The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Michel Constant

Maurice Graas

Richard Heinen

Daniel Scheuren

William Urbano Villamizar

Alain Alphonse Klepper

Bernard Jean Francois Croissant

Adrien Alphonse Binsfeld

Alain Francois Emile Roesgen

A pneumatic tire with an improved balance between noise reduction and hydroplaning resistance as the tread wears. The tread of the pneumatic tire includes skewed tread blocks having walls that, as the tread wears, change the character of the lateral and circumferential channels in the tire footprint to better optimize noise reduction and hydroplaning resistance.

Pneumatic tire having tread blocks with skewed walls

Tire tread

Pneumatic tire tread and buttress

An all season type tire tread (11) comprises a plurality of laterally extending grooves (36) having curved portions adjacent to each lateral edge (TE1, TE2) of the tread, said curved portions extending in circumferentially opposite directions. Axially spaced zig-zag shaped grooves (4-8) extend circumferentially around the tread, every fourth leg of a zig-zag groove being coincident with a portion of a laterally extending groove (36). Two legs adjacent to said fourth leg connect the laterally extending grooves to short semi-blind grooves (19) having their central portion coincident with every other fourth leg of the zig-zag shaped groove. The various grooves cooperate to define block elements (20-25), arranged in circumferential rows (30-35) and having the shape of an 'S' or of a 'Z'. The blocks can include a plurality of slots (50-53) and humps (29) can be located between neighboring blocks.

All season type tire tread

Growing community of inventors

Bastogne, Belgium

Michel Constant