Urethane tires, fact or fiction?
I was reading a bit about a little company called Amerityre who manufacturers flat-free
closed-cell polyurethane foam tires that are used for bicycles, golf carts, lawn mowers, etc. They are venturing on a
quest to create a urethane tire for street use on cars and trucks, replacing rubber forever. Sounds a bit far-fetched?
I thought so too.
The man behind the operation is Richard Steinke, described as one part scientist and one part snake oil promoter. He is pushing hard for this new technology to get off the ground. Why replace rubber with urethane?
A urethane tire can be molded in one piece, which means no more tread separations like those that were so widespread a few years ago with the Ford Explorer. The urethane tire can be driven on even when devoid of air, which adds the run-flat desirability of the product. Also, the manufacturing process and equipment costs one-fifteenth verses those needed for rubber tires, a fact that Amerityre is hoping to give them an inroad in burgeoning markets in China and India.
Amerityre first step is to sell urethane spare tires to automakers to generate interest, and revenue, to the project. Touting that their zero-pressure spare tire removes the explosion hazard that the current tires have in a rear-end collisions, Amerityre starts the inroads to legitimacy. The zero-pressure tire can also be driven 50 mph for over 2,000 miles verses the 50 miles or so on current spares.
Steinke is already getting his promoting machine spinning by reeling in the likes of Lee
Iacocca and Joseph Grano Jr (former CEO of PaineWebber) onto his newly-formed advisory board. In a press release from
Amerityre, Lee Iacocca gives his 2 cents, In my 40-plus years experience in the automotive industry, Amerityres car
tire technology has the most potential to change the industry as we know it.
Urethane has been tried before and its biggest problem has been traction, which could be a major setback since we are talking tires here. Many tire manufacturers are waiting for real test results before investing in the technology. Amerityres goal is to sell their technology to the big name tire makers and replace rubber for good.
Im linking to the Amerityre page that has explains their take on rubber verses polyurethane for anyone that wants to learn more. Me, Im a skeptic. Until I see real world performance numbers on these tires, Mr. Steinke is still selling tonic from the back of his truck.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mickster 10:33PM (12/18/2005)
I'm with you Walter.
All I can think of is hydroplaning because of Urethane's smooth nature. Even if they apply a tread and create micro-channels in the Urethane's mold, there is no guarantee it will stick.
Vulcanized Rubber works because the rubber itself is sticky. The treading gives more surface area, especially on uneven roads, for the tires to grip even more.
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keyboardist 10:33PM (12/18/2005)
I would like for this to work, just because I've gotten more than my fair share of flats in my car and it's a pain every time.
I ran across this and other urethane tire companies a while ago while looking into bike tires. they don't seem to have taken off, despite having been available for a while now to both road and mountain bikers.
The biggest concerns I remember reading about were:
1. Heat: I seem to remember them not being able to tolerate much, which would limit the upper speed range and high-performance stamina.
2. Shock absortion ability: since the closed cell foam won't distribute a deformation all the way around a tire, like the air "donut" in a pneumatic tire will, there was some question as to how they would compare in the bumps.
3. Weight: they're still heavier than pneumatics (at least the bike tires were) which could largely be offset by the alimination of a spare tire and jack. But the weight is still unsprung weight, and thus may still be frowned upon by the high performance crowd.
All that said, though, I would be surprised if the traction wasn't close, or, failing that, that rubber tread/particles/ribs/etc couldn't be used in an unseparatable manner to augment the grip where it's needed.
What I'd be interested to to hear is what a foam tire would do for road noise: just by gut-speculation, I would think a cellular foam substance would provide a lot more acoustic isolation than a hollow, pressurized tire. Since the only road noise I hear from modern cars is basically tire roar (engine and wind noise seem to be pretty well taken care of, in most cases), these tires might make a noticeable difference.
Anyway, I'm rooting for it, if for no other reason than I really like the idea of cutting down on ways for a car to break. Like you guys, i'll need to see some test results before I slap a set on my car, but I like the idea and hope they can work it out.
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keyboardist 10:33PM (12/18/2005)
make that "inseperable"
and, btw, here are a few more manufacturers:
http://www.greentyre.com/
http://www.airfreetires.com/
http://www.americanairless.com/
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Nick Preuss 10:33PM (12/18/2005)
1) Heat remains a major hurdle for Urethane. Think about during braking and how much heat is involved. Rubber either burn and flakes away, but a urethane tire would store that heat, get softer and eventually melt. I'm sure additives could solve this but then how would they affect urethanes other properties.
2) I think shock absorbtion may even be better, think how much softer a foam mattress is compared to a air one. Even a multi composition tire could be made with solid a solid tread and foam cores.
3) Ameritire claims a lower rolling resistance so this may offeset the weight gains in addtion to losing the spare and tools.
I've read that urethane stil has a lower traction, both because of the material and because it won't flatten on the contact patch like a pnematic tire would. I'm sure the industry will get over these hurdles and we'll see urethane tires one day but alot of research is need to compete with rubber tires that have over a 100yrs of refinement in them.
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sparc 10:33PM (12/18/2005)
I could see these tires making their way into the budget tire market. They are apparently inexpensive to produce, cheap tires have crap traction anyway, and the people that buy them generally want to do as little maintenance as possible (as such the airless tire may even be safer for them).
Honestly I'm surprised we haven't seen more attempts at a rubber tire using a closed cell foam technology.
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David Baker 10:33PM (12/18/2005)
Any update on these tires?
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