The Secret of Airless Tires
New technologies bring us new perception of life. They make it more convenient,easy and stylish. This is the main advantage of contemporary inventions. If we turn our attention to innovations, concerning the sphere of automobile industry, we may notice that new developments are rather creative and useful too.
Michelin Company takes into account the practical improvements of its goods in order to provide a good quality of them. So, lets explore the characteristics of the new intellectual tires, which have been introduced by Michelin.
Tweel is a new technology of manufacturing tires which allows to ride without inflate them. Airless tires is a kind of alternative for inflated regular ones. A tire is put on a wheel, and plastic bands are used instead of the normal sidewall. The material, which is used in their production is polymer, that’s why the tires are rather flexibile and provide support in difficult situations. Thanks to this invention you don’t need to worry that your tire can be punctured or have a flat. Besides, you don’t need to suffer from air valves and air compressors at gas stations.
Of course, airless tires are the tires of future, but they have their drawbacks as well. One of the most serious ones is the vibration of such tires, which appears while driving at high speed. The other difficulties, caused by them, are heating and noise.
It has been decided to use this tires for military purporses of the US, as they rather safe and convenient and have a form of a honeycomb.
Ecological Tires By Michelin
With Michelin tires You can spare gallons of fuel annually thus contributing to the protection of the environment!
How it all happens? During the ride the tire deforms to “hold” the road better thus ensuring comfort and confident steering. But the deformation leads to the tire’s heating what results in the loss of the part of the engine power. As a result every fifth full fuel tank or 20% of the total fuel consumption are spent on the struggling with the event that is called “rolling resistance”. Obviously, it cannot but cause negative consequences for the environment due to the increased amount of exhaust gases that create “greenhouse effect”.
So, major efforts of tire manufacturers are to be aimed, on the one hand, at the reducing rolling resistance and, on the other hand, at the retaining of the performance of the tire. The Michelin company draws special attention to the development of technologies that could save the problem.
Already in 1946 the Michelin company succeeded having reduced rolling resistance by 30% thanks to the production of the tires with the radial carcass. But the real revolution on the passenger tire market took place in 1992 when the Michelin company managed to add silica (silicone dioxide) to the rubber compound. Thanks to the new compound the company succeeded in reducing energy losses that occur during the deformation thus having increased the fuel efficiency of its tires.
As a result the driver was able to spare up to 3% of his fuel expenses. If all the passenger cars in the US had been equipped with “green” tires the saving would have amounted to $ 5mln. The amount of exhaust gas discharge in this case would have been reduced by 7,5 million tons what is equal to the amount of harmful substances absorbed annually by nearly 300 million trees.
Unique Michelin Tire Is Exposed At The National Corvette Museum
Austin Hatcher charitable foundation exposed a rare Michelin tire with hand-made tread at the National Corvette Museum.
Besides the tire the visitors can see the rear wheel of 2007 American Le Mans Series GT1 Championship Corvette at the museum that is situated in the town of Bowling-Green, Kentucky. The exhibit from the motor racing history will be kept in museum till the middle of January. After that it will be put to the auction the whole profit of which will be given to the children that have cancer.
During the 2009 American Le Mans Series Petite Le Mans championship the pilots of the Corvette Racing team, the guests of the Austin Hatcher foundation and celebrities had the chance to participate personally in the grooving of the tread of the unique tire mounted on BBS wheel. The whole event was called American Le Mans Series/Michelin/Corvette Racing Tire Groove Event. During one weekend a lot of people contributed to the creation of this tire. The tread has the logos of Michelin, Corvette Racing, American Le Mans Series and Austin Hatcher Foundation.
The rear wheel was presented by the Corvette Racing team. GT Corvette won all 11 racings of the 2007 American Le Mans Series championship with the Michelin tire mounted on it.
The tire was created with the help of the Corvette Racing team pilots Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, Johnny O’Connel who participated in the racing on Compuware Corvette C6.R No.3 as well as Olivier Beretta, Marcel Fassler and Oliver Gavin who drove Compuware Corvette C6.R No.4. The manager of the Corvette Racing Doug Fehan also took part in the event.
Bridgestone And Michelin Launched Sites To Help Drivers
Tire companies decided to help drivers handle the difficult winter conditions with the help of the Internet.
The Bridgestone company launched www.winterdrivingsafety.com portal in the USA. The site contains helpful advice and video with detailed instructions aimed at making winter driving safer.
“Taking into account cold snowy weather that came to many parts of the country most drivers started getting prepared to difficult and potentially dangerous road conditions, - said in the company’s announcement. – American department of Bridgestone together with its team of experts on operation of cars and tires in the winter period will help drivers get rid of the nervousness that they experience before driving in such changeable weather”.
The Michelin company also decided to give a helping hand to the drivers and presented on-line “Winter Driving Academy” where one can also get advice or choose winter tires.
There are also video clips with the instructions and animated sections that explain how to avoid danger when driving on snow-covered surface.
Canadian expert on winter driving Richard Shenard helped with the development of the site and acted in many videos shot for the portal
