Pneumatic tire

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11433714-B2
Application number	US-202016853837-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 21, 2020
Priority date	May 14, 2019
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

A pneumatic tire in the present invention has a narrow groove extending in the tire circumferential direction on a portion closer to a tire equator than a ground contact end, and dividing a shoulder land into a main land close to the tire equator and a sub land close to the ground contact end. An outer sidewall of the narrow groove has: a straight line extending inward in a tire radial direction from an outer circumferential surface of the sub land; a first circular arc smoothly connected to the straight line; and a second circular arc smoothly connected to a groove bottom of the narrow groove. The first circular arc has a center of a circular arc closer to the equator than the outer sidewall. The second circular arc has a center of a circular arc closer to an outside in a tire width direction than the outer sidewall.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A pneumatic tire comprising:
a shoulder land provided on a tread surface and extending in a tire circumferential direction; and
a narrow groove provided on the tread surface, extending in the tire circumferential direction on a portion closer to a tire equator than a ground contact end of the shoulder land, and dividing the shoulder land into a main land close to the tire equator and a sub land close to the ground contact end,
wherein an outer sidewall of the narrow groove has: a straight line extending inward in a tire radial direction from an outer circumferential surface of the sub land; a first circular arc smoothly connected to the straight line; and a second circular arc smoothly connected to a groove bottom of the narrow groove,
wherein the first circular arc has a center of a circular arc closer to the tire equator than the outer sidewall, and the second circular arc has a center of a circular arc closer to an outside in a tire width direction than the outer sidewall,
wherein an inner sidewall of the narrow groove has: a straight line extending inward in the tire radial direction from an outer circumferential surface of the main land; and a third circular arc in which one end is smoothly connected to the straight line and other end is smoothly connected to the groove bottom, and
wherein a curvature radius of the third circular arc is smaller than a curvature radius of the first circular arc and a curvature radius of the second circular arc.

2. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein a curvature radius of the first circular arc is larger than 3 mm and smaller than 12 mm.

3. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein a curvature radius of the second circular arc is larger than 3 mm and smaller than 12 mm.

4. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein a difference between a curvature radius of the first circular arc and a curvature radius of the second circular arc is 1.2 mm or less.

5. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein the groove bottom is composed of a single circular arc.

6. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when an interval between the straight line of the outer sidewall and the straight line of the inner sidewall is L 1 , and a maximum space dimension of the groove bottom in the tire width direction is L 2 ,
1.5≤L 2 /L 1 ≤2.3 is established.

7. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 ,
wherein the center of a circular arc of the third circular arc is located closer to the tire equator than the inner sidewall.

8. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein the first circular arc and the second circular arc are directly connected to each other.

9. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein the outer sidewall includes an intermediate straight line in which one end is smoothly connected to the first circular arc and other end is smoothly connected to the second circular arc.

10. A pneumatic tire comprising:
a shoulder land provided on a tread surface and extending in a tire circumferential direction; and
a narrow groove provided on the tread surface, extending in the tire circumferential direction on a portion closer to a tire equator than a ground contact end of the shoulder land, and dividing the shoulder land into a main land close to the tire equator and a sub land close to the ground contact end,
wherein an outer sidewall of the narrow groove has: a straight line extending inward in a tire radial direction from an outer circumferential surface of the sub land; a first circular arc smoothly connected to the straight line; and a second circular arc smoothly connected to a groove bottom of the narrow groove,
wherein the outer sidewall includes an intermediate straight line in which one end is smoothly connected to the first circular arc and other end is smoothly connected to the second circular arc,
wherein the first circular arc has a center of a circular arc closer to the tire equator than the outer sidewall, and the second circular arc has a center of a circular arc closer to an outside in a tire width direction than the outer sidewall, and
wherein a length of the intermediate straight line is 1.5 mm or less.

Assignees

• Toyo Tire Corp

Inventors

• Suita Harunobu

Classifications

• B60C2011/0348

  Narrow grooves, i.e. having a width of less than 4 mm · CPC title

• B60C2011/013

  provided with a recessed portion · CPC title

• B60C11/01 Primary

  Shape of the shoulders between tread and sidewall, e.g. rounded, stepped or cantilevered · CPC title

• B60C2011/0353

  characterised by width · CPC title

• B60C11/1353 Primary

  with special features of the groove bottom · CPC title