Pneumatic tire
AssigneeThe Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
InventorYuta Uchida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a tread portion of a pneumatic tire, a first sipe wall surface of a sipe includes at least two first peak portions and at least one first valley portion at each position of the sipe extension direction, which are bent in a wave-like shape to form surface recesses and protrusions along a sipe depth direction. The first valley portion is sandwiched between the two first peak portions in the sipe depth direction, and extends from one end of the sipe in the extension direction to the other end of the sipe in the extension direction. A recess depth of the first valley portion with respect to the two first peak portions gradually reduces. A position of at least one of the two first peak portions in the sipe depth direction and a position of the first valley portion in the sipe depth direction become gradually closer.
Claims18
A pneumatic tire provided with a sipe in a tread portion, the pneumatic tire comprising, in the tread portion:
- a first sipe wall surface of a pair of sipe wall surfaces that face a space of the sipe, the first sipe wall surface comprising a first wave-like portion at each position in an extension direction of the sipe in which the sipe extends on a tread surface, the first wave-like portion being bent in a wave-like shape to form surface recesses/protrusions along a sipe depth direction and comprising at least two first peak portions and at least one first valley portion;
- and
- a second sipe wall surface of the pair of sipe wall surfaces that comprises a second wave-like portion at each position in the extension direction of the sipe, the second wave-like portion being bent in a wave-like shape to form surface recesses/protrusions along the sipe depth direction and comprising at least two valley portions that are provided facing the at least two first peak portions and at least one second peak portion that is provided facing the at least one first valley portion,
- the first valley portion being sandwiched between two adjacent first peak portions that are adjacent in the sipe depth direction out of the at least two first peak portions in the sipe depth direction and extending from one end side of the sipe in the extension direction to an other end side of the sipe in the extension direction,
- a recess depth of the first valley portion with respect to the two adjacent first peak portions gradually reducing as progressing from the one end side to the other end side, and
- an each position of the two adjacent first peak portions in the sipe depth direction and a position of the first valley portion in the sipe depth direction being gradually closer to each other as progressing from the one end side to the other end side, wherein
- the first valley portion comprises a valley bottom line, the valley bottom line being a bottom portion of the first valley portion continuously extending in the extension direction, and
- the valley bottom line is parallel to the tread surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.