Tire Tread Incision Segmentation for Wear Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional treads for heavy vehicles with numerous incisions exhibit localized wear, reducing their rigidity and lifespan, despite maintaining grip performance on wet roads.
Innovation Solution
A tread pattern featuring longitudinal ribs with transverse incisions, where each incision has at least three parts: two transverse parts and one longitudinal part, with the transverse parts being offset and lacking blocking means, and the longitudinal part acting as a decoupling element to reduce relative movement between facing faces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If numerous transverse incisions are provided in the tread ribs to improve wet road grip, then grip performance is improved, but localized wear occurs at the incision ridges reducing tread lifespan
Solution Approach 1:
The incision is segmented into three distinct parts: a first transverse part, a second transverse part, and a longitudinal part connecting them. This segmentation allows each part to serve different functions - the transverse parts maintain grip performance while the longitudinal part prevents localized wear by distributing stress along the incision length, thereby extending tread lifespan without sacrificing grip.
2Ease of manufacture
If the facing faces of material defining each incision are allowed to slide relative to each other, then manufacturing is simpler, but rigidity of the tread is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The incision design applies local quality by creating different geometric characteristics at different locations. The longitudinal part of the incision has a specific orientation (at most 10° with the longitudinal direction) that provides structural reinforcement and maintains rigidity, while the transverse parts provide the necessary flexibility and grip performance. This localized differentiation allows the tread to maintain overall rigidity while still being manufacturable with standard incision processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A tire tread includes at least one longitudinal rib limited by grooves. Each rib includes a plurality of incisions each opening into the grooves. Each incision has at least three parts at least two at least of these parts being of essentially transverse orientation and opening into the grooves. At least one other part is oriented essentially in the longitudinal direction. All parts of the incision of essentially longitudinal orientation are devoid any structure for blocking relative movement between the opposing faces of the incision. The parts of essentially transverse orientation include structure for limiting the amplitude of the relative movements of these faces at least in the direction of the thickness of the tread.