JP2009132229A - Pneumatic tire - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pneumatic tire capable of obtaining higher performance on ice compared to conventional cases. <P>SOLUTION: During traveling on an icy road surface, water between blocks 18 and the icy road surface is absorbed in sipes 20. Since a water absorbing member 22 is attached to a sipe groove wall face 20B of the sipe 20, part of water taken in to inside of the sipe 20 is absorbed by the water absorbing member 22 and part of remaining water is removed by a water discharge channel 24 formed between the water absorbing members 22. Thus, water between the blocks 18 and the icy road surface can be efficiently removed. The water 28 taken in to the water discharge channel 24 is discharged from the side face of the block 18 to outside of the block 18. Therefore, tread faces of the blocks 18 can easily contact the road surface, and edges of the blocks 18 and edges of the sipes 20 can easily contact the road surface, leading to improved edge effects and enhanced performance on ice. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire, and more particularly, to a pneumatic tire having high performance on ice.

In a pneumatic tire having a sipe in a tread, particularly a pneumatic tire called a studless tire, slipping is suppressed by escaping water on ice to the sipe, and an on-ice performance such as a brake performance is secured (for example, Patent Document 1). reference.).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-320917

However, in the conventional pneumatic tire, even when the sipe 102 is formed on the block 100 as shown in FIG. In some cases, the water 106 could not be completely removed.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pneumatic tire capable of obtaining higher performance on ice than before.

  The pneumatic tire according to claim 1, a plurality of land portions provided on a tread and partitioned by a plurality of grooves intersecting with each other, a sipe provided on the land portion and having a groove width at least when no load is applied, A plurality of water-absorbing members attached to at least one sipe groove wall of the sipe and capable of absorbing water, and drainage formed between the water-absorbing member and the water-absorbing member in the sipe to allow the water to pass therethrough. And a road.

Next, the operation of the pneumatic tire according to claim 1 will be described.
When the pneumatic tire according to claim 1 travels on an icy road surface, the water between the land portion and the icy road surface is absorbed by the sipe.
In the pneumatic tire according to claim 1, since the water absorbing member is attached to the wall surface of the sipe groove, a part of the water taken into the sipe is absorbed by the water absorbing member, and the other part is the water absorbing member. Since the water is gradually drained by the drainage channel formed between the water absorbing member and the water absorbing member, the water between the land portion and the ice surface can be efficiently removed.

  Further, in the conventional pneumatic tire, the sipe may be completely closed when the land portion is grounded (see FIG. 7). In the pneumatic tire according to claim 1, the water absorbing member is disposed in the sipe. Therefore, the sipe is not completely closed when the land portion comes in contact with the ground, and the water between the land portion and the ice surface can be reliably removed by the drainage channel.

  As a result, the tread surface of the land portion easily comes into contact with the icy road surface, and the edge of the land portion and the edge of the sipe easily come into contact with the road surface to improve the edge effect, so that high performance on ice can be obtained. The invention according to claim 2 is the pneumatic tire according to claim 1, wherein the affixing area of the water absorbing member is set within a range of 30 to 70% with respect to the sipe groove wall surface. It is characterized by.

Next, the operation of the pneumatic tire according to claim 2 will be described.
If the surface area of the water absorbing member is less than 30% of the wall surface of the sipe groove, water absorption by the water absorbing member becomes insufficient, and high performance on ice cannot be obtained.
On the other hand, if the affixing area of the water absorbing member exceeds 70% with respect to the wall surface of the sipe groove, the area of the drainage channel becomes too small, the slow water efficiency by the drainage channel is lowered, and high performance on ice cannot be obtained.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the pneumatic tire according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that one end of the drainage channel is open to the tread surface side of the land portion.

Next, the operation of the pneumatic tire according to claim 3 will be described.
By opening one end of the drainage channel to the tread surface side of the land part, water between the land part and the ice road surface can be efficiently taken into the drainage channel.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the pneumatic tire according to the third aspect, the other end of the drainage channel is open to a side surface of the land portion.

Next, the operation of the pneumatic tire according to claim 4 will be described.
By opening the other end of the drainage channel to the side surface of the land portion, the water taken into the drainage channel can be efficiently discharged out of the land portion through the side surface of the land portion.

  As described above, since the pneumatic tire of the present invention has the above-described configuration, it has an excellent effect that the performance on ice higher than the conventional one can be obtained.

A pneumatic tire 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the tread 12 of the pneumatic tire 10 of the present embodiment includes a plurality of blocks 18 by a plurality of circumferential grooves 14 and a plurality of lateral grooves 16 intersecting the circumferential grooves 14. It is partitioned. In the pneumatic tire 10 of the present embodiment, the internal structure other than the tread is the same as the structure of a general radial tire, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a plurality of (four in this embodiment) sipes 20 extending in the tire axial direction are formed in the block 18 at intervals in the tire circumferential direction.
A plurality of sheet-shaped water absorbing members 22 are attached to one sipe wall surface of the sipe 20.

The material of the water absorbing member 22 is not particularly limited as long as it is a member that easily absorbs water. For example, a woven fabric, a nonwoven fabric, or the like can be used.
Examples of the fibers constituting the woven fabric and the nonwoven fabric include natural polymer fibers such as cotton, rayon, and cellulose, synthetic polymer fibers such as aliphatic polyamide, polyester, polyvinyl alcohol, polyimide, and aromatic polyamide, and carbon fibers. One or more kinds of fibers selected from glass fibers and steel wires can be mixed, but fibers of other materials may be used.

  Further, the water absorbing member 22 is not limited to a sheet made of fibers, and may be formed from a member that easily absorbs water, such as a sponge, a polystyrene foam, a water absorbent polymer, a highly water absorbent resin, and the like. Also good.

  The water absorbing member 22, the water absorbing member 22, and the water absorbing member 22 and the bottom portion 20A of the sipe 20 are attached separately from each other, and between the water absorbing member 22 and the water absorbing member 22, and between the water absorbing member 22 and the bottom portion 20A. The gap functions as a drainage channel 24. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the drainage channel 24 has one end opened to the tread surface 18 </ b> A side of the block 18 and the other end opened to the side surface 18 </ b> B of the block 18.

Here, the affixing area of the water absorbing member 22 is preferably set within a range of 30 to 70% with respect to the sipe groove wall surface 20B.
Incidentally, the block 18 of the present embodiment has a circumferential length L of 25 mm, a width direction length W of 20 mm, and a height H of 10 mm, and the sipe 20 has a width s of 0.4 mm and a depth D of 8 mm. It is.
The water absorbing member 22 attached to the sipe groove wall surface 20B has a rectangular shape with a vertical dimension A of 5 mm and a horizontal dimension B of 7.5 mm. The water absorbing member 22 has one side that coincides with the tread surface of the block 18, a drainage channel 24 having a width of 4 mm is formed between the adjacent water absorbing member 22, and a drainage channel having a width of 3 mm between the bottom 20 </ b> A of the sipe 20. 24 is formed so as to be formed.

(Function)
Next, the operation of the pneumatic tire 10 of this embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 4, when the pneumatic tire 10 travels on the icy road surface 26, the water 28 between the block 18 and the icy road surface 26 is absorbed by the sipe 20. Since the water absorbing member 22 is attached to the sipe groove wall surface 20B of the sipe 20 of the present embodiment, a part of the water taken into the sipe is absorbed by the water absorbing member 22, and the other part is absorbed. Since the water is absorbed by the drainage channel 24 (see FIG. 3) formed between the member 22 and the water absorbing member 22, the water between the block 18 and the ice surface can be efficiently removed.

The water 28 taken into the drainage channel 24 can be discharged from the side surface 18B of the block 18 to the outside of the block.
Further, when the block 18 is grounded, the sipe 20 is not completely closed, and the water between the block 18 and the ice road surface can be reliably removed by the drainage channel 24.
As a result, the tread surface of the block 18 easily comes into direct contact with the icy road surface 26, and the edge of the block 18 and the edge of the sipe 20 easily come into contact with the road surface, improving the edge effect and obtaining high performance on ice. It is done.

As long as high on-ice performance can be ensured, the dimensions and arrangement of the water absorbing member 22 and the drainage channel 24 are not limited to those of the above embodiment.
The arrangement of the water absorbing member 22 and the drainage channel 24 may be, for example, as shown in FIGS.

(Other embodiments)
In the above embodiment, the sipe 20 is provided in the block 18, but the sipe 20 may be formed in a rib. The sipe 20 may be inclined in the tire axial direction, may be in the tire circumferential direction, and is not limited to a linear shape but may be a zigzag shape.

(Test example)
In order to confirm the effect of the present invention, the tire of the conventional example and the tire of the example to which the present invention was applied were prepared, and the performance on ice was evaluated by running the vehicle. The tire size was 195 / 65R15, and the internal pressure was 200 kPa.

  The tire was mounted on a passenger car and a braking test was conducted on an icy road. In the test, the braking distance from the initial speed of 40 km / h until full braking was applied to the stationary state was measured, and the average deceleration was calculated from the initial speed and the braking distance. The results are as described in Table 1 below, expressed as an average deceleration index, and a larger index indicates better performance on ice.

試験の結果、本発明の適用された実施例のタイヤは、従来例のタイヤに対し、氷上性能が向上しているのが分かる。

As a result of the test, it can be seen that the performance of the tire of the example to which the present invention is applied is improved over the conventional tire.

It is a top view of the tread of the pneumatic tire concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of the block which made a part the cross section. It is sectional drawing along the sipe of a block. It is a side view of the block at the time of drive | working on an icy road surface. It is sectional drawing along the sipe of the block which concerns on other embodiment. It is sectional drawing along the sipe of the block which concerns on other embodiment. It is a side view of the conventional block at the time of drive | working on an icy road surface.

Explanation of symbols

10 Pneumatic tire 12 Tread 14 Circumferential groove 16 Horizontal groove 18 Block (Land)
20 Sipe 22 Water absorption member 24 Drainage channel

Claims (4)

A plurality of land portions provided on the tread and partitioned by a plurality of grooves intersecting each other;
A sipe provided in the land portion and having a groove width at least when no load is applied;
A plurality of water absorbing members attached to at least one sipe groove wall of the sipe and capable of absorbing water;
A drainage channel formed between the water absorbing member and the water absorbing member in the sipe, and capable of draining water between the land portion and a road surface;
A pneumatic tire characterized by comprising:   2. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1, wherein a bonding area of the water absorbing member is set in a range of 30 to 70% with respect to the sipe groove wall surface.   The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 or 2, wherein one end of the drainage channel is open to a tread surface side of the land portion.   The pneumatic tire according to claim 3, wherein the other end of the drainage channel is open to a side surface of the land portion.

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