Heavy-Duty Tire Tread Protuberances for Stone Ejection and Noise Damping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Tire treads for heavy vehicles face challenges in preventing stone retention during off-road use and in reducing noise generation during on-road use.
Innovation Solution
The tire tread features longitudinal grooves with protuberances that act as both stone ejectors and anti-noise barriers. These protuberances are designed with specific geometric characteristics to ensure effective stone ejection and noise damping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If longitudinal voids are present in the tread to improve grip and heat dissipation, then longitudinal and transverse grip are improved, but stones are retained in the voids causing damage to the crown reinforcement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful function of stone retention from the longitudinal voids by introducing protuberances that actively eject stones. The protuberances are positioned within the voids to intercept and expel stones before they can penetrate the crown reinforcement, thus removing the harmful effect while preserving the voids' beneficial grip and heat dissipation functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The protuberances act as intermediary elements between the longitudinal voids and the crown reinforcement. They are positioned within the voids to serve as a protective barrier that intercepts stones, preventing direct contact between stones and the crown reinforcement while maintaining the structural integrity and functionality of the tread design.
2Reliability
If longitudinal voids are present in the tread for grip performance, then grip is improved, but noise is generated during on-road use due to sound wave propagation in the voids
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful noise-generating function of the longitudinal voids into a beneficial anti-noise barrier function by introducing protuberances. These protuberances disrupt sound wave propagation within the voids, transforming the voids from noise sources into noise-dampening structures, thus converting the harmful acoustic effect into a beneficial noise-reduction feature while preserving grip performance.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the tread is designed with deep longitudinal grooves for stone ejection, then stone retention is reduced, but the anti-noise barrier effectiveness is diminished
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by positioning protuberances at specific locations within the longitudinal grooves rather than uniformly across the entire groove depth. The protuberances are strategically placed to optimize both stone ejection functionality and anti-noise barrier effectiveness, creating localized functional zones that address different requirements at different positions within the groove structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The tread effectively prevents stone retention by promoting stone ejection and reduces noise generation by creating an efficient anti-noise barrier, thereby enhancing both off-road durability and on-road quietness.
Implementation Method 1
The protuberances bear against one or the other of the lateral walls and two consecutive protuberances, which do not necessarily bear against the same lateral wall, are spaced apart by a pitch P
Implementation Method 2
Devices for ejecting stones, in the form of protuberances of suitable shape and size, have been described in documents EP 3178669, WO 0132448 and WO 2009082394
Data Source
AI summary
A tire tread (1) for a heavy construction plant vehicle, and aims to improve both its ability to not retain stones in its voids, during off-road use, and its ability to dampen the noise that it generates, during on-road use. At least one longitudinal groove (6) of the tread (1) has a longitudinal distribution of protuberances (7), and any protuberance (7) has a height H′ at least equal to 0.9 times the depth H of the groove (6) and has a first portion (71), having a height H1, a width W1 and a thickness T1, and a second portion (72), having a height H2, a width W2 and a thickness T2, satisfying the relationships: H′=H1+H2, 0.6*H′<=H2<=0.9*H′, W2>=0.25*W, T2<=min(3 mm; 1/3*T1), W1>=0.5*W, T1>=H1.