There are plenty of tires that are puncture-proof. But they all have other major downsides. They’re all a different combination of expensive, loud, uncomfortable, and unsafe. That’s why none of them ever caught on beyond some specific applications.
There’s almost no way bare metal gives the same traction as rubber tyres do. They say it does, but I’d need some really solid data to back that up, for all conditions that the average car will face, not just lab controlled perfect conditions. Tarmac, dirt, snow, rain, heat, cold, etc.
Also one thing I don’t see mentioned is noise pollution. As cars go electric, more and more so the main source of noise from cars becomes their tyres. It’s weird but true. Think of a motorway and how loud the sound of all those tyres rolling is. These would have to be quieter than rubber tyres to be viable.
Also there’s no mention of cost or metal fatigue/wear. Rubber tyres are likely much cheaper to produce - even accounting for economies of scale, they use far less exotic materials.
And I’d be curious how long these tyres last vs traditional tyres through use and wear, how their characteristics such as traction change over time, how they handle hitting debris on the road, be it bits of rocks or whatever. The things cars contend with here and there regularly.
So, while this technology is potentially very promising in a hybrid tyre (like the bicycle tyre shown in the article, Vs the full-metal tyre shown), I have my doubts that need quelling before I see it going anywhere in its full metal state for general use. Specialised, maybe.
I’d love to find something that can replace rubber, and importantly be quieter, and maybe this avenue of research can lead to some great results. I just have my doubts that we’re there yet.
Road wear might also be a concern. If it’s similar wear as a traction engine trundling down the road, the wear might make it unsuitable for most roads.
Wheels that don’t puncture have been around for centuries
We don’t use them because they are more shit than normal tyres for the majority of use cases.
Specific use cases, such as those faced by NASA may benefit from having such a feature, but to say they “invented” wheels that don’t puncture is an outright lie.
Wheels that don’t puncture have been around for centuries
What does that have to do with it? Those were a different design. Sure, this invention shares a couple of features with past inventions but that doesn’t mean it’s the same invention.
Most puncture proof tires are too hard. A good tire is soft enough to have a large flat area where it touches the road (or some other shape, if the road is bumpy).
This won’t work for high-speed vehicles, though. Not yet anyway. So it might be good for bicycles and wheelchairs and such. But the tires of cars and trucks generate a ton of heat from friction at high speed. And that friction is necessary for obvious reasons (traction). The high temperatures disrupt the “memory” of theses. So either they need to be made of materials that can work at higher temperatures which usually means they need to be manufactured at high temperatures that the manufacturing machinery then needs to be designed to operate at by making it from materials that operate at higher temperatures which means manufacturing that at higher temperatures and so on, or the need to make highly efficient insulation and traction layers that are thin enough that they don’t affect the ability of the tire to deform and reform its shape.
That’s not true - one of the proposed use cases for these tyres is airplane landing wheels which are typically designed to work at up to 235mph. Aircraft engineers have to make major compromises to make sure they can land safely with a flat tire and when they get it wrong it ends really really badly. The concord crash, for example, was caused by a flat tire. Pieces of rubber from the flat tire flew up and punched a hole into a fuel tank. The jet fuel was on fire as it poured out of the rank creating a horrific fireball and the loss of fuel pressure caused two engine failures.
113 people died and the concord was declared unsafe since there wasn’t any (affordable) way to redesign the aircraft to handle a flat tyre.
Sure - the wheels they use on the rover can’t handle those speeds, but it could easily be modified to work. The bicycle tyre they demonstrated is a better example. It has a rubber coating which will heat up and provide plenty of traction if properly designed.
The real issue is weight. These tires would be too heavy.
You can change the Af temp, but it is not relevant in this case because they are using the superelastic properties, not the shape memory properties if Nitinol.
I question many aspects of this design for the consumer market, but not as you describe. Seems to me it’s likely to be very expensive, and while you might not get flats it is still going to wear no matter what.
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How’s this any different than the moon rover tires from the 70s?
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/wheel-lunar-rover/nasm_A19750830000
Well all that technology was lost so they had to build it back again. It’s a painful process
Last time I tried to source Nitinol was back in the '90s - is it actually cheap and available now?
https://chamfr.com/sellers/johnson-matthey/
What were you trying to use Nitinol for?
Little robots.
deleted by creator
There are plenty of tires that are puncture-proof. But they all have other major downsides. They’re all a different combination of expensive, loud, uncomfortable, and unsafe. That’s why none of them ever caught on beyond some specific applications.
There’s almost no way bare metal gives the same traction as rubber tyres do. They say it does, but I’d need some really solid data to back that up, for all conditions that the average car will face, not just lab controlled perfect conditions. Tarmac, dirt, snow, rain, heat, cold, etc.
Also one thing I don’t see mentioned is noise pollution. As cars go electric, more and more so the main source of noise from cars becomes their tyres. It’s weird but true. Think of a motorway and how loud the sound of all those tyres rolling is. These would have to be quieter than rubber tyres to be viable.
Also there’s no mention of cost or metal fatigue/wear. Rubber tyres are likely much cheaper to produce - even accounting for economies of scale, they use far less exotic materials.
And I’d be curious how long these tyres last vs traditional tyres through use and wear, how their characteristics such as traction change over time, how they handle hitting debris on the road, be it bits of rocks or whatever. The things cars contend with here and there regularly.
So, while this technology is potentially very promising in a hybrid tyre (like the bicycle tyre shown in the article, Vs the full-metal tyre shown), I have my doubts that need quelling before I see it going anywhere in its full metal state for general use. Specialised, maybe.
I’d love to find something that can replace rubber, and importantly be quieter, and maybe this avenue of research can lead to some great results. I just have my doubts that we’re there yet.
Road wear might also be a concern. If it’s similar wear as a traction engine trundling down the road, the wear might make it unsuitable for most roads.
deleted by creator
Also I feel like the bare metal ones would collect a bunch of mud inside filtering through the gaps and affecting the balance.
No they fucking didn’t.
Wheels that don’t puncture have been around for centuries
We don’t use them because they are more shit than normal tyres for the majority of use cases.
Specific use cases, such as those faced by NASA may benefit from having such a feature, but to say they “invented” wheels that don’t puncture is an outright lie.
Who the fuck wrote this trash?
Calm down there, sugartits.
My tits are sweet, but rarely calm.
The marketing team for those over priced bike tires probably.
Why curse or get angry? The author got it wrong. You pointed it out. 👍 You also raised my blood pressure a smidge.
Oh no!
Anyway…
What does that have to do with it? Those were a different design. Sure, this invention shares a couple of features with past inventions but that doesn’t mean it’s the same invention.
Most puncture proof tires are too hard. A good tire is soft enough to have a large flat area where it touches the road (or some other shape, if the road is bumpy).
Inventing an OLED television isn’t inventing the television…
I highly recommend this Veritasium video from last year about this subject.
No they didn’t.
This won’t work for high-speed vehicles, though. Not yet anyway. So it might be good for bicycles and wheelchairs and such. But the tires of cars and trucks generate a ton of heat from friction at high speed. And that friction is necessary for obvious reasons (traction). The high temperatures disrupt the “memory” of theses. So either they need to be made of materials that can work at higher temperatures which usually means they need to be manufactured at high temperatures that the manufacturing machinery then needs to be designed to operate at by making it from materials that operate at higher temperatures which means manufacturing that at higher temperatures and so on, or the need to make highly efficient insulation and traction layers that are thin enough that they don’t affect the ability of the tire to deform and reform its shape.
That’s not true - one of the proposed use cases for these tyres is airplane landing wheels which are typically designed to work at up to 235mph. Aircraft engineers have to make major compromises to make sure they can land safely with a flat tire and when they get it wrong it ends really really badly. The concord crash, for example, was caused by a flat tire. Pieces of rubber from the flat tire flew up and punched a hole into a fuel tank. The jet fuel was on fire as it poured out of the rank creating a horrific fireball and the loss of fuel pressure caused two engine failures.
113 people died and the concord was declared unsafe since there wasn’t any (affordable) way to redesign the aircraft to handle a flat tyre.
Sure - the wheels they use on the rover can’t handle those speeds, but it could easily be modified to work. The bicycle tyre they demonstrated is a better example. It has a rubber coating which will heat up and provide plenty of traction if properly designed.
The real issue is weight. These tires would be too heavy.
You can change the Af temp, but it is not relevant in this case because they are using the superelastic properties, not the shape memory properties if Nitinol.
https://matthey.com/products-and-markets/other-markets/medical-components/resource-library/nitinol-specification-guidelines
I question many aspects of this design for the consumer market, but not as you describe. Seems to me it’s likely to be very expensive, and while you might not get flats it is still going to wear no matter what.