Upcoming tire technology... Interesting read.

[AZhitman]

Amerityre has developed a revolutionary new tire technology that utilizes polyurethane instead of rubber. Polyurethane tires have many benefits over rubber—such as being safer, less expensive to manufacture and 100% recyclable. Amerityre passed the Department of Transportation test for an all Urethane Car Tire, which is the first time that urethane has done so. This occurred in April 2004, and since then Amerityre has been inventing the technology for mass production, which is now complete. According to Craig Hooks, sales and marketing manager at Amerityre, tire companies will have to turn to polyurethane because “they will not have a choice if they want to stay in business. We are not going to compete with rubber….we are going to replace it. Within 10-15 years there will be no more rubber in tires. It will be urethanes.”

According to their tests, their polyurethane tires—which they named the “Arcus” polyurethane car tire—run 51 degrees Fahrenheit degrees cooler than rubber on the high speed test. The urethane tire ran roughly 10F degrees above ambient room temperature on the high speed test. Also the urethane tire had 43% lower rolling resistance. This means 10% greater fuel efficiency. Another benefit polyurethane tires offer is that they are much safer for consumers—while rubber tires are made in layers and can separate, urethane is “monolithic” which means all one piece and will never come apart.

The manufacturing process developed by Amerityre is not like traditional rubber tire manufacturing in that high external heat is not required. Second, the exothermic reaction that results in the cross linking of the chemicals generates the high internal cure temperature to manufacture the desired polyurethane compound.

Amerityre's manufacturing process can best be referred to as a “Liquid Phase Technology.” The polyurethane materials utilized in the process are initially in a liquid state and through a chemical reaction are transformed to a solid state.

Utilizing liquid phase technology also enables extensive use of robotics in the manufacturing processes. Because of the simplicity of liquid phase technology, production of polyurethane car tires requires far less manufacturing equipment than is used in producing a conventional rubber tire.

Amerityre has determined that manufacturing a car tire using its technology will significantly reduce the cost of a tire manufacturing plant. The polyurethane tire factory of the future will have no banbury mixers, no calendars, no extruders or vulcanization presses. Amerityre’s equipment package is 1/10 of traditional rubber equipment with the same output.

Amerityre has formulated a proprietary polyurethane elastomer material that has the physical properties necessary to be used as a superior car tire material. Two chemicals -- methylene diphenyl diisocycante (MDI) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI) are used worldwide to produce polyurethanes. Traditionally, TDI systems have been too expensive to compete with rubber and toxic, while less expensive MDI systems have not held up under the heat generated from higher tire speeds and increased loads.

However, the cost of the polyurethane material is now no longer an obstacle. Through years of experimentation and testing, Amerityre has formulated a MDI-based polyurethane elastomer that can withstand the heat generated from higher speeds and loads, and compete very favorably with a processed rubber compound on a cost basis and is environmentally safe.

Amerityre manufactured the prototype polyurethane elastomer car tires utilizing a centrifugal molding machine. This machine centrifugally casts the tire by pouring a predetermined amount of polyurethane into a spinning mold. The liquid polyurethane then spreads out in the mold through centrifugal force.

Prior to pouring the polyurethane elastomer material into the tire mold, the reinforcement materials (i.e. plies, beads, and belts) necessary for tire construction are suspended within the mold cavity and locked into place. Therefore with every tire the plies, beads, and belts will be spaced perfectly….every time.

The molding process occurs when the liquid polyurethane formula (made up of isocyanide and polyol) is combined with a catalyst. This combination causes a chemical reaction that results in the cross linking of the chemicals, which thereafter becomes solid. When the spinning stops, the mold is opened, the tire is removed and the process is repeated.

This manufacturing method produces a “nearly” perfect tire. The centrifugal molding process eliminates almost all entrapped air in the matrix of the compound (10% of entrapped air versus rubber tires). The final result is a monolithic tire (all one piece). As opposed to a rubber tire made in layers that can and do have separation of tire layers.

This new process utilizes approximately 3500 square feet (no warehouse space) and will produce 1 million tires per year. It takes approximately 30 minutes to manufacture a rubber tire…..while only minutes with Amerityre’s process. The chemical reaction is exothermic and no external heat is required in the molding operation. At $.05 per kilowatt a 30 pound rubber tires consumes $3.00 in electricity cost. A similar 30 pound urethane tires electricity cost is only $.10. There is tremendous cost savings across the entire manufacturing process. The capital equipment expense is 1/10 of a traditional tire plant with the same output. The low capital equipment cost enables a non tire company the opportunity to become one.

[navysnail]

wow, awsome find. technology is increasing at an amazing rate, and the way they talk about that makes it sound awsome, i hope it will live up to all that. 10% greater fuel economy would be fine by me

[EazyBreazy]

interesting...i'll have to look deeper into this

[phuphyter]

But at what cost of performance?

[navysnail]

i have a feeling that performance would also be increased. urithane is a polymer which means some peramiters can be changed by the structure of the molecules alone making softer and longer wearing compounds, etc... that was one thing i did notice they did not mention, but i assume it would have to be at least on par with the current A-A-350 (or so) tires. of those

[EazyBreazy]

Also the urethane tire had 43% lower rolling resistance

does that mean less traction

[AZhitman]

It shouldn't.

I'll bet traction will be enhanced in other methods (tread design, void arrangement, etc).

[Jesda]

Neat. And it saves trees.

[GrilledCheese33]

thats really awesome!

wow at technology these days

[elwesso]

Pretty cool..... I just picture urethene as really hard and that it woudlnt be grippy... Also seems that they may not do well as winter tires if they stay cold and hard.....

Interesting development and would certainly make tree hugging EPA people happy! If theyre too busy worrying about that, then they wont worry about my lack of cats in my car.....

[Mr1der]

I bet we'll be able to get them in different colors too.

but can we still smoke them?

[jdmfreak]

lol! Its the new drug!

[dickie]

yellow tires to match your yellow accord with a kit! = teh rice

[Mr1der]

BUT RED TIRES ARE HOT

DOD MAKES ME PUT MY CAPS ON...

[NSR_s30]

Nice find Greg! I heard something through the grapevine at work NTB(National Tire & Battery) about that. Cool stuff nonetheless.

[M3Racer]

That's pretty sweet, good find. I wonder if they'll ever make it to racing.

[SmithSR]

There's hardly any real (natural) rubber in tires as it is. Oil is the problem!

Tires are so good right now, they'd be hard pressed to change the shape of the industry for quite some time. But this will mean greater competition across the board which usually means better product. Customers win!

Colored (blue, red, what have you) tires have been around since the 60's and maybe earlier.

We'll see what pans out. Right now the replacement industry is trying to get a grip on TPMS and 30" wheels.

That was a great article Greg!! Me like

[nametakennow]

I saw this on one of those late night news shows well over a year ago. They ran a Corvette around a track, it still spun them a little off the line, and seemed to grip like rubber the rest of the time too. I've been waiting since then to hear more and haven't heard a thing.

[PantherRacer]

So, how will these tires affect drifting?LOL

[240DRFT]

We'll see what pans out. Right now the replacement industry is trying to get a grip on TPMS and 30" wheels.

the tire people are getting a griphehehe

[Dattebayo]

I have heard there is no downside to having fully synthetic tires. I only heard the problem was how expensive they were going to be compared to traditional tires.

Great article though, it was a facinating read to distract me from the relatives

[whiterps13]

It seems like a very interesting concept, but I'm curious to see how it will pan out. It should work, but I'd need to see the performance aspect of the tires before I'm convinced.

[gabossie]

I wonder when these tires will enter the marketplace. It would be very interesting if the performance characteristics were up to snuff with rubber tires. They could be cheaper, grip better, and last longer! That would be sweet.

[Alfador]

Ooh, this was a while ago...

Also the urethane tire had 43% lower rolling resistance

does that mean less traction

It sounds like when they said rolling resistance they were really referring to rotational inertia, which should have nothing to do with grip at all, it is simply how much energy it takes to make the tire spin.

I'd really like to see what reports these get as they come into use. Kinda thought I'd see them around by now.
Modified by Alfador at 10:41 AM 4/2/2006