Tire Land Portion Sipe Segmentation for Dry and Snow Performance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tires with sipes in land portions face a trade-off between steering stability on dry roads and performance on snow and ice, often compromising either rigidity or frictional force.
Innovation Solution
A tire design featuring long, middle, and short sipes in the tread part, where long sipes extend across the land portion, middle sipes terminate beyond the center, and short sipes terminate within, maintaining rigidity while enhancing frictional force on snow and ice.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sipes are provided in a land portion to improve traveling performance on snow and ice, then frictional force on snow and ice is improved, but steering stability on dry roads deteriorates due to reduced rigidity
Solution Approach 1:
The sipe configuration is segmented into three distinct types (long sipes extending from first edge to second edge, middle sipes extending from one edge to beyond center position, and short sipes extending from one edge to within center position) to distribute their effects throughout the land portion, achieving balanced performance across different road conditions
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the land portion are assigned different sipe characteristics - long sipes provide friction enhancement in areas requiring it, while the strategic termination points of middle and short sipes preserve rigidity in critical areas, creating local variations in mechanical properties to satisfy conflicting requirements
2Force
If long sipes extend from first edge to second edge to maximize friction, then frictional force on snow and ice is improved, but rigidity of the land portion is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The sipe population is divided into three length categories, with only a portion being long sipes that extend fully across the land portion. This segmentation allows the system to gain friction benefits from long sipes while the presence of shorter sipes maintains overall structural rigidity
Solution Approach 2:
The sipe length parameter is varied across three discrete values (long, middle, short) rather than using a uniform length, allowing optimization of both friction generation and rigidity maintenance through parameter diversity
Data Source
AI summary
A tire includes a tread part including a land portion such that the land portion has a tread surface formed between a first edge extending in a tire circumferential direction and a second edge extending in the tire circumferential direction. The land portion includes long sipes, middle sipes, and short sipes such that each of the long sipes is extending from the first edge to the second edge, that each of the middle sipes is extending from one of the first edge and the second edge and terminating in the land portion at a point beyond a tire axial direction center position of the land portion, and that each of the short sipes is extending from one of the first edge and the second edge and terminating in the land portion without extending to a point beyond the center position.