Tire Tread Sipe and Groove Arrangement for Noise and Wet Grip
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tires face a challenge in achieving excellent noise performance while maintaining wet performance, as grooves and sipes intended to improve wet traction often lead to increased noise during running.
Innovation Solution
A tire design featuring specific arrangements of shoulder main grooves, crown main grooves, and sipes, including crown lateral grooves and inner crown sipes, which are strategically positioned and dimensioned to enhance wet performance while minimizing noise through optimized ground contact pressure and drainage, and chamfered edges to reduce impact sounds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If grooves and sipes are provided in the tread portion to improve wet performance, then wet traction is improved, but noise generated during running is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The tread portion is divided into multiple land regions by main grooves, and each land region is further divided into sub-regions by lateral grooves and sipes. This segmentation creates a hierarchical structure that disperses the impact sound frequency bands while maintaining effective drainage pathways for wet performance.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the tread portion are given different groove and sipe configurations tailored to their specific functions. The inner crown land region has a specific arrangement of crown lateral grooves and inner crown sipes optimized for its drainage and noise reduction requirements, while other regions have different patterns suited to their needs.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If crown lateral grooves with length larger than second inner crown sipes are provided in the inner crown land region, then noise performance is improved through frequency dispersion, but wet performance must be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The inner crown land region is segmented into multiple zones by crown lateral grooves of varying lengths and orientations. This creates multiple reflection paths for impact sounds, dispersing frequency bands to reduce noise, while maintaining continuous drainage channels through the coordinated arrangement of grooves and sipes.
Solution Approach 2:
The crown lateral grooves extend in the tire axial direction rather than only in the circumferential direction, adding a dimensional element to the drainage pathway network. This axial component enhances water evacuation capability while the varying groove lengths contribute to noise frequency dispersion.
Data Source
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AI summary
A tyre comprises a tread portion 2 whose position when mounted on a vehicle is specified. The tread portion 2 includes an inner crown land region 8B defined between a crown main groove 4 and an inner shoulder main groove 3B. The inner crown land region 8B includes crown lateral grooves 34, first inner crown sipes 36, second inner crown sipes 37 each extending from the inner shoulder main groove 3B toward the crown main groove 4 and having an inner end terminating within the inner crown land region 8B, and third inner crown sipes 38 each extending from the crown main groove 4 toward the inner shoulder main groove 3B and having an outer end terminating within the inner crown land region 8B. The crown lateral grooves 34 each have a length in a tyre axial direction larger than that of each of the second inner crown sipes 37.