A liquid-jet-guided laser system can be used to generate functional slots having different depth and sidewall profiles by applying active control of laser beam parameters. Blinds slots can be processed onto a workpiece, such as a tire mold or a turbine vane, for an insertion of a sipe or a sealing element, respectively. Through slots can also be processed onto a workpiece, such as a turbine element for cooling during operation or a semiconductor wafer for singulation purpose. The processing of the workpiece can include a two-step procedure, wherein the first step comprises a pre-cut. The pre-cut cuts a contour outline of a slot onto a workpiece corresponding to an element that is to be inserted into the slot. The second step comprises a removal cut to remove excess workpiece material in between the contour outline. The liquid-jet-guided laser system can employ multiple-wavelength processing of a multiple-material workpiece.

A tire includes a tread having a first plurality of tread blocks on a first side of an equatorial plane and a second plurality of tread blocks on the second side. Each of the first plurality of tread blocks has a first leading lug wall, a first trailing lug wall, a first leading sipe proximate to the first leading lug wall, and a first trailing sipe proximate to the first trailing lug wall. Each of the second plurality of tread blocks has a second leading lug wall, a second trailing lug wall, a second leading sipe proximate to the second leading lug wall, and a second trailing sipe proximate to the second trailing lug wall. The first leading sipes have a depth greater that of the first trailing sipes. The second leading sipes have a depth less than that of the second trailing sipes.

The projection portion 150 includes a straight portion 152 extended linearly in a predetermined direction, a first inclined portion 151 inclined to spread toward an outer side in the predetermined direction from one end of the straight portion 152, and a second inclined portion 153 inclined to spread toward an outer side in the predetermined direction from another end of the straight portion 152. A period defined by a length of the projection portion 150 in the predetermined direction is 0.8 times to 2.0 times as large as a sipe depth defined by a length of the sipe 100A between the wheel tread of a block 20A and a bottom of the sipe 100A.

A tire mold includes a mold surface for vulcanizing and molding a tire, and a blade for vulcanizing and molding a sipe formed in the mold surface. The blade includes a concave-convex surface in which a plurality of convex portions formed adjacent to each other and a plurality of concave portions formed between the adjacent convex portions adjacent to each other are formed. A length of the concave portion is smaller than a length of the convex portion in a concave-convex surface view. The concave portion is sharp in a depth direction of the concave portion.

The subject invention relates to a mold segment comprising a tread molding element for manufacturing a tire wherein the tread molding element comprises a shell and an infill, wherein the shell has a first wall with a negative tread pattern extending from its external surface for molding the tread, a second wall opposed to the first wall, and lateral walls; wherein the infill is a fluid-permeable structure defining a fluid-permeable infill; and wherein at least one of a lateral wall and the second wall comprises at least one fluid passage passing through the lateral wall or the second wall.

A method for producing a vulcanizing mold for vehicle tires, in which the vulcanizing mold has radially on the inside cast mold surfaces of a mold material with mold projections for forming cuts in the tread profile of the vehicle tire to be manufactured. The mold projections are formed by in each case first providing a core of a metal of higher strength than the mold material and then coating the core at least partially with the mold material during the casting of the mold surfaces. A corresponding vulcanizing mold is also specified.

A tire molding die includes sectors separated from one another in a tire circumferential direction, and sipe blades disposed on tread molding surfaces of the sectors, the sipe blades are disposed repeatedly in the tire circumferential direction in a repeating pattern corresponding to a predetermined arrangement pattern, and a near sipe blade that is included in sipe blades disposed in one of the sectors and that is a sipe blade closest to a division position between the sectors is more rigid than an original shape blade corresponding to the sipe blade provided in the repeating pattern differing from the repeating pattern including the near sipe blade at a position identical to a position of the near sipe blade in the repeating pattern including the near sipe blade.

The present invention is directed to a 3D-printed tire segment model having a tread portion comprising a plurality of grooves, ribs and/or tread blocks, and a plurality of blades extending out of the ribs and/or tread blocks, wherein the tire segment model is made of a 3D-printed polymer. Moreover, the present invention is drawn to a method of making a tire mold segment, including the step of 3D-printing the above tire segment model with a polymer.

The present invention includes tire treads having a plurality of sipes (14) where at least one of the opposing sides of the sipe thickness includes a plurality of projections (18, 36) and recesses (20, 38) and a method for forming the same.

A tire vulcanizing die comprises a tread molding surface; a sipe blade extending along the tread molding surface; and a cast projecting region extending along the tread molding surface from an end of the sipe blade; wherein width of the cast projecting region is greater than width of the sipe blade.