Innovation In Tyre Technology : The black wheels taking care of you
Have you ever thought of your vehicle tyre which takes the all sorts of road hassles in reaching you the desired destination with ease – comfort – safe? The tyre manufacturing technology has reached its peak due to heavy and healthy competition and the customers are left with choosing their requirement to fulfill their demand. The innovative technology mean offering more value in terms of comfort, safety and durability for the money you spent. Few of the innovative technology is analyzed as below.
Better Roadgrip even during Cornering – Active Cornergrip
Active corner grip technology enables you to manovure narrow turns with ease: During cornering the maximum weight of the car moves towards the shoulder of the tyre. The grip on the outside of the tyre increases tremendously while grip on the inner tyre decreases. In order to increases the Tyre to road contact area by distributing uniform pressure across the tread patch, a layer of flexible material called “ARAMID”( It is four to five times stronger than the steel)in the inner side wall reinforces the compression during cornering for a more even pressure distribution across the contact patch, providing more grip.
Aramid is the man made organic polymer produced by spinning a solid fiber from a liquid chemical blend. The Specific strength of Aramid is very high due to its high tensile strength and low density. It is having high resistance to impact and is used extensively in ballistics applications.
Tensile strength of Aramid is 2800 MPA where as for the mild steel it is 400MPA.
Better Braking Efficiency on Wet Surface- Armogrip Technology
In order to get the maximized circumferential decoupling for better braking and grip on wet and dry roads, the 3D waffle blade system evolved with bubble blade technology with V shaped tread pattern being incorporated in the tyre design. This improves lateral interlocking power, higher safety against aquaplaning, longer mileage while reducing the rolling resistance up to 7%. This particular design lowers the fuel consumption and thereby reduces the CO2 emission.
In addition to the above, the following chemical compounds are in use for manufacturing the tires with most advance technology.
- Silica based chemical bonding with rubber polymers for the tread compound enhances braking efficiency as well as there will be considerable increase in road grip on dry and wet roads.
- The side wall of the tires also reinforced with tighter silica based bonding chemical to provide enhanced resistance to cuts and tears for added protection against rough and un-patched roads.
- Addition of a light weight material called DuPont Kevlar which is five times stronger than steel gives added protection to the tires.
Safety Concerns and Eco Friendliness
In order to get the improved performance related with Safety, Handling and Comfort tyre manufacturers introduced the 3 Zone technologies.
Safety
Special Silica compound is widely used in tyre manufacturing industry. The silica based tread compounds delivers better wet and snow traction, improved rolling resistance for enhanced wet handling. The vehicles fitted with silica compound tyres co
nsume less fuel and emits less CO2. The cut in fuel cost is ranging from 3 to 8% but the loss of tread life is around 12 to 15%.
The tread compound with higher level of Carbon Black is suitable for dry handling and higher speed condition whereas the tread with higher level of Silica compound with wide circumferential grooves is suitable for wet traction and lower rolling resistance.
Also an inclined tread with wide circumferential grooves improves water evacuation provides superior braking and handling performance. The middle man with the requirement of both ie. Dry handling with higher speed condition as well as for wet-snow traction, will go for tyres blended with compound of both Silica and Carbon Black.
For improved handling in wet and dry condition
To enhance the vehicle handling in the wet and dry conditions ONE-TRED-TECHNOLOGY being incorporated in the tyre design. The tyres tread is designed in such a way that there is a continuous tread element from shoulder to shoulder as shown in the sketch below.
The solid centre line (Shown in Red) runs around the tyre without any interruption improves stability of the vehicle for precise steering and sporty response. In the above design the tread elements provide uninterrupted link between the continuous centre line and the solid shoulder elements. This feature enables the tyre to transfer the forces in the contact patch in all directions efficiently. V Tread pattern in the tyre design ensures ultimate aquaplaning resistance by providing channels that allows water evacuation. Such design also lowers noise by avoiding trapped air in the grooves.
To obtain the best possible heavy handling performance and to have maximum water dispersion for high speed aquaplaning resistance the tread portion is incorporated with solid shoulder zone as shown in the sketch below.
Flat Tyre – Can you still run the car ?
The technology is available globally where the car can still be run on FLAT TYRES for 80 to 90 km distance to reach your home or to nearest service station.
When a standard tyre got punctured, its side walls will get damaged under the weight of the car. When the tyre losses the pressure while running just imagine the consequences. It’s a life threatening blow out. The new technology is based on the concept of reinforced side walls. The reinforcement is designed in such a way that it can with stand the weight of the car and variable road condition as well once the tyre losses the pressure. This arrangement keeps the tyre on the rim so that the vehicle can be kept on motion to reach the safe destination.
This technology requires the presence of “TYRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM (TPMS)”. In the event of loss of tyre pressure the sensor gives indication to the driver and accordingly the driver controls his speed, avoid hard cornering and severe handing manovures till the driver reaches the safe destination.
Many more technological heights are being achieved by the Global car manufacturers and we will keep giving you updates in our forthcoming issues.
