Are polyurethane tire treads on the way?
Mr. McGuire's famous one word of
advice in The Graduate was "Plastics", but I bet he didn't see this one coming. Amerityre, the
manufacturer of off-road closed-cell polyurethane tires (for products such as bicycles, garden equipment, and
wheelchairs), is working on perfecting a process to bond polyurethane treads to conventional rubber tire carcasses.
Such a process, if applied to heavy-duty over-the-road retreaded tires, could potentially reduce tread separation while
increasing mileage and improving recyclability. The company has recently demonstrated the ability to adhere polyurethane
to rubber without pressure or vulcanization, and is conducting trials of its tires in a mining application. As mentioned previously on Autoblog, the company is also attempting to bring its urethane technology to the passenger-car market.
Source: Amerityre
