Sustainable, airless tires adopt NASA technology
STORY: These airless tires were invented by NASA for roving around on the Moon but now an LA-based company is bringing the technology back down to Earth, in the hopes of making punctures a thing of the past.
According to the SMART Tire Company the tires are airless, durable and will never go flat - making them more sustainable and durable than traditional all-rubber tires.
The tires have a springy mesh design made of shape memory alloy - or SMA.
[Earl Cole, Co-founder and CEO, The SMART Tire Company]
"What makes shape-memory alloy so special is it's like a super elastic material. It's a very flexible, lightweight metal that's elastic like rubber, but strong like titanium. So you can actually deflect a tire way down to the rim and it will just always bounce back to its original shape. So you're able to use this as a structural element in a tire now, so you don't need any pressurized air. So that means an airless tire; punctures don't matter. It would never, ever get a flat so your tire can last the life of your vehicle."
Despite immense advances in car technology, Cole says tires haven't changed much in over a hundred years.
But with regulators turning their scrutiny to tire pollution, tire-makers are under pressure to practically reinvent the wheel.
Scrap tires are a major environmental problem worldwide due to their bulk and the chemicals they can release.
When tires make contact with the road, tiny particles are abraded and emitted.
And ironically that problem is set to become bigger with electric vehicles - given the extra weight of EV's due to their batteries.
The SMART Tire Company hopes to offer a solution while tapping into an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
"This will last much longer than your average tire. So the one key element is not only no flats and it's more sustainable because we use less rubber, but you won't have to throw the whole tire away when the tread wears out. It's going to be one of the first re-treadable tires."
On SMART tires the only rubber part is the tread - the thin sheath-like outer part that gives grip on the road - which can be replaced without throwing away the whole tire, as is currently the case.
"So the only thing you have to change is the trail, which is far more cost effective in throwing out the whole tire and getting a whole new set of tires."
The company says tens of thousands of people worldwide have already joined the waiting list for their first commercial product - an airless SMART bicycle tire - set to launch in Spring 2024.
