"Contact patch and performance of tyres"
"CHURCHILL Tyres Ashford, Tyres Ashford (750 Words)"
[ "Contact patch and performance of tyres.If you observe, only a small part of the tyres touches the road surface while you drive your vehicle. Your tyres are vital to carrying the weight of your vehicle. Moreover, they are responsible for providing better acceleration and braking capabilities to your vehicle. They perform all these duties while touching only a small part of the road surface.A contact patch is where the tyre touches the road surface. A perfect contact area between the road and tyre is extremely important to ensure the proper performance of CHURCHILL Tyres Ashford.Therefore, we have made this blog to have a discussion about the contact patch.Have a look and learn more about your tyres!What is a contact patch?Todays tyres use an air-filled tube. When they run on roads, only a small part changes its shape due to the pressure of the vehicle and road surface. This part of the tyre becomes slightly flat at any given time. We call this slightly flat part the contact patch, and many call this small part a tyre footprint.Since only a small part touches the road directly at a given moment, it is critical to determine tyres' handling features. Moreover, driving comfort and road safety are also highly dependent on the contact patch.Usually, the tread part of tyres touches the road directly. Thus, we can say that the contact area is the combination of tread and components of tread as well.The grooved tread pattern of tyres allows them to use the most important features related to grip and traction. In fact, at any given time, the contact patch makes the objectives of manufacturers successful by providing better handling capabilities to tyres.The nature of the contact patch will be based on the design of the tyre, rubber material, type of tyre, tread pattern, and construction of sidewall.How does the contact patchwork?While the vehicle moves on the road, a part of the tread rubber makes direct contact at any given time. This part constantly changes its shape. The shape of the contact patch will depend on the shape of the road surface and the rolling of the wheel.As you may observe, the tyre's contact patch has a certain tread pattern to offer perfect grip to the tyre.If the contact patch cannot properly grip the road surface, your vehicle will not move stably on the road surface. Thus, tyre manufacturers make sure that the contact patch provides a safe and smooth driving experience to the car owners.You can understand the tread pattern and contact patch functions with an example of wet conditions. When the tyre moves on a wet road, the tread part that comes in direct contact with the road surface will channel the water away from the other part of the tyre. As a result, tyres will be able to maintain correct grip and traction in rainy conditions.Air pressure in tyres and contact patchLow air pressure in tyres will increase the contact patch. Similarly, high air pressure will decrease the contact area. However, the effects of both conditions are not exactly the same, and it means a 5% change in air pressure is not going to bring a 5% change in the contact patch.But, it is sure that you must avoid underinflation and overinflation in tyres.Traction and contact patchTo ensure the better stability of tyres on roads, it is essential to provide better grip and traction. A perfect contact patch is vital in ensuring optimum grip while driving your car on varied road surfaces. Unnecessarily increased contact patch will increase the rolling resistance, and your engine will need more power to move the tyres ahead. On the other hand, the decreased contact patch will decrease the level of traction, and your tyres will skid on the roads.Thus, it is better to drive your vehicle with a perfect contact area to ensure the proper performance of tyres.Is it possible to improve the contact patch?Increasing the overall circumference will increase the contact patch. This approach is not practical because we cannot change the circumference to a certain limit according to the suspension and body of the vehicle.Reducing air pressure will also increase the contact patch, but under-inflation will come with its own drawbacks. Thus, this approach is not also applicable.Conclusively, you do not need to worry much about the perfect contact patch. Just read your user manual and maintain your Tyres Ashford according to the guidelines. You will certainly run your car with the optimum contact area if you follow the recommendations." ]