A name still unfamiliar to many, The Smart Tire Company (STC) is commercialising NASA’s non-pneumatic tyre technology. It is working with vehicle manufacturers to produce shape memory alloy tyres for cars and has launched a second generation of its airless bicycle tyre. In addition to developing products for use here on Earth, STC intends to send tyres to the Moon as part of NASA’s Project Artemis.
Tyres are an essential part of mobility, but are their days numbered? One company believes that its new wheel technology can substitute the traditional rubber tyre used in mining applications and provide an alternative that is “eco-friendly, cost-effective, stronger and safer.”
One giant leap for Michelin. The French tyre maker has taken on the challenge to develop an airless tyre to equip the future Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV). It is working on this project in conjunction with the team formed by Northrop Grumman within the framework of a tender from NASA last November. The aim for the Michelin R&D teams is to make a tyre capable of resisting the extreme conditions at the lunar pole in order to explore the lunar surface and allow a sustainable presence on the Moon in 2025, and ultimately on Mars.
Airless tyres are increasingly finding favour as a potential solution for autonomous vehicles as well as for delivery applications. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has ticked both boxes with the non-pneumatic tyre (NPT) it has developed and is testing to support Starship delivery robots.
Hankook Tire & Technology is jointly showcasing its ‘i-Flex’ non-pneumatic tyre with Hyundai Motor Company at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022, which begins today in Las Vegas. The tyre will appear in Hyundai’s new Plug & Drive (PnD) Module, a modular platform based on robotics technology that enables mobility of traditionally inanimate things. Hankook says its i-Flex maximises the “characteristics and functions of the PnD module.”
It is, says Goodyear Tire & Rubber, an industry first – a local transportation authority in the USA is field-testing the non-pneumatic tyre and wheel assembly the tyre maker developed for autonomous urban vehicles. The lessons learned will contribute towards the further development of maintenance-free tyres.
Scientists at NASA’s Glenn Research centre are offering a non-pneumatic tyre up for licence as part the space agency’s technology transfer programme.
The “superelastic” tyre was developed for future Mars missions but is said to be a viable alternative to pneumatic tyres here on Earth. This technology represents the latest evolution of the spring tyre which was invented by NASA Glenn and Goodyear, and inspired by the Apollo lunar tyres.
