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While tires may only look like a hunk of rubber, many coordinating parts keep it on your wheel, make it durable, and contribute to your car’s performance. If you’d like to learn more about the different parts of a tire, read our brief guide to the most important components and how they function.

External Parts

When asking “What are the different parts of a tire?” it’s helpful to frame the answer via two categories: external and internal parts.

Tread Blocks & Voids

Tire tread, the surface level feature that directly grips the road as you drive, is worth mentioning first. Gripping the road, and doing so in different kinds of conditions, requires specific tread designs. If tires were flat, they would lose handling on wet or icy roads. To limit this, the tread is arranged in tread blocks. Tread blocks, though they vary in size, are always raised portions of tire rubber separated from one another by grooves. The larger your tread blocks are in length, the better your handling in dry weather, whereas decreasing tread block size benefits your wet weather handling. The spaces between tread blocks, called tire voids, are large in off-road tires and smaller on road-bound cars.

Tread Sipes

Another key part of the tread for increasing grip is the tread sipes. Sipes are small, diagonal grooves in the tire that, when you drive and your tire contacts the road, bend and grip more flexibly than a flat section of car rubber. This occurs because these slit-like grooves mold more to a surface than a continuous material, increasing the tire surface area that touches the road. In general, tire sipes and tread blocks follow a directional or non-directional pattern. Essentially, directional tires are only supposed to rotate in one direction to properly keep water or snow away from the gripping tire tread surface. On the other hand, non-directional tires can rotate in either direction because their tread features don’t align in a particular fashion to lessen the effects of snow or water.

Sidewall

On the outside of the tread, the shoulder is the bridge between the tread and the sidewall. The sidewall is closest to the rim, and usually features the tire make and model on its relatively smooth surface. The purpose of the sidewall is to protect the integrity of the internal parts of the tire while providing structure and flexibility.

Internal Parts

Next, there are several important internal parts car owners rarely see.

Body Plies & Tire Belt

While body and plies and tire belts differ, they each constitute several vital tire layers. Body plies form the body of the tire, and, stacked over many other plies, keep tire air in while preventing tire damage. Meanwhile, tire belts on the surface of the body plies—made from steel or another tough, solid material—keep plies from shifting while keeping the tread stable.

Beads

Finally, beads, found beneath the sidewall near the rim on either side of the tire, provide structure to keep the tire rooted along the rim without shifting. Think of tire beads as a bracket system that latches the tire onto the wheel. If you need to replace your tires because one or more of these parts have failed or your tread is worn, contact RNR Tire Express. Our team operates a tire shop in Colorado Springs that’s equipped with the people and the capability to service your tires and keep you safe on the road.

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