A tire mold has a tire molding surface. The tire molding surface is pressed against an outer surface of an uncured tire. A vent hole is provided in the tire molding surface. A surface of an outer edge region surrounding an opening of the vent hole is formed by a smooth surface. The smooth surface is smoother than a surface in a peripheral region of the outer edge region.

A tire tread mold which has a tread mold portion which is divided in into a plurality of mold segments having an inner face curved along the circumferential direction according to an arc angle , each of the mold segments including laterally extending blades forming projections from their inner face; wherein the mold segments have a first end portion, a second end portion and a central portion; wherein laterally extending blades of the central portion extend in the operating direction, and wherein laterally extending blades of the end portions are inclined blades that extend in a direction forming an angle with the operating direction, with angle being less than half of angle .

A method for producing a molding tool (5) of a vulcanization device for the molding vulcanization of a vehicle tire (1), wherein the molding tool (5) has a negative contrast structure (6) on a molding surface of the molding tool (5), with the following steps: a) providing the molding tool (5) having the molding surface for the stamping of a surface (2, 3) of a vehicle tire (1) in a molding manner in the course of the vulcanization of the tire by means of the vulcanization device, b) creating a first surface structure (9) of first depressions (10) by means of a machining process, wherein the first surface structure (9) extends at least over a surface region (7) of the molding surface, c) creating a second surface structure (11) of second depressions (12) by means of laser engraving, wherein the second structure (11) extends at least over the surface region (7) and wherein the first surface structure (9) and the second surface structure (11) together form the negative contrast structure (6) in the surface region (7).

A tire mold segment containing a mold surface with a plurality of groove forming and sipe forming protrusions arranged to form tread portions of tires. At the end faces of the tire mold segment, the portion of sipe forming protrusions with an end that terminates at or near the mold segment end face have an increased width to provide a countermeasure against irregular tread wear and tire noise. The sipe forming protrusions having an end that terminates at or near a tire mold segment end face have a width of about 0.7 mm or more. The remaining sipe forming protrusions positioned on the tire mold segment can a reduced thickness to accommodate high sipe density tread designs.