Inb4 congress tries to pass a law prohibiting them because they can be used by villains to defeat LEO's spike strips.
Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
21–30 of 56 posts
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#22I wonder if you can 3d print a rubber tire shape someday. You might be able to engineer a shape that might be hard to make otherwise and solve some of the issues not having air.
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#23I am pretty happy with my run flat tires on my bmw, even after a blowout they remain normal and handling is near normal as well, plus you can drive like 100miles and 50mph to a nearest tire shop. The only downside is they are more expensive and sometimes if you cought nail close to a tire sidewall it means you I'll have to replace a tire since it's not fixable
And they ride more harshly, are less compliant, are heavier (look at how much some spend on light-weight rims; tires are even further from the center of the wheel), more expensive, can get bent / dented, and rely on finicky tire pressure monitoring systems.
I used to replace a lot of run flats on BMWs and they are all of that. Plus because the sidewall is so thick they're a huge pain in the ass to get on the rim so chances of rim damage is much higher when you put these on. Even with helper arms on the machine they're still difficult.
The thick side wall makes for a bad ride in my opinion. The difference is pretty significant.
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#24I wonder if you can 3d print a rubber tire shape someday. You might be able to engineer a shape that might be hard to make otherwise and solve some of the issues not having air.
I'd be interested to know how well layers of 3d printing holds up to that much rotational mass, lateral forces, and vibration at freeway speeds. I have my doubts at this point of its feasibility.
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#25I wonder if you can 3d print a rubber tire shape someday. You might be able to engineer a shape that might be hard to make otherwise and solve some of the issues not having air.
I'd be interested to know how well layers of 3d printing holds up to that much rotational mass, lateral forces, and vibration at freeway speeds. I have my doubts at this point of its feasibility.
A 3D printer could be used to create the mold for the rubber perhaps.
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#26Inb4 congress tries to pass a law prohibiting them because they can be used by villains to defeat LEO's spike strips.
Wouldn't run-flat tires then already be banned?
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#27Michelin has been marketing their "Tweel" ( http://www.michelintweel.com/ ) product for industrial applications for a while, and I've read a couple of articles about their trials of the Tweel on passenger vehicles. I suppose that the challenges of higher speed applications have prevented that product from appearing. Personally, I want some Mattracks :) ( https://www.mattracks.com/ )
I've seen them on construction equipment, which admittedly moves very slowly.
Are they actually open like that? Because with construction equipment I'd get worried about stones and stuff get stuck in there...
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#28That's a cool video, but I've seen enough CG-salesy examples from vaporware projects--with similar animation and admittedly high-quality concept videos--to feel skeptical.
Given how well similar tires seem to work for the military, and potentially low-cost replacement road-contact parts, I'd support it. However, my worry is... what if the manufacturer and or distributor went out of business? Will I have to replace all my tires just because one got a little shredded up from some debris? (I assume mixing tires which might have different sizes / radiuses is a bad idea)
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd be interested to know how well layers of 3d printing holds up to that much rotational mass, lateral forces, and vibration at freeway speeds. I have my doubts at this point of its feasibility.
A 3D printer could be used to create the mold for the rubber perhaps.
You can easily do a lost-wax process with a 3D printer.
(Although getting the precision may be difficult.)
Re: Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
#30Would love to see a bicycle tire with this. Way too many glass pieces on bike lanes :-(