POLYMER PRODUCT, PREFERABLY VEHICLE TIRE

Abstract

The invention relates to a polymer product, preferably a vehicle tire (1) with sidewalls (2), comprising a photorealistic representation (3) on the outer surface of the polymer product (2), wherein the photorealistic representation consists of the combination of a structure with a relief (5) of the representation, wherein the structure has elevations (7) and depressions (6) and wherein the relief (5) is a depth chart of the representation that is preferably produced on the basis of grayscale values of a photo and has up to 256 gradations of depth in such a way that the relief (5) fills the depressions (6) of the structure to different heights according to the grayscale value.

For generation of a photorealistic representation (3), the structure is an undirected texture (4) composed of elevations (7) and depressions (6).

Claims

1.-7. (canceled)

8. A polymer product comprising a photorealistic representation on an outer surface of the polymer product, wherein the photorealistic representation consists of the combination of a structure with a relief of the representation, wherein the structure has elevations and depressions, and wherein the relief is a depth chart of the photorealistic representation that is produced on the basis of grayscale values of a photo and has up to 256 gradations of depth in such a way that the relief fills the depressions of the structure to different heights according to the grayscale value; wherein the structure is an undirected texture composed of the elevations and the depressions; and, wherein the polymer product may be incorporated into a vehicle tire with sidewalls.

9. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein a maximum height of the relief corresponds to 0.8 to 1.0 times of a height of the texture.

10. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein a height of the texture is within a range from 100 μm to 1000 μm, and wherein the height is judged from a base of the texture base and up to an outer surface of the texture on a straight line perpendicular to the base of the texture.

11. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein a height of texture elements of the texture varies by not more than 20%, proceeding from lowest of the texture elements and highest of the texture elements.

12. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein a base of the texture base is in a theoretical plane at a single height level.

13. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein the texture is composed of an irregular arrangement, either of soft organic texture elements comprising hemispheres or amorphous elements, or of hard angular texture elements comprising polygons, and wherein the texture contains solely similar texture elements.

14. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein the polymer product is an interior part of a motor vehicle.

15. The polymer product as claimed in claim 8, wherein the polymer product is a motor vehicle tire which has the representation on at least one sidewall of the motor vehicle tire.

Description

[0019] Further features, advantages and details of the invention will be discussed in detail with reference to the drawings, which illustrate schematic working examples. The drawings show:

[0020] FIG. 1 a cutaway view of a vehicle tire with a photorealistic representation on the sidewall;

[0021] FIG. 2 a radial section along A-A through the photorealistic representation of the vehicle tire of FIG. 1.

[0022] FIG. 1 shows a cutaway view of a vehicle tire 1 with a sidewall 2, wherein the sidewall 2 has a photorealistic representation 3.

[0023] The radial section of FIG. 2 along the section line A-A through the photorealistic representation 3 of the vehicle tire 1 of FIG. 1 shows the principle by which the photorealistic representation 3 corresponding to that of a black-and-white photo is obtained by a texture 4 in combination with or superposed with a relief 5 of the representation. The texture 4 and the relief 5 are in an elevated arrangement relative to the surface of the sidewall 9. The texture 4 has elevations 7 as texture elements and depressions 8, and is undirected, irregular, asymmetric and three-dimensional. The relief 5 fills the depressions 6 of the texture 4 to different levels. The fill level determines the grayscale value obtained. Complete filling results in a virtually white hue. If the depression 6 is unfilled, this results in a black hue. The texture base is in a theoretical plane (lower dotted line) at one height level. The elevations 7 of the texture 4 are column-like texture elements with a hemisphere-like outer surface. The outer surface of the elevations lies in a second theoretical plane (upper dotted line). The longitudinal axis of the column-like texture elements is aligned in radial direction (rR). The height 8 of the texture lies within a range from 200 μm to 300 μm, where the height 8 is judged from the texture base 10 up to the outer surface of the texture using a straight line perpendicular to the texture base 10.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

(Part of the Description)

[0024] 1 Vehicle tire [0025] 2 Sidewall [0026] 3 Photorealistic representation [0027] 4 Texture [0028] 5 Relief of the representation/fill [0029] 6 Depression [0030] 7 Elevation/texture element [0031] 8 Height of the texture [0032] 9 Surface of the sidewall [0033] 10 Texture base [0034] rR Radial direction