Truck tire tread and truck tire

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12337617-B2
Application number	US-201716088323-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 7, 2017
Priority date	Apr 8, 2016
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

The invention provides for a heavy truck tire tread ( 2 ) having a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction and a thickness direction, said tread having a ground-engaging contact surface (CS) and having a main longitudinal center groove ( 5 ), two main longitudinal shoulder grooves ( 3, 7 ) and two main longitudinal intermediate grooves ( 4, 6 ), said five main longitudinal grooves defining six main longitudinal ribs ( 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ), said five main longitudinal grooves comprising one hidden groove, two open grooves and two partially hidden grooves; wherein each of said two partially hidden grooves comprises openings ( 41, 61 ) to the ground-engaging contact surface and undersurface channels ( 42, 62 ) connecting adjacent openings, longitudinal sipes ( 43, 63 ) extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting successive openings to the respective channel; and wherein said hidden groove ( 5 ) comprises an undersurface duct ( 52 ), a longitudinal sipe ( 53 ) extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting said undersurface duct to the ground-engaging contact surface, said hidden groove being the main longitudinal center groove of the tread.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A heavy truck tire tread having a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction and a thickness direction, said tread having a ground-engaging contact surface and having a main longitudinal center groove, two main longitudinal shoulder grooves and two main longitudinal intermediate grooves, said five main longitudinal grooves defining six main longitudinal ribs, said five main longitudinal grooves comprising one hidden groove, two open grooves and two partially hidden grooves;
wherein each of said two partially hidden grooves comprises openings to the ground-engaging contact surface and undersurface channels connecting adjacent openings, longitudinal sipes extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting successive openings to the respective channel, wherein portions of the longitudinal sipes terminate at a terminal bottom end of the partially hidden grooves in the thickness direction and are located along the partially hidden grooves so as to be below the openings such that the openings are located between the ground-engaging contact surface and the longitudinal sipes in the thickness direction; and
wherein said hidden groove comprises an undersurface duct, a hidden groove longitudinal sipe extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting said undersurface duct to the ground-engaging contact surface, said hidden groove being the main longitudinal center groove of the tread, wherein the hidden groove longitudinal sipe extends to and is located at the ground-engaging contact surface.

2. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 wherein said two open grooves are the two main longitudinal shoulder grooves of the tread and said two partially hidden grooves are the two main longitudinal intermediate grooves of the tread.

3. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 wherein the openings of the partially open grooves have a length L along the longitudinal direction being less than 35 mm.

4. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 3 wherein the openings of the partially open grooves have a length L along the longitudinal direction being not less than 5 mm.

5. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 3 wherein a repetition pitch P of the openings in the partially open grooves is between 1.5*L and 3*L.

6. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 , having a tread depth TD, wherein a height H 1 of the undersurface channel is between 0.25*TD and 0.75*TD.

7. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 , wherein a width W 1 of the undersurface channels and undersurface duct is between 3 mm and 9 mm, wherein a width W 2 of the openings in the partially hidden grooves is between 4 mm and 12 mm.

8. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 , wherein the undersurface channels connecting adjacent openings in the partially hidden grooves are undulating in the depth direction, the height H 2 of the openings being between 0.45*TD and 0.85*TD.

9. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 , having a tread depth TD, wherein a height H 1 of the undersurface channel is between 0.25*TD and 0.75*TD, having a tread depth TD, wherein a height H 2 of the openings in the partially hidden grooves is between 0.25*TD and 1.00*TD, wherein the undersurface channels connecting adjacent openings in the partially hidden grooves are undulating in the depth direction, the height H 2 of the openings being between 0.45*TD and 0.85*TD, wherein a sum of the height of the undersurface channel and the height of the openings is greater than the tread depth TD.

10. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 comprising lateral sipes connecting the main longitudinal center groove, main longitudinal intermediate grooves and main longitudinal shoulder grooves.

11. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 10 wherein said lateral sipes are undulated along the lateral direction of the tread.

12. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 10 , having a tread depth TD, wherein a height H 3 of the lateral sipes is greater than 0.5*TD.

13. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 10 wherein said lateral sipes are inclined relative to the lateral direction.

14. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 wherein said longitudinal sipes and said hidden groove longitudinal sipe are undulated along the thickness direction of the tread.

15. A heavy truck tire tread according to claim 1 wherein the tread pattern is directional.

16. A heavy truck tire comprising a tread according to claim 1 .

17. A heavy truck tire tread having a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction and a thickness direction, said tread having a ground-engaging contact surface and having a main longitudinal center groove, two main longitudinal shoulder grooves and two main longitudinal intermediate grooves, said five main longitudinal grooves defining six main longitudinal ribs, said five main longitudinal grooves comprising one hidden groove, two open grooves and two partially hidden grooves;
wherein each of said two partially hidden grooves comprises openings to the ground-engaging contact surface and undersurface channels connecting adjacent openings, longitudinal sipes extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting successive openings to the respective channel, wherein portions of the longitudinal sipes terminate at a terminal bottom end of the partially hidden grooves in the thickness direction and are located along the partially hidden grooves so as to be below the openings such that the openings are located between the ground-engaging contact surface and the longitudinal sipes in the thickness direction; and
wherein said hidden groove comprises an undersurface duct, a hidden groove longitudinal sipe extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting said undersurface duct to the ground-engaging contact surface, said hidden groove being the main longitudinal center groove of the tread;
wherein said tread having a tread depth TD, wherein a height H 2 of the openings in the partially hidden grooves is between 0.25*TD and 1.00*TD.

18. A heavy truck tire tread having a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction and a thickness direction, said tread having a ground-engaging contact surface and having a main longitudinal center groove, two main longitudinal shoulder grooves and two main longitudinal intermediate grooves, said five main longitudinal grooves defining six main longitudinal ribs, said five main longitudinal grooves comprising one hidden groove, two open grooves and two partially hidden grooves;
wherein each of said two partially hidden grooves comprises openings to the ground-engaging contact surface and undersurface channels connecting adjacent openings, longitudinal sipes extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting successive openings to the respective channel, wherein portions of the longitudinal sipes terminate at a terminal bottom end of the partially hidden grooves in the thickness direction and are located along the partially hidden grooves so as to be below the openings such that the openings are located between the ground-engaging contact surface and the longitudinal sipes in the thickness direction; and
wherein said hidden groove comprises an undersurface duct, a hidden groove longitudinal sipe extending substantially along the longitudinal direction and connecting said undersurface duct to the ground-engaging contact surface, said hidden groove being the main longitudinal center groove of the tread;
wherein the main longitudinal center groove,

Assignees

• Michelin & Cie
• Zhu Fang
• Wallace Terence
• Voss Stefan
• Ayglon Virgile
• Hair Jr Clarence
• Mcpillan Charles

Inventors

• Zhu Fang
• Wallace Terence
• Voss Stefan
• Ayglon Virgile
• Hair Jr Clarence
• Mcpillan Charles

Classifications

• B60C11/0302

  directional pattern, i.e. with main rolling direction · CPC title

• B60C11/032

  Patterns comprising isolated recesses · CPC title

• B60C2011/0346

  with zigzag shape · CPC title

• B60C2200/06

  for heavy duty vehicles · CPC title

• B60C2011/1361

  with protrusions extending from the groove bottom · CPC title