Tire Tread Block Sipe Angles for Wear and Noise
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tire treads with oblique incisions face challenges in optimizing wear resistance while minimizing noise generation and ensuring uniform wear patterns, as the width and distribution of incisions affect both grip and durability.
Innovation Solution
The tread design maintains a specific distance between adjacent incisions to enhance sub-block rigidity, limits overlap to distribute braking force evenly, and varies incision angles to create sub-blocks of different dimensions, reducing noise and promoting uniform wear, with optional curved or chamfered incisions for improved aesthetics and braking performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If oblique incisions are added to increase grip, then grip performance is improved, but wear resistance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying the angle of oblique incisions at different positions within the same tread block. Specifically, incisions in different rows or columns have different angles relative to the circumferential direction, creating locally differentiated structures that optimize both grip and wear resistance in different zones of the tread block.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asymmetry by using non-uniform incision angles rather than parallel incisions. The incisions are deliberately designed with varying angles to break symmetry, which prevents uniform wear patterns and reduces noise while maintaining effective grip across different loading conditions.
2Reliability
If multiple oblique incisions are used to enhance grip, then grip performance is improved, but noise generation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces noise by introducing asymmetry through varying incision angles. This asymmetric arrangement disrupts the periodicity of noise-generating vibrations that occur with uniform incision patterns, thereby reducing audible noise while preserving the grip-enhancing benefits of multiple oblique incisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-designing the incision angle variation pattern during tire manufacturing. The non-uniform angles are predetermined to preemptively counteract noise generation mechanisms, ensuring that the tread pattern inherently minimizes noise before the tire enters service.
3Reliability
If incisions are made closer together to increase ridge count, then grip on wet ground is improved, but sub-block rigidity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by strategically varying incision angles in different local zones of the tread block. This allows certain areas to have closer incisions for enhanced grip while other areas maintain larger spacing to preserve sub-block rigidity, optimizing both functions through spatially differentiated design.
4Ease of manufacture
If uniform incision distribution is used, then manufacturing is simplified, but wear uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs asymmetry by deliberately avoiding uniform incision distribution. The varying angles create an asymmetric pattern that promotes more uniform wear across the tread block by distributing stress and contact pressures more evenly, while the systematic nature of the variation maintains reasonable manufacturing feasibility.
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention relates to a tyre tread comprising at least one elongate block (3) of rubber material of width W and of length L with L>>W. This elongate block extends in a circumferential direction (X) when the tread (1) is mounted on the tyre. The elongate block (3) comprises a contact surface (5) intended to come into contact with the ground and a first lateral wall (7) and a second lateral wall (9) delimiting this contact surface (5). The elongate block (3) comprises a plurality of sipes (11, 11a, 11b) opening onto the contact surface (5) of the elongate block, each sipe (11) extending in an oblique direction and opening onto the first lateral wall (7) and onto the second lateral wall (9). The sipes (11) are spread over the contact surface (5) of the block in such a way that when one sipe (11a) reaches the second lateral wall (9) another sipe (11b) begins from the first lateral wall (7) at the same circumferential level (N) on the elongate block (3). The sipes (11, 11a, 11b) delimit sub-blocks (8) in the elongate block (3), at least two of these sub-blocks (8) being configured differently in the tread.