INTERACTION OF TREAD PATTERN AND TREAD COMPOUND TO OBTAIN OPTIMUM TIRE PERFORMANCE

This article discusses the conflicting requirements of dry braking and winter handling in tyre design and manufacture. A way of resolving the conflict might be to use a stiff summer tread pattern with a soft winter tread compound. Establishment of the interactions between tread pattern and compound paves the way for a new approach to product optimisation. An experimental design was defined to cover the largest possible variety of tyre types. Subgroups with a maximum of six pattern/compound combinations were selected. Test result analysis considered the effect of variations in tread pattern and compound and the influence of interplay between pattern and compound. The first step is analysis of variance carried out with a statistical program. It was found that mileage was a factor which made a significant difference in the evaluation.