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THE NEW ART OF TIRE DESIGN
| Ever since the first white sidewall tires rolled down the road back in the early 1900s, tire designers have been aware of the importance of the sidewall design in the overall appearance of their products. On the other hand, very few car buyers realize the amount of time and resources that tire manufacturers spend solely on this aspect of tire design. What the signature on a pair of Calvin Klein jeans, or the Grecian key design on a Versace product, letter designs, logos, symbols, serrations and stripes are to today’s car, truck and motorcycle tires. Style-conscious industrial designers and marketing folks are making sure that their tire companies keep up with the latest fashion trends of today’s very demanding and mobile American public. |
According to Jerry C. Candiliotis, Vice President of Tire-Mold Technology at Quality Mold Inc., “What tire designers contribute to the outside surface of the tire is as important as what’s inside of their tire construction.” The aesthetics of sidewall designs are varied. The appearance of the tire can be improved by such devises as raised white letters, raised black letters, outline letters, wide to narrow white, black and colored stripes and now with various surface textures, a new process for tire molds. Advances in tire tread designs and patterns also cause sidewall changes, as designers try to balance these tread patterns with the appropriate sidewalls. The size, style legibility, spacing, and positioning of all the letters are just as important in this design mix.
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A design trend that has been catching on in the North American market is the European inspired black on black sidewall tires. We also had the advent of the downsizing of automobiles, placing more emphasis on the tires. As the cars became smaller, subject tires became visually more dominant. Now all of the sudden, we have SUVs being manufactured with the largest wheels we have ever seen, in 20 to 24 inch diameters! The tire and wheel packaging business is growing big time and we should see emphasis to the tire appearance that needs to catch up to these new wheel designs.
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Today, the tire and rubber companies along with Quality Mold Inc. and the other tire mold companies that support this industry, texture tire sidewall designs with the use of the current CNC engraving technology. This direct engraving, as it known in our business, evolved through many years of refinements in programming, tooling and machining practices for the procurement of these new sidewalls with modern graphic designs and lettering.
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The current process consists of design graphics set at several design depths and dimensions with simplified geometric serrations and fine and heavy borderlines in creating these limited only designs. Even within these geometric restrictions, there have been attempts to add a variety of new designs and logos on to other regions of the tire. However, these design specifications are actually set within this narrow process of the CNC engraving. It has been costly and time consuming to procure these mold sidewalls, but all tire and mold companies use this, accepted for now, limited method!
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