Civil Engineering Tire Tread With Progressive Transverse Groove Width
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Solution Overview
Problem
Civil engineering vehicle tires face reduced traction due to mud or soil accumulation in transverse grooves between blocks, which existing solutions attempt to address by reducing block length, compromising grip and traction.
Innovation Solution
A tread pattern with transverse grooves that increase in width progressively from the equatorial plane, allowing for effective clearance of mud or soil without compromising longitudinal grip and traction, featuring blocks with specific geometric configurations such as parallelepipedal and truncated shapes, and varying edge corner angles to maintain contact patch performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the transverse grooves are made deeper to clear mud and soil, then the clearance ability is improved, but the grip and traction are reduced because the grooves retain too much material
Solution Approach 1:
The groove width varies locally along its length, being narrower at the entry and wider at the exit. This local variation in geometry allows the groove to perform different functions at different locations: the narrow entry portion maintains grip while the wide exit portion enables material ejection.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a uniform two-dimensional groove cross-section to a three-dimensional varying width profile. The groove width changes along the circumferential direction, adding a dimensional variation that enables both material retention and ejection functions simultaneously.
2Productivity
If the block length in the edge rows is reduced to eject soil from grooves, then the soil clearance is improved, but the longitudinal grip and traction are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the soil ejection function from the block length reduction approach and relocates it to the groove width variation. This allows the blocks to maintain their full length for traction while the grooves handle the material ejection through their expanding geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of reducing block length in one dimension, the invention uses groove width variation in the transverse dimension to achieve soil ejection. This preserves the longitudinal block length needed for traction while providing ejection capability through lateral groove expansion.
3Productivity
If the transverse groove width increases progressively from the equatorial plane, then the mud clearance is enhanced without compromising grip, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The groove width variation is implemented as a localized geometric feature within the overall tread pattern. While the geometry is more complex than uniform grooves, the local variation can be integrated into standard molding processes, balancing performance improvement with manufacturing feasibility.
Data Source
AI summary
Tread for a civil engineering tire, provided with circumferential grooves and transverse grooves, having two edge rows provided with a plurality of blocks, which in pairs delimiting a groove of transverse overall orientation opening both onto a circumferential groove and to the outside of the tread, each block having a contact face to contact the ground, two lateral faces—an external lateral face and an internal lateral face, a front face and a rear face, intersecting the contact face along a front edge corner and a rear edge corner, the blocks formed such that their external lateral faces lie the same distance from an equatorial plane that divides the tread into two equal halves wherein the width of the transverse grooves increases progressively at least from a non-zero distance measured from a plane parallel to the equatorial plane through the axially outermost points of the external lateral faces of the blocks wherein the maximum increase in width of a transverse groove is at least equal to 20% and at most equal to 50% of the maximum circumferential length Lc of each block.