The vast technological innovations that go into tire development can’t be understated. They save lives, improve performance, and make treacherous conditions manageable. Ultimately, however, they haven’t changed much in concept from the time when people hauling carts slapped a band of padding to wooden wheels centuries ago. Tires today aren’t much more than slabs of rubber wrapped around a metal hub, and that’s why OEMs participate in engineering exercises to explore what’s possible beyond the simple, traditional concept.
Currently, tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) and automatic tire inflation systems (ATIS) are most popular in the new technology area of tire and wheel. TPMS lets you monitor and manage tire pressure and ATIS provides additional tire support by automatically maintaining optimal pressure levels. Through periodic checks combined with the option to communicate tire pressure data to back office, an automatic inflation system helps to reduce the possibility for human error to enter the equation in tire maintenance. ATIS has been typically only applied to trailers, whereas TPMS has been more applicable for tractors and trucks due to the ATIS airlines being plumbed to the outside of the tractor and caused them to be more susceptible to damage and breakage.
Certain OEMs address the airline plumbing issue by bolting a self-contained pump directly to the axle hubcap that generates pressure when rotated. It has a pendulum-like mass, similar to a self-winding watch, which hangs while the pump is rotating with the wheel. The relative rotational motion is used to create a pumping action that is designed for wide base or dual tires and rims. It continuously pumps air in the tire(s) while the tire(s) is/are in motion to the set rating on the device. If the tire has a leak or if the device has a fault, a colored plumber gauge indicator is triggered for the driver or technician to see during inspection. TPMS and/or ATIS back up this type of fault with notification inside the cab along with communication from back office if applicable. Therefore, a tire’s lifespan can be more predictable with such devices and easier determine ROI, while at the same time reducing road calls and keep freight moving.
But what if fixing tire air loss by sensors and pumps and telematics and wireless technology is not the right way. Redesigning the tire and rim as a whole may be another direction. The airless tire or NPT for “non-pneumatic tire” is one engineering exercise in that direction. A tire with the same retread capabilities and extreme parameters to meet current heavy-duty tires that need to never worry about air pressure is a solution. Airless tires by a certain extent remove the rim and side walls from the equation and are designed with rubber spokes between the hub casing and tread casing. The rubber spokes have also been in design of a rubber honeycomb structure that fills the inside of the tire where the air would have been. Although inventive there are still flaws like excessive vibration at high speeds, noise and heat generation that scares off engineers. Another problem involves the tire industry. Making NPTs are quite a different process than making a pneumatic tire. The sheer scale of the changes that would need to be made to numerous factories, not to mention tire balancing and mounting equipment in thousands of auto repair shops, presents a significant obstacle to the broad adoption of airless tires.
Redesigning the tire, non the less means to redesign the tire industry, that may or may not be in the interest of the second largest trucking and automotive industries consumer (first being oil/fuel). Although it might be theoretically best for the industry, designing and manufacturing “add-on” devices currently and in trucking’s far horizon its best interest.