weird stuffI kind of see it going the same route as the twin tire system that was supposed to be the next big thing about 8 years back..
which is to say nowhere
#1
http://nytimes.com/2005/01/03/...epageReinventing the Wheel (and the Tire, Too)
By NORMAN MAYERSOHNPublished: January 3, 2005
Michelin
The Tweel, an experimental tire and wheel combination developed by Michelin, is designed to replace today's air-filled tires. Flexible polyurethane spokes deflect over obstacles.
REENVILLE, S.C.THE first automobile to use air-filled tires was a racecar built by André and Édouard Michelin in the early 1890's. More than a century later, the French company founded by the Michelin brothers is so identified with pneumatic tires that its mascot, Bibendum, is a man made of little else.
Now, after decades spent persuading the world to ride on air, the company has begun work on an innovation that could render the pneumatic tire obsolete. Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined tire and wheel that could never go flat because it contains no air.
Arriving at a conference room recently to explain the development project, a research engineer, Bart Thompson, used the Segway Human Transporter that he rode to the meeting to illustrate his points. Aboard this high-tech visual aid - one of those self-balancing electric scooters best remembered for the optimistic claim that it would reinvent personal transportation - Mr. Thompson whizzed down the hallway and out to the lobby, pirouetting among the benches and planters to demonstrate the flexibility of the Tweel.
To be sure, the Segway would be a very small market for Michelin, the world's leading tiremaker, but it is an apt demonstration vehicle for the Tweel. The first commercial use of the integrated tire and wheel assembly will be on the stair-climbing iBOT wheelchair, another product developed by Dean Kamen, the Segway's inventor; Michelin said it would announce another application at the Detroit auto show next week.
The tiremaker has high expectations for the Tweel project. The concept of a single-piece tire and wheel assembly is one the company expects to spread to passenger cars and, eventually, to construction equipment and aircraft.
The Tweel offers a number of benefits beyond the obvious attraction of being impervious to nails in the road. The tread will last two to three times as long as today's radial tires, Michelin says, and when it does wear thin it can be retreaded.
For manufacturers, the Tweel offers an opportunity to reduce the number of parts, eliminating most of the 23 components of a typical new tire as well as the costly air-pressure monitors that will soon be required on new vehicles in the United States.
In recent years, manufacturers have devoted an increasing amount of attention to tires that let motorists continue driving after a puncture, for 100 miles or more, at a reduced speed. Several such "run flat" designs are now available, providing convenience and peace of mind for travelers as well as freeing automakers to eliminate the weight and cost of spare tires.
Michelin, which markets run-flat tires under the Pax name, took a different approach in developing the Tweel. Its goal: a replacement for traditional tires that is designed to function without air in the first place.
Mounted on a car, the Tweel is a single unit, though it actually begins as an assembly of four pieces bonded together: the hub, a polyurethane spoke section, a "shear band" surrounding the spokes, and the tread band - the rubber layer that wraps around the circumference and touches the pavement.
While the Tweel's hub functions as it would in a normal wheel - a rigid attachment point to the axle - the polyurethane spokes are flexible to help absorb road impacts. The shear band surrounding the spokes effectively takes the place of the air pressure, distributing the load. The tread is similar in appearance to a conventional tire.
One of the basic shortcomings of a tire filled with air is that the inflation pressure is distributed equally around the tire, both up and down (vertically) as well as side-to side (laterally). That property keeps the tire round, but it also means that raising the pressure to improve cornering - increasing lateral stiffness - also adds up-down stiffness, making the ride harsher.
With the Tweel's injection-molded spokes, those characteristics are no longer linked - a point of particular excitement to an engineer like Mr. Thompson because of the potential it holds for improving handling response. The spokes can be engineered to give the Tweel five times as much lateral stiffness as current pneumatic tires without any loss of ride comfort.
The Tweel auto project is in its infancy - "Version 1.0," Mr. Thompson said - and only a single set of car Tweels exist. A test drive in a Tweel-equipped Audi A4 sedan on roads around Michelin's research center proved to be far less exotic than the construction method or appearance would suggest. The prototype Tweels are noisy, as Mr. Thompson warned they would be, a problem traced to vibration in the spokes.
The Tweels also transmit more of the feel of a coarse road surface than customers would tolerate in a production tire, but the level is understandable considering the early stage of development. More important, the steering's response as the driver begins a turn is excellent, and large bumps were swallowed up easily by the Tweels and the Audi's unmodified suspension.
There are other negatives: the flexibility, at this stage, contributes to greater friction, though it is within 5 percent of that generated by a conventional radial tire. And so far, the Tweel is no lighter than the tire and wheel it replaces.
Almost everything else about the Tweel is undetermined at this early stage of development, including serious matters like cost and frivolous questions like the possibilities of chrome-plating.
Logical uses - military vehicles, for example - would come years before automobiles, but Michelin's business projections accommodate the possibility that the Tweel may not be an overnight success. This would be nothing new for Michelin: the radial tire it invented in 1946 was not widely accepted in the United States until the 1970's.
#2
weird stuffI kind of see it going the same route as the twin tire system that was supposed to be the next big thing about 8 years back..
which is to say nowhere
#3
i hate run flats =(
one thing i don't really get though, if these tyres are supposed to be retreadable and last a long time without replacement. then the company really won't make much profit after the intial sales and the market's ben saturated.
how's that going to work for michelin?
#4
Quote, originally posted by munkey » i hate run flats =(
one thing i don't really get though, if these tyres are supposed to be retreadable and last a long time without replacement. then the company really won't make much profit after the intial sales and the market's ben saturated.
how's that going to work for michelin?You answered your own question. They'll make money on the retreads.
#5
but retreads don't have to be by them...or would they?
#6
My worry is that truck retreads are bad enough on the roads...let alone putting retreads on cars belonging to the myriad of owners in this world that neglect their vehicle. We'll give new meaning to running the slalom course.
#7
Kind of reminds me of the 'smart wheels' used on the stormchasers' vehicles in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi...07846
Great book, btw, if you're into near-future dystopian cyberpunk, like I am.
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
- Plato
#8
http://www.gizmo.com.au/go/3603/odd looking
#9
Looks like handling would be effected somewhat negatively...
TDI
#10
Very cool!
I wonder how it will hold up at 100+mph.
#11
thats pretty crazy, but it is definately odd looking to say the least.
#12
I can't see these being popular until they can make a super low profile for idiots wanting 26" wheels
#13
Quote, originally posted by Turq » Kind of reminds me of the 'smart wheels' used on the stormchasers' vehicles in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi...07846
Great book, btw, if you're into near-future dystopian cyberpunk, like I am.
Also check out Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" for a variation of this idea, but for skateboard wheels
#14
Quote, originally posted by sybir » Also check out Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" for a variation of this idea, but for skateboard wheels BINGO! I was going to say the exact same thing. Stephenson also described the concept for that Yamaha motorcycle. Terrain-following computer controlled spokes that telescope in and out as the "wheel" rotates.
#15
goofy lookin
#16
for real. it looks horrible. I'll stick with my regular tires so my car doesn't look like ass, aside from it looking like ass regularly, I'd rather not draw attention to it more.
Quote, originally posted by FastGTi » goofy lookin
#17
Quote, originally posted by FastGTi » goofy lookin
is that Hawc driving that thing?
#18
Quote, originally posted by FastGTi » goofy lookin
To everyone saying that it looks goofy, you're right, but its a design concept, I'm sure the industrial engineers left the sides off for testing and measurement purposes. I would bet that any real manufactured twheel would look much like a normal tire.
#19
Quote, originally posted by FastGTi » goofy lookin
Goofy looking? You want them to make an amazing new concept look the same as a regular wheel and tire? Lame. I think this looks sweet, simply because I've never seen anything like that on a car. What's so pretty about a donut of black rubber wrapped around a chunk of metal anyway?
#20
If it means that i will never have to worry about a high speed blowout, ill look stupid.
#21
I could see those things getting frozen into a slushy puddle if you parked in one overnight and not breaking loose nearly as easily as a standard tire. Do they come with defrosters? Also big ice formations in those voids would make for some nasty balance issues, or just accumulated dirt even. ( yes, it's real cold here right now )Apparently the US Armed Forces are quite interested, what with battle survivability and other benefits these tweels could provide, it'd be one less weak link in the machine.
#22
Quote, originally posted by winkosmosis » Goofy looking? You want them to make an amazing new concept look the same as a regular wheel and tire? Lame. I think this looks sweet, simply because I've never seen anything like that on a car. What's so pretty about a donut of black rubber wrapped around a chunk of metal anyway? who pissed in your cheerio's?
I just don't think the buying public will go for it if it looks like their car is riding on bike wheels while rolling...
#23
They could easily go with this concept and include outer walls to make it appear conventional. Then you would retain the benefit of airless tires.
#24
I'm sure this is in the early stages and an open design such as depicted here is ridiculous.....surely, they will have an enclosed finished product.
Do you actually think that auto manufacturers are going to leave the risk of having a stick get stuck in the front spokes of thier vehicles and having people doing endos all over the world in thier cars....come on now...that's just silly....no, I'm serious alright...
#25
Quote, originally posted by Verbotn » I could see those things getting frozen into a slushy puddle if you parked in one overnight and not breaking loose nearly as easily as a standard tire. Do they come with defrosters? Also big ice formations in those voids would make for some nasty balance issues, or just accumulated dirt even. ( yes, it's real cold here right now ) Even with a sidewall, one might get a puncture in the sidewall big enough to allow moisture or dirt in. Then you still have the problems described above. Think of the mad vibration at speed you'd get from a chunk of ice knocking around inside your Tweel!
I wonder how they attach to the wheel itself? Obviously, on a conventional tyre, pressure from the inflation pushes the sidewall onto the lip, but these? They probably have to screw into the rim, or something.
平成16 年の MAZDA RX-8 230
#26
Quote, originally posted by chetacer » They could easily go with this concept and include outer walls to make it appear conventional. Then you would retain the benefit of airless tires. Seems kind of lame if you end up making them look like regular tires.
#27
Great posts. This is one of the reasons I come here.the tweel and lots of other cool stuff at http://www.gizmo.com.au/go/3603/
Check out the pic of the front end loader. very cool.
#29
the trucking industy has perfected this retreading thing, maybe they will lend some tips.
#30
Quote, originally posted by winkosmosis » Goofy looking? You want them to make an amazing new concept look the same as a regular wheel and tire? Lame. I think this looks sweet, simply because I've never seen anything like that on a car. What's so pretty about a donut of black rubber wrapped around a chunk of metal anyway?
agreed.... i think it looks pretty sick too, but they will have to put something around the sides to keep ice out like another poster said. i think it would be so cool to be the first with those; people wouldnt know what to think
#31
hehehe, looks cool to me! the car looks like it's running invisible tires!
#32
Quote, originally posted by FastGTi » goofy lookin
that's a photoshop... right?
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#33
Aren't retreads today basically a rewrapping of the tread? I would think that retreading a tweel would include removing the current tread and reattaching a new one to the internal supports. This would probably be a more extensive, and expensive, process than is done today.
#35
so much for sidewall stiffness... sheesh.
Casey Jones - Team Post Killing Ninja
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