ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,600,173, issued on April 14, was assigned to Compagnie Generale Des Etablissements Michelin (Clermont-Ferrand, France).
"Noise improving tread" was invented by Joris Prou (Tokyo) and Alexandre Enderlin (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The tread has a contact face that is provided with at least one circumferential groove and a transverse grooves opening to the contact face and delimiting contact elements. The tread has a center region and shoulder regions and is provided with at least one compressive contact element among the contact elements. A volumetric void ratio of the compressive contact element in a unit region surrounded by ...