The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Thomas Michael Hirsch

Oliver Knispel

Helmut Wolfgang Fehl

Saburo Miyabe

Florian Roth

Philipp Weber

Suphaphan Atsawasuwan

A tire including a tread wear indicator is provided. The tire includes a pair of sidewalls, in which each sidewall extends from a respective bead area to a tread. The tread includes a plurality of main circumferential grooves, in which the main circumferential grooves are disposed in and proximate an axial center area of the tread. At least one shallow groove is formed in the tread, and each shallow groove includes a depth relative to the surface of the tread that is less than a depth of each of the main circumferential grooves. A primary tread wear indicator is disposed in at least one of the main circumferential grooves, and a secondary tread wear indicator is disposed in the shallow groove.

Tire with shallow groove-based tread wear indicator

Both a mold blade for forming sipes and the sipe so formed in a tire tread element have three-dimensional portions. In the formed sipe, the three-dimensional portion creates a constant interlocking of the opposing sipe faces. The blade and the sipe have two radially adjacent rows of projections, wherein the projections are separated by a planar section, the planar section having a defined length and width.

Three-dimensional tread sipes and mold blade for forming three-dimensional tread sipes

Growing community of inventors

Munich, Georgia

Thomas Michael Hirsch