Tyre Technology

Historical Background
Iron Tyres?
 Early tyres Were bands of iron placed on wooden wheels. They were used
in carts and wagons.

 Rubber Tyres.
 Charles Goodyear, invented the vulcanized rubber in 1844.
 John Boyd Dunlop, invented the first rubber tyre in 1887 for his son’s
bicycle. He realised that rubber could withstand wear and tear while
retaining its resilience.
Design Considerations.

 Light Weight.
 Assembly must be strong.
 Self Cleaning.
 Statically and Dynamically balanced.
Radial Tyres.
 The bead consists of parallel hoops of steel wire bound with fabric into a tightly wrapped
bundle. These layers of steel are beneath the thread in 5 or 6 layers.
 Fabric acts as a reinforcement. It is usually Nylon, Rayon or Polyester.
 Rayon is the material most widely used for radial plies for cars and steel for heavy vehicles.
 Polyester is stronger than Rayon, but is difficult to bond to rubber and is less stable
dimensionally when hot.
Rolling Resistance.
 It is the resistance that a round object rolling on a flat surface experiences.
 Higher rolling resistance and thus higher friction coefficient is essential for good contact
with the surface while driving.
 Tyres rolling on the surface dissipate energy in the form of heat and sound (called
hysteresis). This helps to achieve an optimum rolling resistance.
 Automobile racing teams preheat tyres thus improving rolling resistance.
Why Radial Tyres?
 In Bias-ply tires, the beads run criss-cross. The gives relatively firm tread, but it also
increases rolling resistance to a great extent.
 Changing from bias ply to radial ply tires can improve fuel economy 10 to 15%.
 The increased flexibility of radial tires also helps improve traction and cornering.
Assembly