Polyurethane tires

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It seems Amerityre, maker of wheelbarrow and bicycle tires etc., has developed a polyurethane automotive tire that can be made in 3 minutes, as opposed to 45 minutes for a standard rubber tire. It claims it will never crack, degrade, or separate due to being a homogenous part. Past attempts had problems melting, which they claim to have solved. Heres a link:

http://www.autofieldguide.com/articles/020508.html

Anyone have any comments?
 
I am dubious. I witnessed the research effort first hand involving the new Michelin PAX system with its inner polyurethane ring for run flat technology, and the ring sees no road contact. If this has a future this company will have to partner with a large player with the resource to spend millions on additional research and testing. Like I said, the PAX system had multiple years of testing and validation by two huge companies before it went to market, and it is only a tire saqety feature.
 
I truly believe this company is looking for a buyer. ALl polyurethanes have urethane bonds and there in lies the problem with thermal reversion of the urethane bond. This CEO's clain that Goodyear, Firestone, Pirelli and others tried but none of them are true inventors is pretty funny, even the innovatove chemists at Amerityre aren't going to be able to change the fact that polyurethanes contain an awful lot of urethane bonds. I wish them luck and would like to see it, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
 
Labman, it's the sulfur, not nitrogen, that gives the nasty burned hair smell.

I first read of polyurethane tires some five years ago. One aspect of this new technology is that tires can be molded into any color desireable. Besides tricking out cars with colorful tires, a more pragmatic use of this would be to do away with wear bars and have the tires change color.
 
I happen to be a chemist. Hair and other nitrogen containing compounds all smell alike.

Rubber with its sulfur gives off skunk like mercaptans.
 
The claims sound too good to be true. If they are true, the cost of tires should come way down.

Would it be possible to re-tread a polyurethane tire?
 
Rubber inherently has good traction. Polyurethanes make great bushings where low friction is important. Many advances came from somebody outside the field obsessed with making the unlikely work. The field of rubber hardly existed until Charles Goodyear's long years of work. A B **** didn't develop the photocopier. IBM was late to the PC business. ATT and SBC are not the VOIP leaders.

If the test numbers look good, I might try some low cost polyurethane tires. I would be very concerned with wet traction.

I have never discarded a tire because it got too old. I have replaced may that were worn away. If they can lose the low friction, and keep the abrasion resistance, could be a winner.
 
But what will they smell like when you light them up?
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They should look into making low performance RV tires. What colour would they be? Their website indicates an interest in making spare tires.

Steve
 
quote:

Originally posted by labman:
I happen to be a chemist. Hair and other nitrogen containing compounds all smell alike.

Rubber with its sulfur gives off skunk like mercaptans.


Get your facts straight. I've run EDS on hair and find it is very high in Sulfur. My equipment doesn't lie.
 
quote:

Originally posted by labman:
Rubber inherently has good traction. Polyurethanes make great bushings where low friction is important.

labman, is there a similar explaination for the old BFG Comp-TA tyres that stayed shiney, and skated like dogs on linoleum in the wet ?
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To me, burning nylon smells very much like celery and not that much like burning hair. Then again, I'm not an expert on burning hair...
 
quote:

Originally posted by Shannow:

quote:

Originally posted by labman:
Rubber inherently has good traction. Polyurethanes make great bushings where low friction is important.

labman, is there a similar explaination for the old BFG Comp-TA tyres that stayed shiney, and skated like dogs on linoleum in the wet ?
grin.gif


I have no idea what may have been in them. I have liked other BFG tires and their private label Strattons. Wish they still made them. Most of the private labels now are Cooper crap. Wear like iron, and ride and stop the same way.
 
quote:

Originally posted by labman:
Most of the private labels now are Cooper crap. Wear like iron, and ride and stop the same way.

When I was undergoing my wild misspent youth, I destroyed a set of Goodyear NCTs in 3 months and 6000km.

Being a Uni student, I asked the tyre place what would last a long time with my driving style. They suggested "Olympic Steelflex" (half the name was wrong).

I got 45,000 out of them and sold the car.

Admittedly I was going to crash a lot slower than with the sticky tyres.
 
actually, considering the business they are already in (non-automotive tires) and the fact that PU is ALREADY used in many wheel applications, I'm wondering what the news is here.....

pump and dump the stock?
 
Haveing been a street adn vert. skate boarder in high school and inline skateing in college I would have to see it to belive it. I have melted too many wheels to readily jump on board! I just do not understand how they could have good wet traction and long life! I am no chemist though that is for sure!
 
Seems like they are trying to solve a problem that never existed.

Like all of you said, tires were thrown away because they lost the trends pattern and/or poped, out of round, lost tractions etc. You still can't run the tire all the way till it grinds the metal rims, still need to retrend it to keep the Odometer right, so it is not "last forever". Big rigs already retrend their tire, if we want to go cheap we can retrend our tire already, why bother with urethane except it will run flat? Which we already have run flat tire in rubber?
 
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