Pneumatic Tire Tread Blocks with Inclined Grooves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Tires with enhanced drainage and traction performance on bad roads tend to have increased exterior noise and wear issues, necessitating a solution that maintains high drainage and traction while improving silence and wear resistance.
Innovation Solution
The pneumatic tire features a tread surface with circumferential main grooves, partitioned land portions, inclined grooves, and sipes, where the grooves and sipes are designed to reduce noise and enhance rigidity, with specific configurations that improve drainage, traction, and wear resistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the ratio of the tire widthwise component of the circumferential main grooves is enlarged to ensure traction performance on bad road, then traction performance is improved, but vehicle exterior noise increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the tread surface into multiple land portions separated by circumferential main grooves, and further divides each land portion into blocks by lateral grooves. This segmentation allows the tire to maintain effective widthwise components for traction while breaking up continuous noise-generating surfaces into smaller, quieter segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different groove configurations to different regions of the tread. Specifically, the inclined grooves have varying widths (wide-width portion and narrow-width portion) with different inclination angles, creating local variations that optimize both noise reduction in certain areas and traction in others.
2Reliability
If the ratio of the tire widthwise component of the circumferential main grooves is enlarged to ensure drainage performance, then drainage performance is improved, but wear resistance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The lateral grooves divide land portions into multiple blocks, and inclined grooves further segment these blocks. This creates a multi-level segmented structure that maintains drainage channels while preserving sufficient rubber material between grooves to resist wear.
Solution Approach 2:
The inclined grooves feature varying widths with different inclination angles - wider portions for effective drainage and narrower portions for improved wear resistance. This local variation optimizes the balance between drainage capability and material preservation.
3Ease of manufacture
If the inclined groove has a uniform width and inclination angle, then manufacturing is simplified, but drainage performance and noise reduction are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The inclined groove is designed with varying width (wide-width portion and narrow-width portion) and varying inclination angles along its length. This non-uniform configuration optimizes drainage efficiency and noise reduction performance while remaining manufacturable through standard tire molding processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A pneumatic tire comprising on a tread surface 1 a plurality of blocks 7, wherein: the blocks have an inclined groove 43 formed thereon; the inclined groove has a connecting portion 43a connected to the circumferential main grooves, a wide-width portion 43b connected to the connecting portion, and a narrow-width portion 43c connected to the wide-width portion; the wide-width portion and the narrow-width portion have inclination angles with respect to the tire circumferential direction smaller than the connecting portion; the blocks have a sipe 52a formed thereon, the sipe having one end opening to the connecting portion and the other end opening to the circumferential main grooves; and the sipe has a bent portion.