US 12,350,970 B2
Heavy truck tire tread and heavy truck tire
Victor Abarotin, Greer, SC (US)
Assigned to Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand (FR)
Filed by COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, Clermont-Ferrand (FR)
Filed on Aug. 29, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/457,468.
Application 18/457,468 is a continuation in part of application No. 16/648,065, abandoned, previously published as PCT/US2017/058984, filed on Oct. 30, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2023/0406044 A1, Dec. 21, 2023
Int. Cl. B60C 11/12 (2006.01); B60C 11/03 (2006.01)
CPC B60C 11/1236 (2013.01) [B60C 11/0302 (2013.01); B60C 11/1259 (2013.01); B60C 2011/0346 (2013.01); B60C 2011/129 (2013.01); B60C 2200/06 (2013.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A heavy truck tire tread having a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction and a thickness direction, said tread comprising:
longitudinal grooves separating longitudinal ribs, wherein two of the longitudinal grooves are a first shoulder groove and a second shoulder groove;
a pair of opposing tread edges spaced apart along the lateral direction;
a pair of shoulder ribs, each shoulder rib being adjacent to a respective tread edge of said pair of tread edges;
wherein the shoulder ribs are solid ribs comprising sipes running at a sipe angle (a) relative to the lateral direction, wherein the sipes extend completely across the shoulder ribs from the shoulder grooves to the tread edges, wherein the sipes are full depth and lateral and;
wherein an average sipe angle (αA) relative to the lateral direction measured at upper surfaces of said shoulder ribs between said first and second shoulder grooves and said tread edges over a center portion of said shoulder ribs is from 66°-84°;
wherein the sipes are oriented relative to the rolling direction (RD) such that interior ends of the sipes at the first and the second shoulder grooves make contact with ground before exterior ends of the sipes at the tread edges;
wherein the first one of the sipes intersects the tread edge at the first shoulder rib at a unique location in the longitudinal direction such that no other ones of the sipes in the first shoulder rib have a position in the longitudinal direction that is at the same position in the longitudinal direction as the unique location; and
wherein the first one of the sipes is located in the first shoulder rib such that no other sipe in the first shoulder rib shares a common location in the longitudinal direction with any portion of the first one of the sipes.