Tire Tread Coextrusion With Deep Embedded Reinforcing Inserts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current coextrusion installations for producing tire treads lack the flexibility to create complex tread designs with freely adjustable shapes, insertion positions, and dimensions of circumferential reinforcers within tread pattern blocks, limiting the complexity and performance of tire treads.
Innovation Solution
A coextrusion installation with a multi-head extrusion system that includes pre-scrapers and scrapers to create an embedding trench in the sublayer, allowing for the insertion of a third elastomeric compound as a circumferential reinforcer within the tread pattern block, which can be positioned freely along both lateral and vertical directions, and then filled by the tread compound to integrate the reinforcer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a multi-head extrusion system with pre-scrapers and scrapers is used to create embedding trenches for circumferential reinforcers, then the complexity and flexibility of tread designs are improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The extrusion head is segmented into multiple functional portions (first head portion with pre-scraper, second head portion with scraper, third head portion with injector) that operate sequentially to create the embedding trench and insert the circumferential reinforcer. This segmentation allows each component to perform a specific function, enabling complex tread designs while maintaining manageable device complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The pre-scraper in the first head portion creates the embedding trench in the sublayer before the second elastomeric compound is extruded. This preliminary action allows the trench to be formed in advance, enabling precise positioning of the circumferential reinforcer and facilitating complex tread designs without requiring post-processing operations.
2Loss of energy
If the sublayer thickness is minimized to prevent energy dissipation and heat buildup, then rolling resistance is reduced, but the structural support and stability of the tread are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The tread structure uses a composite of multiple elastomeric compounds with different properties: the first elastomeric compound for the sublayer provides structural support and stability, while the second elastomeric compound for the tread pattern blocks provides contact performance. The circumferential reinforcer made from a third elastomeric compound with stiffer behavior enhances cornering stability. This composite material approach allows minimal sublayer thickness for reduced rolling resistance while maintaining overall tread stability through the reinforcing elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The sublayer thickness is minimized in regions where circumferential reinforcers are inserted to reduce energy dissipation and heat buildup, while the reinforcers themselves provide localized structural support and stability. This local quality approach allows the sublayer to be thin where needed for performance while maintaining stability where the reinforcers are positioned.
3Strength
If circumferential reinforcers are inserted deeply in the tread pattern blocks to enhance cornering resistance, then lateral support is improved, but the manufacturing precision required for positioning increases
Solution Approach 1:
The embedding trench is created in advance by the pre-scraper and scraper before the second elastomeric compound is extruded. This preliminary creation of the trench ensures precise positioning of the circumferential reinforcer at the desired depth within the tread pattern block, achieving both high cornering resistance and manufacturing precision through the sequential extrusion process.
Solution Approach 2:
The embedding trench acts as an intermediary structure that facilitates the insertion of the circumferential reinforcer at the precise required depth. The trench provides a pre-formed cavity that guides the reinforcer to the correct position, reducing the manufacturing precision requirements for direct insertion while ensuring deep embedding for optimal cornering resistance.
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
This solution enables the production of complex tread profiles with enhanced cornering resistance and reduced rolling resistance, minimizing sublayer thickness to prevent energy dissipation and heat buildup, thereby improving tire performance and fuel efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
The first head portion also comprises at least one pre-scraper which projects vertically into the gap... such that the pre-scraper can reserve, within the stream of the first elastomeric compound, a trench referred to as 'embedding trench'
Implementation Method 2
The third head portion comprises at least one injector which projects into the gap, in the longitudinal continuation of the scraper, and which has an injection opening intended to inject a third elastomeric compound
Implementation Method 3
the flow of the profiled element below the covering wall allows the first and second lateral substreams of second elastomeric compound to close up over the insert, thus filling the embedding trench
Data Source
AI summary
The coextrusion installation is intended to generate a profiled element for a tire tread by extruding a sublayer made of first elastomeric compound, an overlayer made of second elastomeric compound for forming the tread pattern blocks, and inserts made of third elastomeric compound. The installation includes pre-scrapers followed by scrapers for deepening the embedding trenches, injectors for injecting an insert at the bottom of each embedding trench, and then a covering wall which allows the streams of the second elastomeric compound to meet by filling the embedding trench in question and by covering the corresponding insert so as to embed the said insert at a predetermined embedding depth.