A tyre 1 for a vehicle comprising a main tyre body 2 and an outer tread surface 3 for contact with the ground, wherein the tread surface has a tread depth 6 and a plurality of reflective and/or luminous elements 9 are embedded within at least part of the tread surface such that the elements are not visible when the tread depth is greater than a predetermined value 8, but are visible when the tread depth is less than or equal to the predetermined value. The reflective or luminous elements may be located within wear bars as at least one layer and may be spaced apart (see figure 2) around the tyre in a non-aligned manner. The wear indicator may comprise glass particles of less than 20 microns, or photo-luminescent powder crystals of less than 40 microns, disposed within a synthetic rubber polymer. The wear indicator elements may have a volume of 30mm^3 or less. A method for manufacturing the tyre is also disclosed, comprising injecting a mixture of reflective and/or luminous elements and molten polymer into the tyre tread during the curing process.
Tyre with wear indicators
2017-04-05
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B60C VEHICLE TYRES , Fahrzeugreifen |
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2003
|