KR101631758B1 - Kerf structure and pneumatic tire comprising the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an improved cuff structure that provides superior driving performance even on dry or wet road surfaces while having excellent performance on snowy or freezing road surfaces, and pneumatic tires containing the same.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a cuff structure and a pneumatic tire including the same,

The present invention relates to an improved cuff structure and a pneumatic tire including the same, and more particularly, to an improved cuff structure and an improved cuff structure for providing superior driving ability even on a dry or wet road surface while having excellent performance on a snowy or freezing road surface The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire.

BACKGROUND ART [0002] Various proposals have been made concerning pneumatic tires that improve the edge effect of a tire and improve the running performance on a snowy road surface. For example, pneumatic tires have been proposed in which cuffs are formed on a plurality of tread blocks extending in the tire circumferential direction and the tire width direction.

The decrease of the block stiffness in the snow tires can increase the snow tractive force, but it is a cause of deterioration of various performance of the driving due to the block shaking on the ordinary road surface rather than the snow or ice road surface. That is, as shown in Fig. 1, the cuff for snow tires in general has no binding force between the blocks in the vertical direction with respect to the cuff center line, thereby deteriorating the block rigidity, resulting in degraded performance on the dry road surface and the wet road surface. That is, since the opposed tread blocks are divided by the cuff, the rigidity of the block is lowered and the block is easily deformed. As a result, the cuff collapses along with the deformation of small blocks of the tread block divided by the cuff at the time of traveling, and the frictional force caused by the friction with the road surface is reduced, leading to a phenomenon in which the leading edge of the tire is curled There arises a problem that the running performance of the tire, in particular, the steering stability and the acceleration / braking performance are deteriorated.

In order to improve such a cuff, there has been proposed a tire having so-called 3D cuffs which are formed by changing curves from a shape in a horizontal direction to a shape in a vertical direction. Conventional such 3D cuff techniques include cuffs with a known Y-shaped blade (EP 92119277) with a bifurcated blade, cuffs with a blade (EP 98913097) having various types of protrusions formed on the sides of the blade, A technique such as a cuff having a blade (JP 2005-170308) whose cross section is a straight line and a wave form has been proposed.

However, these tires also have difficulty in securing an appropriate level of rigidity. In the case of a stepped cuff, the block is thinned at the stepped portion at the time of abrasion, which tends to become tattered, thereby damaging the appearance quality.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a cuff for a vehicle, The present invention provides a cuff structure of a tire tread which is excellent in wear performance without deteriorating performance on a dry road surface and a wet road surface while ensuring acceleration performance and braking performance.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a cuff having a cuff having opposite cuffs interlocked with each other to improve block rigidity so as to simultaneously improve both the running performance on the snowy and freezing road surface and the running performance on the dry road surface, The present invention provides a tire capable of securing a uniform grounding force on a road surface even if the tire is worn at the end of the wear.

According to one aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object,

A cuff formed in tread blocks of pneumatic tires, comprising a tread, a sidewall and a bead portion, wherein a plurality of blocks and a plurality of grooves are formed on the tread,

A surface open cuff portion formed on the tread surface and configured such that neighboring blocks divided by the cuff are repeatedly formed in such a manner that the blocks can be locked when the cuffs are engaged with each other; And

Neighboring blocks extending in a depth direction from the tread surface and vertically divided by the cuffs include a vertically extending cuff portion in which a shape that can be locked when the cuffs are engaged with each other is repeatedly formed continuously,

And the protruding portion of the vertically extending cuff portion is configured to protrude in a direction opposite to the protruding portion of the surface open cuff portion.

In the present invention, the surface-opening cuff portion and the vertically extending cuff portion may be continuously formed in an inverted trapezoidal shape.

Another aspect of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object relates to a pneumatic tire including the improved cuff structure.

According to the cuff structure and the pneumatic tire of the present invention, even when a large number of cuffs are formed on the surface of the tread for improving the running performance on the snowy surface of the tire, it is possible to secure uniform block rigidity in three directions of x, The left and right blocks of the cuff are restrained by being engaged with each other according to the three-dimensional curved surface of the cuff, thereby providing not only the effect of satisfying the running performance of the snowy or freezing road surface and the running performance of the dry / wet road surface, The stiffness of the block to be maintained close to the initial design value can provide a high snow running performance even in the late period of wear.

1 is a schematic plan view of a snow tire having a conventional cuff.
2 is a schematic perspective view of a portion of a tread of a pneumatic tire according to an embodiment of the invention.
3 is a schematic perspective view of a cuff of a pneumatic tire according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a schematic plan view of a cuff for explaining the specifications of a cuff structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a schematic side view, a plan view, and a front view of a cuff for explaining specifications of a cuff structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the improved cuff structure of the present invention and the pneumatic tire including the improved cuff structure will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, parts not relating to the description are omitted for clarifying the present invention, and the same or similar components are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the specification.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a part of a tread portion of a pneumatic tire according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a cuff of a pneumatic tire according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 and 3, the cuff according to the present invention comprises a tread block, a sidewall portion and a bead portion, and a tread block of a pneumatic tire in which a plurality of tread blocks 10 and a plurality of grooves are formed in a tread portion As shown in FIG.

The cuff 40 formed in the tread block is formed on the surface of the tread block and allows the adjacent blocks 10, 10 ', which are separated by the cuff 40, to be locked when the cuffs are engaged with each other A surface open cuff portion (41, 42) in which a shape is repeatedly formed continuously; And neighboring blocks extending in a depth direction from the tread surface and divided vertically by the cuffs include a vertically extending cuff portion 43 in which a shape that can be locked when the cuffs are engaged with each other is repeatedly formed continuously, And is configured to protrude in a direction opposite to the protruding portion of the vertically extending cuff portion 43 and the protruded portion of the surface open cuff portion 41.

According to this configuration, the length of the total cuff can be increased and the edge effect of the cuff can be improved as compared with the conventional cuff, so that the performance on the snowy or freezing road surface can be improved simultaneously. The interlocking three-dimensional cuff is constituted to generate interlocking between the blocks in the depth direction, thereby minimizing the flow between the blocks, thereby improving the wear performance and suppressing the abnormal wear.

The surface opening cuff portions 41 and 42 are constituted by a first surface opening cuff portion 31 and a second surface opening cuff portion 42 that are symmetrical with respect to each other with a center line therebetween, Is formed to protrude from the end of the second surface-opening cuff portion (42) in a direction opposite to the first surface-opening cuff portion (41). The period and the amplitude of the concaves and convexes of the first surface-opening cuff portion 41 and the second surface-opening cuff portion 42 may be the same or different from each other, but it is preferable that the period and the amplitude of both are the same.

In the cuff structure of the present invention, a three-dimensional wave is formed also in the depth direction of the tread as shown in Fig. The surface opening cuff portions 41 and 42 and the vertically extending cuff portions 43 may be formed in an inverted trapezoidal shape. In the present invention, the shape of the surface opening cuffs 41 and 42 is not necessarily limited to an inverted trapezoid, and any shape may be employed as long as the shape of the surface opening cuffs 41 and 42 is a polygonal shape that can be gripped and held together.

4, the cuff has an angle (a) between the center line of the cuff and the side surface of the first surface-opening cuff portion 41, and an angle a between the centerline of the cuff and the side surface of the second surface- The angle " b "

Further, when the minimum distance and the maximum distance of each wave of the first surface opening cuff portion 41 are L 1 and L 2, respectively, it is preferable that L1 <L2 is satisfied. Further, when the minimum distance and the maximum distance of each wave of the second surface opening cuff portion 41 are L1 'and L2', it is preferable to satisfy the condition of L1 '<L2'

The cuff structure of the present invention is formed such that the maximum and minimum lengths of respective wave shapes are relatively set to L1 <L2 and L1 '<L2', and the tread blocks 10 and 10 'separated from each other by the cuff are engaged with each other It is designed to increase the block stiffness both in x direction and y direction compared to conventional cuff, and it can improve the performance on dry road surface and wet road surface. Especially, it improves the braking performance by increasing the stiffness of block in driving direction and driving. .

The depth of the entire cuff 40 is preferably 40 to 80% of the depth of the main groove, that is, 4 to 8 mm. Therefore, the wave shape of the vertically extending cuff portion 43 is preferably 2 to 4 stages, and more preferably 3 stages.

It is preferable that the minimum distance d1 of the wave of the vertically extending cuff portion 43 is 1.0 to 8.0 mm and the maximum cuff wave distance d2 is 1.2 to 16.0 mm.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to optimize the shape of the tread pattern to improve traction and braking performance without affecting other performance of the tire. It is possible to run safely on snowy or freezing road surface, and stability of driving can be ensured.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a pneumatic tire including the cuff structure described above. The pneumatic tire of the present invention is excellent in running performance on the snow / ice road surface, and thus can be advantageously used as snow tires, and also has excellent running performance on a dry / wet road surface. .

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While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but many variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. . Accordingly, the true scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of protection of the present invention.

10: Tread block
40: cuff
41: first surface opening cuff portion
42: second surface opening cuff portion
43: Vertical extension cuff portion

Claims (10)

A cuff formed on a tread block of a pneumatic tire comprising a tread, a sidewall and a bead portion, wherein a plurality of blocks and a plurality of grooves are formed on the tread, the cuff being formed on the tread surface, A surface open cuff portion in which neighboring blocks divided by the cuff are repeatedly formed so as to be locked when the cuffs are engaged with each other; And neighboring blocks extending in a depth direction from the tread surface and vertically divided by the cuffs include a vertically extending cuff portion in which a shape that can be locked when the cuffs are engaged with each other is repeatedly formed continuously,
Wherein the surface opening cuff portion is constituted by first and second surface opening cuff portions symmetrical to each other with a center line therebetween, and the vertically extending cuff portion protrudes from the second surface opening cuff portion in a direction opposite to the first surface opening cuff portion To form a cuff structure.
delete 2. The cuff structure according to claim 1, wherein the surface-opening cuff portion and the vertically extending cuff portion are continuously formed in an inverted trapezoidal shape.
The cuff according to claim 1, wherein the cuff is configured such that an angle formed by the center line of the cuff and a side of the first surface-opening cuff portion and an angle between a centerline of the cuff and a side of the second surface- Cuff structure.
The cuff of claim 1, wherein a minimum distance and a maximum distance of each wave of the first surface-opening cuff portion are L1 and L2, respectively, L1 <L2, L2 ' when the distance and the maximum distance are L1 ' and L2 &apos;, respectively.
The cuff structure according to claim 1, wherein the minimum distance d1 of the wave of the vertically extending cuff portion is 1.0 to 8.0 mm and the maximum cuff wave distance d2 is 1.2 to 16.0 mm.
delete delete A pneumatic tire comprising a cuff structure according to any one of claims 1 and 6 to 6.
The pneumatic tire of claim 9, wherein the pneumatic tire is a snow tire.

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