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US 6,202,725 B1Granted
Pneumatic tire and vulcanization mold used for the manufacture thereof
AssigneeBridgestone Corporation
InventorMasahiro Moriya
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pneumatic tire comprises a tread with a plurality of sipes, in which one of opposed wall faces of the sipe is a concave face arc-shapedly curved over a whole of the sipe in a depth direction thereof and the other wall face thereof is a convex face just fitted to the above concave face, and a curvature of each of the concave and convex faces is substantially constant over a full length in a longitudinal direction of the sipe.
Claims9
A pneumatic tire comprising;
- a tread having a tread surface, the tread being provided on a land portion of the tread with a plurality of sipes of two different types, each type of sipe being cut in the land portion in a radial direction of the tire and extending substantially in a widthwise direction of the tread in alignment with each other, in which one of the opposed wall faces of one type of sipe has a concave face that is concave and arc-shapedly curved over the entirety of the sipe in a depth direction thereof at a section in a normal direction with respect to the tread surface and the other wall face of the sipe is a convex face complimentary to the concave face, such that a curvature of each of the concave and convex faces is substantially constant over a full length of the sipe in a longitudinal direction of the sipe and a line connecting an outlet of said sipe to a bottom of said sipe being substantially perpendicular to the outer surface of said tread, and a second type of sipe has flat opposing wall faces.
A vulcanization mold comprising;
- a plurality of blades for forming sipes of two different types, each of the blades projecting inward in a radial direction from a mold surface used for forming a land portion of a tire tread and each of said blades extending substantially in a widthwise direction of the tread and aligned with each other, said blade of one type having a curved shape convexly and arc-shapedly curving over the entirety of the blade at a section in a direction perpendicular to an extending direction of a top face of the blade and the curved shape being substantially constant over a length of the blade in a longitudinal direction thereof and a line connecting an end of a blade positioned at said mold surface to an opposite side of said blade being substantially perpendicular to said mold surface, and the blade of a second type being flat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.