Pneumatic Tire Tread with Block Row and Continuous Ribs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional pneumatic tire tread patterns struggle to achieve high steering stability on both dry and wet road surfaces, especially at high speeds, due to the opposing requirements of rigidity and drainage.
Innovation Solution
The tire features four main grooves and five land portions on the tread surface, with specific positioning and configurations to balance rigidity and drainage, including a block row and continuous ribs, inclined grooves, and varying groove widths and spacings to optimize steering stability on both dry and wet surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If many lug grooves and sipes are provided on the tread surface to improve drainage, then steering stability on wet road surfaces is improved, but rigidity of land portions decreases and steering stability on dry road surfaces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating different tread patterns in different regions: the shoulder portions have lug grooves for drainage while the central portion has continuous ribs for rigidity. Specifically, the first and second land portions at the shoulders contain lug grooves, while the third, fourth, and fifth land portions in the central region form continuous ribs, allowing each region to optimize for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the tread surface into five distinct land portions (first through fifth) separated by grooves, with different configurations in each segment. The shoulder land portions (first and second) are segmented with lug grooves for drainage, while the central land portions (third, fourth, and fifth) are kept continuous for structural rigidity, resolving the contradiction through spatial segmentation of functions.
2Strength
If conventional tread pattern structures are used to maintain rigidity, then steering stability on dry road surfaces is maintained, but drainage performance deteriorates at high speeds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by providing drainage features (lug grooves) only in the shoulder land portions where they are most effective for high-speed water evacuation, while maintaining continuous rigid ribs in the central land portions that contact the road during high-speed steering, thus achieving both rigidity and drainage where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a dimensional aspect to drainage by creating three-dimensional lug groove structures in the shoulder portions that extend into the tread depth, providing effective drainage channels without compromising the two-dimensional continuous rib structure in the central region that maintains rigidity.
Data Source
AI summary
A pneumatic tire including five land portions in a tread surface 1 by providing four main grooves in a ground contact region of the tread surface, wherein positions and groove widths of the main grooves are specified together with only one land portion positioned outermost on a vehicle outer side when mounted on a vehicle being formed into a block row, and the other land portions being formed into ribs, and a groove area proportion of the tread surface is larger on a vehicle inner side than the vehicle outer side with a tire equator and center lines of some of the land portions as boundaries.