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airless tyres anyone

Brilliant. Having a blow out at high speed, or being behind a vehicle that does, is one of my worst nightmares.
 
Not new - the design must be at least 5, more like 10, years old in terms of publicity, probably a little younger than pneumatic tyres in terms of reaseach activity.

The fact that they haven't made a dent in the wheel/tyre market suggests that they have significant problems, even if the only major one might be cost.

The article suggests that they have been in use on farm machinery and similar since 2005.
 
Its one thing on a slow moving Moon Buggy or land crawling farm vehicle but on a high performance vehicle….hmmm.
 
Its one thing on a slow moving Moon Buggy or land crawling farm vehicle but on a high performance vehicle….hmmm.

I imagine testing and are paramount in the development.


At Michelin's labs, the tyres are tested for 24 hours at a time, under different loads and speeds. That's thousands of miles non-stop. Some spokes deform, some break, but the structures continue to perform safely, Mr Rachita says. "It's test-learn, test-learn," he says. "But we're at a stage that's given us a huge amount of confidence. This is the real deal."​
 
The piece says they are still noisy and have a harsh ride. Like runflats, then. They haven't fixed runflats in that respect, so I'll not get too excited, just yet.
 
It is possible to note, suggest and theorise any number of problems with these 'new' tyres. But the fact that multiple companies are spending many multiple millions of dollars on research - with the article mentioning that Michelin filed 50 patents alone in small abstruse area, must mean they reckon they are on to something.

Yes - the concept is not entirely 'new'. And yes, the current market is limited to some special cases. But would everyone spend all the money if they did not think they could get there?

I know there is an element of 'look what Michelin are doing!.... we must make sure we have a position too, in case we get left behind'

I know these conversations take place in corporations - I sit in meetings where that exactly happens. We are a world market leader in our field and we spend a lot of energy worrying if we might miss something that our smaller competitors are up to.
 
It's part of the normal horizon scanning for the manufacturers. i think that the military in a couple of countries have been using foam filled tyres that won't deflate for some years now.
 
It's part of the normal horizon scanning for the manufacturers. i think that the military in a couple of countries have been using foam filled tyres that won't deflate for some years now.

Rally cars used to use mousse inserts I believe. Not sure if they still use them.
 


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