Michelin Introduce Puncture Proof Airless Tire (video)

Youtube ^ | 6/6/2019 | Cars Overview

[simpson96]

Michelin's new Unique Puncture-Proof Tire System (Uptis) does away with one of the defining aspects of tires as we've known them for more than 100 years: the air inside. Unlike past attempts at airless tires, Uptis functions the way other modern tires do and, Michelin claims, will provide a similar driving experience.

Unveiled at the company's sustainable-mobility-focused Movin'On Summit in Montreal today, Uptis is a tire without a traditional sidewall that carries its load by the top thanks to a new resin-embedded fiberglass material that Michelin was granted over 50 patents for. "The idea was to develop a technology that was strong enough to carry the load but light enough to replace the air," Cyrille Roget, technical and scientific communication director for the Michelin Group, told Car and Driver. "If you have a load on the tire and you cut all the spokes at the bottom, you will see that nothing will change, demonstrating that the load is carried by the top of it, not by the under parts." Other airless tires, he said, often carry the load at the bottom of the tire, which is very inefficient and causes extra heating due to compression.

Uptis is not Michelin's first airless concept tire. It builds on the Vision concept that was introduced at the 2017 summit meeting. That concept had four main components: it was airless, connected, could be 3D printed (or have a rechargeable tread pattern), and was 100 percent sustainable. Uptis tackles the first of those problems as part of what Roget called a "step by step" process to the tire of the future. Michelin will test Uptis in the real world with General Motors. GM will outfit a fleet of its Chevrolet Bolt EV hatchbacks with the concept tires for

Michelin Introduce Puncture Proof Airless Tire

[Redwood71]

Seems I remember seeing a commercial about that back in the day.

The transition to full hydrolics was slow. In my research I guess the first of it was in the early 60’s Fiats with the dampers. They were crude and did an adequate job of providing a level, if not rough, ride at speeds. But most of the technology for what we have now was spurred by racing rather than street.

rwood

[trebb]

Been thinking - I think the Citroen had air suspension with pump(s) to level it out/adjust, and not the hydraulics I was thinking about...

[Redwood71]

The first one from Citroen (1954) was called hydropneumatic suspension as it used pump-driven hydraulic fluid and small nitrogen-filled bladders at each wheel to absorb road impacts while also offering load-leveling and, eventually, mitigating body roll. The main drawback to the early systems is that the hydraulic fluid could absorb water—and thus rot the system from the inside out. Citroen is now developing a new suspension system called the advanced comfort program. I can’t explain it, but here’s a site from road and track that may help:

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-

rwood

[trebb]

Interesting stuff

[Redwood71]

Yeah, but if they’d fix the roads, it wouldn’t be such an issue.

rwood

[trebb]

True - the reason I got rid of my AMG version CLA 250 was because I busted 2 tires on a trip...

[Redwood71]

You probably had/have the 4matic system in it to try to assist in the ride with the 250. Any time I spend over $32K starting for a car, even a high horsepower model, for nothing but the chasis and engine mentioned so far, it better include a decent ride somewhere along the discussion. That leaks into a powerful amount of money to be a pinball when you add the warm fuzzies.

rwood