US 12,263,702 B2
Heavy truck tire with shoulder rib sipe arrangement
Stefan Voss, Greer, SC (US); and Robert Ciprian Radulescu, Greenville, SC (US)
Assigned to Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand (FR)
Appl. No. 17/294,037
Filed by Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand (FR); Stefan Voss, Greer, SC (US); and Robert Ciprian Radulescu, Greenville, SC (US)
PCT Filed Nov. 11, 2019, PCT No. PCT/US2019/060708
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date May 14, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/102070, PCT Pub. Date May 22, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/768,505, filed on Nov. 16, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0009291 A1, Jan. 13, 2022
Int. Cl. B60C 11/03 (2006.01); B60C 11/12 (2006.01)
CPC B60C 11/0302 (2013.01) [B60C 11/1218 (2013.01); B60C 11/124 (2013.01); B60C 2011/1268 (2013.01); B60C 2011/129 (2013.01); B60C 2200/06 (2013.01)] 1 Claim
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A heavy truck tire tread having a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction and a thickness direction, said tread comprising:
a shoulder edge;
a shoulder groove;
a shoulder rib defined between the shoulder edge and the shoulder groove, wherein the shoulder rib does not have any grooves;
a plurality of sipes in the shoulder rib that extend from the shoulder edge to the shoulder groove and terminate at the shoulder groove, wherein the sipes are oriented in the shoulder rib so that either:
(A) an average sipe line drawn from the intersection of the sipe and the shoulder edge to the intersection of the sipe and the shoulder groove is at an average sipe line angle to the lateral direction that is less than 20 degrees, or
(B) an average sipe line drawn from a point of the sipe 8 millimeters inboard in the lateral direction from the shoulder edge to a point of the sipe 8 millimeters outboard in the lateral direction from the shoulder groove is at the average sipe line angle to the lateral direction that is less than 20 degrees;
wherein the plurality of sipes has spacing in the longitudinal direction between successive sipes that is 5 to 18 millimeters, and wherein the plurality of sipes is provided such that every fourth sipe in sequence in the longitudinal direction extends a greater distance into the tread in the thickness direction than does the previous three successive sipes such that the previous three successive sipes all extend the same distance into the tread in the thickness direction;
an intermediate rib next to the shoulder groove such that the shoulder groove is bound on opposite lateral sides by the intermediate rib and the shoulder rib, wherein intermediate rib sipes are present in the intermediate rib and are shaped differently than the plurality of sipes in the shoulder rib.