes (communicating with two main grooves). They are alternately disposed in the tire circumferential direction, creating a segmented pattern that combines the drainage benefits of chamfered sipes with the rigidity benefits of non-chamfered sipes, thereby resolving the contradiction between wet performance and rib rigidity
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the tread pattern are assigned different sipe types based on local functional requirements. Chamfered sipes are positioned where drainage is prioritized, while non-chamfered sipes are positioned where rigidity is prioritized. The specific arrangement with distance ratios (1.5≤b/a≤12) and length ratios (0.2≤Lm/Lp≤0.95) creates local quality variations that simultaneously achieve both wet performance and steering stability
2Productivity
If chamfered sipes are formed in the land portion, then drainage properties are improved, but land portion rigidity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The land portion is segmented into multiple sipes with different configurations. By alternating chamfered and non-chamfered sipes, the drainage function is distributed to specific sipes while the rigidity function is distributed to other sipes, allowing both functions to coexist without compromising overall land portion strength
Solution Approach 2:
The sipes are designed with specific parameter ranges: distance ratios (b/a between 1.5 and 12), length ratios (Lm/Lp between 0.2 and 0.95), opening width ratios (Wm/Wp between 1.2 and 6.0), and groove depth ratios (Dp/Dm between 1.2 and 8.0). These parameter changes optimize the balance between drainage efficiency and rigidity maintenance
Data Source
AI summary
A pneumatic tire includes chamfered sipes in a land portion each including a chamfered portion, and non-chamfered sipes in the land portion each not including the chamfered portion. The chamfered sipe includes one end communicating with the main groove that defines the land portion and the other end terminating within the land portion. The chamfered and non-chamfered sipes are alternately disposed in the circumferential direction. Of the non-chamfered sipes on both sides in the circumferential direction of the chamfered sipe, a relationship between a distance a and a distance b is in the range 1.5≤(b/a)≤12, where the distance a is between the chamfered sipe and a near sipe corresponding to the non-chamfered sipe located on a side closest to the chamfered sipe, and the distance b is between the chamfered sipe and the non-chamfered sipe located further from the chamfered sipe in the circumferential direction.